One Thing

AM Psalm 102 • PM Psalm 107:1-32
Ezek. 34:17-31 • Heb. 8:1-13 • Luke 10:38-42

Today’s gospel is the familiar story of the exchange that happens when Jesus is invited into the home of the sisters Martha and Mary. It invites various reactions and questions. I have always been impressed with Martha’s chutzpah when she upbraids a rabbi (and, if she only knew, the son of God) for allowing her sister to sit at his feet while she is working her tail off in the kitchen. Turn the story differently, and its point may be an elevation of women, since Mary, a mere female, is permitted to attend the words of the great teacher.

Still more can be read into the brief passage, but for me, over time, the story has come down to a crucial question. Jesus tells the irritated woman (“Martha, Martha...”) to set aside all the “many things” that upset her because “only one thing” is needed, and Mary knows it.

One thing?

And what would that be? He doesn’t tell Martha—or us. Maybe it is the news we read in the letter to the Hebrews. Christ has come with a new covenant from God that transcends the old, one with God’s laws not in scrolls but inscribed on our hearts, ones of mercy and forgiveness. Maybe that’s the only thing we need. Maybe, but he doesn’t say.

I think maybe we are purposely left hanging. Perhaps we are asked to put ourselves back in that room and to ask ourselves what I suspect everyone there asked themselves. What is our “one thing”? What is at the core of our relationship with Jesus? Once we name it, he seems to say, we should keep it foremost in our mind, ahead of the various distractions as we move busily, Martha-like, through out days.

Written by Elliott West

Elliott teaches history at the University of Arkansas. He has been a member of St. Paul’s for thirty years.