By Laura Alexander
The Gospel reading during a recent Sunday service was the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). As the reading ended, I whispered to my husband, “I like this story more every time I hear it. Jesus says women shouldn’t be running around cooking and serving!”
In the moment, I was mostly just trying to provoke my husband to roll his eyes. We share cooking and serving tasks at home, so I wasn’t trying to make a passive-aggressive point! But it did get me wondering what this well-known story really means. Like many stories and teachings of Jesus, it’s brief. Jesus doesn’t grace Martha (or us) with a lecture that explains his innermost thoughts.
Over the years, the most familiar theological interpretation is that this story is a metaphor for “active” and “contemplative” Christian lives. Although some theologians have viewed a “contemplative” life of continuous prayer, worship and meditation as more ideal, many say action and contemplation are simply different parts of a Christian life. Action is necessary not only to sustain basic needs, but also to uphold Christian communities (keeping the lights on!) and to share the Good News. Contemplation brings us closer to God. According to many theologians, prayerful contemplation on earth reflects the deep and abiding contemplation of God that believers will experience in the life to come.
However, this is not the only possible interpretation. Theologians have noted that Martha’s “service” (the Greek word used is διακονία) is never explicitly described as table service or providing food. Martha may just as easily be a disciple of Jesus serving as a deacon, especially since διακονία is used in Acts to denote both charitable provision of food and the evangelizing and preaching ministry of Jesus’s disciples. Martha’s care and worry might be about her many tasks as a Christian leader, which her sister Mary— potentially another deacon—is failing to help her with. New Testament scholar Elizabeth Schrader even provocatively claims that the name “Martha” might have been substituted for “Mary”—as in “Mary Magdalene.” Schrader says later Christian leaders might have changed the text, in an attempt to dilute Mary Magdalene’s role as a prominent disciple of Jesus.
WORK AND LEISURE
Whatever “service” Martha provides, this story brings our attention to the balance between active work, and intellectual or spiritual contemplation. Contemporary interpreters commonly speak of finding a balance between contemplating Jesus’s words and engaging in action and direct service. While seeking balance is important, I also find myself thinking about what kind of balance we, or others, are allowed to find between our active and intellectual/spiritual lives.
Laura Alexander is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha. She is author of the textbook Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction (Routledge 2024).
This excerpted article appeared in the Fall 2026 issue of Gather. To read more like it, subscribe to Gather.
