![]() All rights reserved.Mary of Bethany is a woman who demonstrated great faith in and love for Jesus. Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. © 2011 by the Theology of Work Project, Inc. Based on a work at You are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work), and remix (to adapt the work) for non-commercial use only, under the condition that you must attribute the work to the Theology of Work Project, Inc., but not in any way that suggests that it endorses you or your use of the work. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. The Passion of Jesus (Luke 22:47-24:53)Īdopted by the Theology of Work Project Board April 26, 2011.Risk: The Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-27).Persistence: The Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8).Investing in Jesus' Work (Luke 8:3 10:7).The Shrewd Manager and the Prodigal Son (Luke 16:1-13 15:11-32). ![]() The Good Samaritan at Work-Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself (Luke 10:25-37).Jesus Calls People at Work (Luke 5:1-11 27-32).Jesus is Tempted to Abandon Serving God (Luke 4:1-13).John the Baptist Teaches Workplace Ethics (Luke 3:8-14).The Kingdom of God Shows Up at Work (Luke 1-5).These are mutually reinforcing, as is the two sisters’ relationship with each other. Following Christ means becoming like Martha and Mary. By sitting at Jesus’ feet, Mary shows that all our service ought to be grounded in a lively personal relationship with him. Martha performs the kind of generosity Jesus commends in Luke 14:12-14, for he is someone who cannot pay her back in kind. Together, the sisters embody the truth that generosity and love of God are intertwined realities. Martha’s generous service is not minimized by Jesus, but her worries show that her service needs to be grounded in Mary’s kind of love for him. Two sisters squabbling about household duties cannot reasonably be construed as a battle of incompatible modes of life. Mary and Martha are not enemies but sisters. But the story must be read against the backdrop of Luke’s Gospel as a whole, where the work of hospitality (a vital form of generosity in the ancient Near East) is one of the chief signs of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom. Regrettably, this story has often suffered from dubious interpretations, with Martha becoming the poster child for all that is wrong with the life of busyness and distraction, or what the Medieval Church called the active or working life of Martha, which was permitted but inferior to the perfect life of contemplation or the monastery. Martha asks Jesus to rebuke her sister for not helping, but instead Jesus commends Mary. Martha works to prepare dinner, while Mary sits and listens to Jesus. The story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) also puts generosity in the context of love for God. Need to Find Some Significance in Your Job? (Click to listen) Learning From the Psalms How to Pray Through Your Work.Beyond Rank and Power: What Philemon Tells Us About Leadership.Evangelism - Sharing the Gospel at Work.10 Key Points About Work in the Bible Every Christian Should Know.
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