Sunday 17th July – Mary and Martha

Our worship on Sunday begins at 10am and is followed by fellowship in the hall, you are invited to join us.

Gospel Reading

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

In our Gospel reading on Sunday Jesus goes to the home of the sisters Mary and Martha. While one sits and listens at Jesus’ feet the other one fusses around being busy.

The painting below is ‘Christ with Martha and Mary’ by Mikhail Nesterov painted in 1911. This painting gives a different approach to what is a familiar Gospel to many, Mary and Jesus are outside not inside the house and Martha, well. While Mary is sitting listening with a bottle in her hand, it would appear that Martha is bringing our a tray of food. Does this painting capture the scene after Jesus spoke. Is the artist showing how Martha can still be true to her personality by bringing out some food, while she also comes and joins them? Maybe, we might never know, however it does give us some food for thought. We know the scene so well, but what happened next? What did Mary do? What did Martha do? And of course most importantly, What did Jesus do?

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