(Please enjoy an adapted blog post from my previous blog. I am busy enjoying my grandchildren this week.)

When someone mentions Mary and Martha, what comes to mind? If you know anything about them, you immediately associate their names with the scene from Luke 10:38-42 where Martha is complaining to Jesus about Mary not helping her in the kitchen. I am sure one of the reasons that scene is so well remembered is that it is set in a place where women have traditionally been expected to be the workers: the kitchen.

(On a side note: speaking of the kitchen . . . why do so many people assume women should be “the cook” at home, yet if you talk about a “professional chef,” a man’s picture comes to mind?!)

Back to Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, and more specifically Martha, who was possibly even the owner of the home where the three of them lived. Luke 10:38 says, “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him” (emphasis added). I want to challenge you today to change your foremost memory of Martha and get her out of the kitchen! Hopefully you already know the “rest of the story,” but allow me to share some of the insights I have gleaned over the years . . .

The scene I want to come first to your mind about Martha is when her brother Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus. While that miracle takes center stage in that story–as it should–there is a detail of that story that is not often highlighted. John 11 is the location of this story in scripture. The small town of Bethany just outside Jerusalem was the location of this miracle. When Jesus arrived several days after Lazarus had died, Martha met him outside and Mary remained indoors. Jesus was accompanied by his disciples and I am sure a larger crowd of Jews and even religious leaders trying to trap him. The conversation between Jesus and Martha was in a public setting. Let’s pick up in v. 21:

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

I heard a sermon by Linda McKinnish Bridges once entitled “Martha Comes Out of the Kitchen” who pointed out that there should be a big pause right here in scripture because what Martha says next, as recorded in v. 27, is revolutionary.

[Martha] replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world.”

Martha has just spoken the first messianic confession allowed in public by Jesus. When Jesus asked the disciples earlier (see Matthew 16:13-20) who they thought he was, Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ resulted in Jesus ordering the disciples not to tell anybody! Now that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, knowing he will be killed, the timing is right to allow this confession to be made public–and Jesus lets a woman be the first to make such an announcement. Martha also had to have been aware that saying such a thing could result in being stoned to death for blasphemy. Sometimes, you just have to speak the truth, regardless of how people will react–even at the risk of your own life.

To escape an expected role, this event implies several strategies:

1. Martha’s knowledge of Jesus being the Messiah must be a result of her choosing to spend time listening to Jesus’ teaching (maybe she learned something from her sister Mary’s example). If you want to change your role, you have to choose to learn from the example of others by observing them, reading their writings, and listening to them.
2. Martha made a decision to make a bold statement in the midst of a doubting crowd. Martha chose to go outside her expected role of staying quietly in the background without recognition. If you want to change your role, you may have to tell someone assertively what role you would rather have.
3. Martha’s statement was spoken directly to Jesus in response to Jesus’ direct question to her–even though she knew that others who were listening would disagree with her. She was focused on the Truth–Jesus Himself–and responded without fear. As a leader, you will never make everyone happy. When you know your position is based in Jesus’ Truth, you do not have to fear the naysayers. Your responsibility as a leader is to make Jesus happy.  

For women, this act on Jesus’ part should encourage us to know that Jesus gave women a voice then and Jesus gives women a voice now. Some of the most important truths in scripture come to us through a woman’s voice! (I’ll continue to reveal those in other blog posts.)

So, use your unique woman’s voice–even if you’ll be remembered for the wrong thing as Martha was. God wants someone to hear what YOU have to say. Someone needs your unique leadership gifts.

Join the conversation . . . 

How have you escaped an expected role? What was the result?