This is the first post in a three part series on culture and the Bible. I am going to give you a passage from Luke 10 and I want you to answer this question – What is the problem?
“38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
It is very natural to hear Martha is busy and Mary is lazy. That is pretty much what Martha complains about.
Culture and the Bible – it is everywhere but can be hard to pick up on if you don’t know their world.
Now, here is the piece that fills out the picture – In their world, women had a place…and it was out of sight, not with the men. Martha’s offense at Mary is seen as one is busy and one is lazy in our Western mindset but it didn’t come across that way to them…they had a different set of cultural norms and what would be embarrassing to cross various lines…and Mary had crossed a line by being in with the men, learning from Jesus along with the male disciples. That embarrassed Martha a great deal.
So what appears from our Western point of view to be busy vs lazy is actually a cultural embarrassment with a polite plea to get Mary back where she wouldn’t be seen the wrong way.
