A story from the Gospel of Luke

The Story of Mary and Martha

In Luke 10:38-42 Jesus visits the home of two sisters in Bethany. Martha welcomes Him and hurries to serve, while her sister Mary sits at His feet and listens. When Martha asks Jesus to send Mary to help, He answers her gently by name, twice: she is anxious about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken from her. The story is not work against worship. It is an invitation to put Jesus Himself first, and the same sisters meet Him again in John 11 and John 12.

The story, in the words of Scripture

Here is the whole passage as Luke wrote it. It takes less than a minute to read, and it is worth reading slowly, because almost every phrase carries weight.

Luke 10:38-42, Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary (King James Version)
³⁸Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. ³⁹And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. ⁴⁰But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. ⁴¹And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: ⁴²But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:38-42, KJV

Where the story happens

Luke places this visit on the long road to Jerusalem. A chapter earlier he tells us that Jesus “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Everything from that point on is travelled in the shadow of the cross. Jesus knows where the road ends, and on the way He stops at the home of friends.

Luke calls the place only a certain village. John tells us its name: Bethany, a small village on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem, the home of Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus (John 11:1). It became something like a home for Jesus in Judea, a place He returned to in the last week of His life.

The setting inside Luke matters too. Immediately before this visit, a lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, and the answer is the great commandment: “And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (Luke 10:27). Jesus then tells the parable of the good Samaritan, a story about doing, about stopping on the road and serving a stranger. Right after it, Luke gives us a story about sitting still and listening. The two belong together. Love for neighbour that acts, and love for God that listens, are not rivals. They are the two halves of the one commandment, and Bethany shows us which one feeds the other.

Martha, the one who welcomed Him

It is easy to read this story as a contest with a winner and a loser. Luke does not write it that way. Martha is the one who opens the door. The house is called hers, and she received Jesus into it. In a culture where hospitality was a sacred duty, welcoming a teacher and His travelling disciples was a serious undertaking: water for feet, bread to bake, a meal for many mouths. Martha took it on gladly. Her love for Jesus is real, and it shows itself in work.

But Luke says that Martha was cumbered about much serving. The old word means pulled away, dragged in many directions. The service that began as love slowly became weight, and the weight became resentment. Finally she comes to Jesus with a question that has a complaint folded inside it:

“But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.”Luke 10:40

Listen to what worry has done. It has made her ask whether Jesus cares at all, and it has turned her sister into a problem to be fixed.

Many of us know Martha from the inside. We love the Lord and want to serve Him well, and somewhere in the serving we begin to feel alone, unseen and overloaded. We begin to measure others by how much they are carrying. The story does not mock that feeling. It answers it.

Mary, the one who sat at His feet

Luke introduces her in a single verse: “And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.” To sit at a teacher's feet was the posture of a disciple, the way students sat before a rabbi. It was not usually the place of a woman in that world, and Jesus does not send her back to the kitchen. He receives her as a disciple and defends her place there. That alone says something beautiful about how Jesus regards women, and about who may come close to Him: anyone who will listen.

Mary does very little in this story. She does not speak. She does not explain herself when Martha complains. She simply stays where she is, near Jesus, hearing His word. Her stillness is not laziness; it is attention. She has understood that when the Son of God is sitting in your living room, the most important thing in the house is what He is saying.

Martha, Martha: the answer Jesus gives

Jesus answers: “And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things” Notice first that He says her name twice. In Scripture a doubled name is a mark of tenderness and urgency: Abraham, Abraham at the altar, Samuel, Samuel in the night, Simon, Simon before Peter's denial, Saul, Saul on the Damascus road. Jesus is not scolding a servant. He is calling a friend he loves back to herself. John tells us plainly that Jesus loved Martha (John 11:5), and you can hear that love here.

Then comes the heart of the story: “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Many things, one thing. Martha is troubled about many things, and she is not wrong that they need doing. But only one thing is needful, and it is not a task. It is a Person. The good part Mary has chosen is Jesus Himself, His presence and His word, and Jesus promises that it will not be taken from her. Meals are eaten and forgotten. A house is cleaned and gets dirty again. What we receive at His feet remains.

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”Psalm 27:4

The rest of Scripture says the same thing in other words. David longed for one thing above all others, to behold the beauty of the Lord. Jesus taught His disciples to seek first the kingdom of God and trust the Father for the rest, and Paul, writing from prison, told the church not to be anxious but to bring everything to God in prayer. Martha is being offered the same freedom.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”Matthew 6:33

What the story does not say

It does not say that work is unspiritual, or that some Christians are made for prayer and others for chores. The Gospels never treat Martha as a lesser disciple, and the very next time we see her she is serving again, this time without complaint. It does not say Mary was more gifted, or that contemplation is a special calling for a few. Jesus speaks of a choice Mary made, which means it is a choice open to anyone. And it does not say Martha was refused. The story ends with an invitation hanging in the air, and John shows us that she took it.

The sisters again: John 11

We meet Martha and Mary a second time when their brother Lazarus falls sick. They send Jesus a message that is almost a prayer: the one You love is sick. Jesus waits two days, and by the time He reaches Bethany, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days.

