86 | The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies 8/1:87 96 (Winter 2021)
On Serving and Sitting: A Curious, Upside-Down Story about Discipleship (Luke 10:38–42) Dorothy Jean Weaver
Eastern Mennonite Seminary weaverdj@emu.edu Abstract This sermon presents the biblical text of Luke 10:38–42 and offers a “traditional” interpretation of this text. This “traditional” interpretation hinges (1) on Jesus’ rebuke of Martha (10:41) and (2) on Jesus’ commendation of Mary (10:42). Such an interpretation, however, leaves the almost unavoidable impression that Jesus is ungrateful for Martha’s efforts in doing the “women’s work” and cooking a meal for a large crowd of people. The sermon then deconstructs this “traditional” interpretation as it re-examines the text of Luke 10:38–42, paying special attention to the broader Lukan usage of the key vocabulary here, namely “serve” ( : 10:40a/b) with regard to Martha and “listen/hear” ( : 10:39) with regard to Mary. This re-examination leads to the paired conclusions that (1) Mary the contemplative will be called to active response to her “listening/hearing” (cf. Luke 6:46–49; 8:19–21; 11:27–28), while (2) Martha the activist—whose “service” reflects nothing less than the “service” of Jesus himself (22:25–27; cf. 12:37)—is even now called to “listening/hearing” as the foundation for her life of activism (cf. Luke 10:42).
