Misunderstanding Mary and Martha

Dr Lucy Peppiatt takes a look at common interpretations of the encounter between Jesus, Mary and Martha and finds them wanting

In my last column, I wrote about rest and spending time in God’s presence. A nice follow-on from this is the tale of two sisters, Martha and Mary, found in Luke 10. The Gospel story portrays Martha as distracted, disturbed and agitated, while her sister, Mary (despite the pressure placed upon women to look after the affairs of the home and serve guests) sits at Jesus’ feet to learn from him.