Look at how each sister meets Him. Martha, true to herself, goes out to meet Him on the road. Mary stays in the house. And now Martha, the busy one, becomes the theologian of the story. She speaks to Jesus with honest grief and astonishing faith in the same breath, and Jesus speaks to her the words that Christians have read at gravesides ever since:

John 11:20-27, Martha meets Jesus on the road (King James Version)
²⁰Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. ²¹Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. ²²But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. ²³Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. ²⁴Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. ²⁵Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ²⁶And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? ²⁷She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
John 11:20-27, KJV

The woman who once asked whether Jesus cared now confesses who He is. Whatever happened in her after that day in Luke 10, she had learned to listen. Then she goes and calls her sister, saying that the Master is come and calls for her. Mary runs to Him and falls at His feet, the same place we found her before, now in tears.

“Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.”John 11:32-35

Jesus does not rush their grief. He groans in spirit, He is troubled, He weeps, and then He calls Lazarus out of the grave. The Lord who would not let Martha be swallowed by anxiety will not let death have the last word over her family either.

The sisters again: John 12

The third scene takes place six days before the Passover, at a supper given in honour of Jesus in Bethany. John notes three people, and each is exactly where we would expect: Lazarus at the table with Jesus, Martha serving, and Mary at His feet.

John 12:1-3, the supper at Bethany (King James Version)
¹Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. ²There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. ³Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
John 12:1-3, KJV

Martha is serving again, and there is no complaint this time. Her work has found its place. Mary pours out a pound of costly ointment on the feet of Jesus and wipes them with her hair, and the whole house is filled with the fragrance. When Judas objects to the waste, Jesus defends her as He did in Luke 10:

“Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.”John 12:7-8

Mary had listened so closely that she seems to have understood what the disciples had not: that Jesus was going to die. Sitting at His feet had taught her to see Him truly, and her worship became a preparation for His burial.

What the story means for us today

Most of us live in Martha's house. The days are full, the needs are real, and the many things never run out. Jesus does not ask us to abandon our responsibilities. He asks us to stop letting them stand between us and Him. A few practical ways people have learned to choose the good part:

Give Him the first minutes. Before the phone and the to do list, read a few verses of a Gospel and pray. The rest of the day is received from that place.
Bring the complaint to Him honestly. Martha did the right thing by going to Jesus with what was troubling her. Tell Him where you feel alone and overloaded, and let Him answer you.
Notice when serving turns into scorekeeping. When you start measuring what others are not doing, it is usually a sign that you need to sit down at His feet.
Serve from love, not for it. Martha in John 12 serves without a word of complaint. Work done near Jesus becomes worship again.
Make room for others to listen. Churches and families can protect quiet time for the Word, so that the Marys among us are defended, as Jesus defended her.

How the story points to Jesus

In the end this story is not mainly about two personality types. It is about the guest. The One sitting in Martha's house is the Word made flesh, on His way to Jerusalem to give His life. He is the one thing needful because He is the Bread of Life, the One who satisfies the hunger no meal can touch. He is the resurrection and the life, as Martha would confess at her brother's tomb. And He is the Lord who calls the anxious by name.

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”John 6:35

If you are troubled about many things today, He is saying your name, gently, twice. There is a place at His feet for you, and the good part you find there will not be taken away.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”Matthew 11:28

Related passages

Luke 10:25-37: “And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
John 11:1-44: “Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.”
John 12:1-8: “Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.”
Psalm 27:4: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”
Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Philippians 4:6-7: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
John 6:35: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
Matthew 11:28-30: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Questions people ask

Where is the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible?

The visit itself is in Luke 10:38-42. The same two sisters appear again in John 11:1-44, when their brother Lazarus dies and Jesus raises him, and in John 12:1-8, at a supper in Bethany six days before the Passover, where Martha serves and Mary anoints the feet of Jesus.

What is the main lesson of Mary and Martha?

That Jesus Himself is the one thing needful. Martha is not wrong to serve; she is pulled apart by worry about many things while the Lord is sitting in her own house. Jesus does not shame her. He calls her by name, twice, and invites her to the place Mary has found: near Him, listening to His word.

Was Jesus rebuking Martha for working?

No. Jesus never tells Martha that hospitality is wrong, and the Gospels honour her serving again in John 12. What He names is that she is careful and troubled, anxious and distracted, and that her anxiety has turned into a complaint against her sister and against Him. He corrects the worry, not the work, and He does it tenderly.

What does one thing is needful mean?

It means that out of all the things that press on us, one is necessary above the rest: to be with Jesus and to hear His word. The Bible says the same in other places, as when David longs for one thing, to dwell in the house of the Lord, and when Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God. Everything else is received from that place, not instead of it.

Where did Mary and Martha live?

In Bethany, a village on the Mount of Olives about two miles from Jerusalem, with their brother Lazarus. John names it the town of Mary and her sister Martha. Luke simply calls it a certain village.

Is Mary of Bethany the same as Mary Magdalene?

The Gospels present them as different women. Mary of Bethany is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Mary Magdalene came from Magdala in Galilee and stood at the cross and the empty tomb. Some later writers blended several Marys together, but the text itself keeps them apart.

What does Martha's confession in John 11 show?

That the anxious server of Luke 10 had become a woman of deep faith. Standing outside her brother's tomb, she hears Jesus say that He is the resurrection and the life, and she answers with one of the clearest confessions in the Gospels: she believes He is the Christ, the Son of God.

How can I be like Mary in a busy life?

Begin small and begin daily. Give Jesus the first moments of the day before the many things arrive, read a Gospel slowly, and bring your worries to Him in prayer rather than carrying them alone. You do not have to stop serving to sit at His feet; you serve from there.