Becoming Like Martha: Women Who Take God at His WordSample

Serving Martha

The scene six days before Passover holds some striking similarities to the passage in Luke 10. Once again, we are in a dining room; once again, Martha is serving; and once again, Mary is doing something utterly unexpected.

Mary is at Jesus’ feet, but this time she’s anointing them. It was typical to wash a guest’s feet, but not in the middle of dinner and not with a large amount of expensive perfume worth an entire year’s wages. Mary disrupts the meal and conducts an intentional, public display of devotion. What’s perhaps the most shocking, however, was the fact that Mary let down her hair in order to wipe Jesus’ feet. In this culture, a woman let down her hair for her husband alone and never in public. In fact, doing so was considered grounds for divorce. The shock of this display would have rippled tangibly throughout the room along with the rising scent of luxurious nard.

Let’s slide our eyes to the kitchen for a moment. John specifies that the scent of the perfume permeated the entire house, so there’s no doubt Martha knew what was happening. What might have been running through her head in light of Mary’s extravagant actions? The old Martha might have tried to stop Mary. The old Martha might have expected Jesus to reprove her sister for impropriety. Surely, the old Martha would have been mortified and shocked. Instead, the only information we’re given about Martha is that she served, with no hint that she did anything to stop or condemn her sister.

An internal transformation has surely taken place in Martha. When we first saw her, she was serving from a place of worry with a restless heart. Now she’s still serving but with no indication of her earlier angst. Rather, it appears that her heart is at peace, refusing to fret because it serves a tomb-shaking Savior. She has experienced His transformation firsthand and she has learned to take the living God at His word. On the outside, we leave Martha as we found her—serving. But on the inside, make no mistake, everything has changed.

Ponder: Name one way Christ has changed you. Spend time praising Him for His work in your life.

Pray: Abba, I believe that You will complete the good work You have begun in me. Thank You for seeing me, growing me, abiding in me. Help me cling closely to You. Amen.