The stories in the tenth chapter of the gospel of Luke of the good Samaritan and of Martha and Mary are familiar to many Christians including me. But when I read them back-to-back this morning, I drew a new insight that I hadn’t seen before, because I hadn’t ever really read them together. Individually, I’ve pored over each story, in sermons and Bible studies and commentaries. But this morning I was struck by how the two stories might relate in the life of an urban Christian.
Allow me a brief summary of each story. In the first, a religious man smugly asks Jesus what the key to eternal life is. Jesus asks him back. Smugly, he quotes a couple of lines from Scripture, about loving God and loving neighbors. Jesus approves. But not satisfied with that approval, the religious man asks, “And who might my neighbor be?” Jesus tells a story about a man who was beaten while on the road, and how a priest and religious leader both passed him by, but a Samaritan (who the audience of this story considered inferior half-breeds) tends to the wounded traveler and sees to it that he gets care and shelter.
In the second story, Jesus invites himself to a house of two sisters, Martha and Mary. Dutiful Martha plays host by busying herself in the kitchen preparing refreshments, while impetuous Mary sits with the men (a cultural no-no at the time), hanging on Jesus’ every word. When Martha, exasperated by her labors and Mary’s behavior, confronts Jesus, he replies that it is Mary and not she who is doing right by him.
These are compelling stories, when taken separately. But this morning, I read them together. And from an urban Christian perspective, they have somewhat opposite things to say to me. In the first, the message seems to be that we ought to broaden our definition of who are neighbor is, and deepen our concern for them. And in fact, those who love God and love people in cities do well to hear such a word, for there are many more people we could touch and more meaningful ways in which we could touch them.
But the second story seems to carry an opposite message. Rather than broadening and deepening, the behavior Jesus seems to be praising is that of being more narrow and shallow. Don’t worry about so many people and so many responsibilities, Jesus seems to suggest; focus on being with me and being in the present. And this too is a good word for urban Christians; for it is precisely because there are so many people we could touch and so many meaningful ways in which we could touch them that we must make time to simply be at Jesus’ feet, to make narrower and shallower our focus until it is simply Him and now.
I must say that I am challenged on both sides of this twofold message from Luke. Like the religious man, I seek to narrow my definition of who I must serve, and do what is minimally required to be considered decent. And like Martha, I busy myself with so many responsibilities and so many worries that I miss the chance to be with Jesus when He is present. I’m glad I read both of these stories this morning, gladder still that I was able to make a connection between the two, gladder even more that Jesus strengthens us to love broadly and deeply, and glad most of all that Jesus asks of us to simply be with him in the here and now.
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