The Good Portion

Luke gives us this story between two others: the parable of the Good Samaritan, where love bends down to serve a stranger, and the Lord's Prayer, where Jesus teaches the disciples how to talk to God. Right between go and do and teach us to pray, Luke places this small scene in a house in Bethany.

Two sisters. One Jesus. One choice.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving.

-- Luke 10:38-40

Notice the verbs. Mary sat. Martha was distracted. The Greek for distracted is periespato, pulled around in many directions, dragged about. The serving is not wrong; the distraction is. Mary is doing one thing. Martha is doing many.

Martha's frustration is understandable. Hospitality was a sacred duty. There are guests. There is bread to make, water to draw, a meal to serve. She has been carrying it alone.

She went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.'

-- Luke 10:40

Jesus' answer is one of the gentlest rebukes in the Gospels. He does not say Martha is wrong to serve. He says she is being pulled apart by it.

'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'

-- Luke 10:41-42

Notice the repetition of her name. Martha, Martha. It is the same gentle doubling Jesus uses with Simon Peter and with Saul on the Damascus road. It is the voice of someone who knows you well and is not angry. Martha, Martha. Slow down. Look at me. There is one thing.

The phrase the good portion (he agathē meris) is what was given the priests at the table in temple offerings, the best share, the part that lasts. Mary has chosen the lasting share. She is doing the one thing the moment requires: being near him.

Some of us cannot tolerate stillness. The empty room makes us anxious. The silent half-hour drives us toward a screen, a snack, a conversation, anything that fills the space. Underneath the busyness, and even underneath the habits we are trying to leave, is a discomfort with being alone with ourselves and with God.

The story does not scold the discomfort. It offers an alternative.

Mary chose to sit. To do nothing measurable. To listen to Jesus without producing anything from the listening. It looked, to her busy sister, like wasted time. Jesus called it the good portion.

If your habit reaches for you because you cannot bear the silence, today's invitation is gentle. Try ten minutes of doing nothing. Sit somewhere. Open the gospel of John or a psalm. Let the words be the only sound. Do not write. Do not summarize. Do not record what you learned. Just sit.

If your mind wanders, that is fine. Bring it back. Martha, Martha. The voice has been kind to many wanderers.

What you are practicing is solace through presence, not solace through activity, not solace through consumption. Just being near the One who calls himself bread, and letting him be enough.

This is what your habit has been counterfeiting. The silence you have been afraid of has had a host the whole time. The room you have not wanted to enter is the room he is in.