A Different Kind Of Productive
Lucy Holt
Currently I am in season of sabbatical between full time jobs. I’m working part time in a couple of roles which are much less demanding than the one I was doing up until Easter. This has been a strange transition, and also a blessing to have time and space to recover from a very intense few years.
It does feel strange to allow myself to have much more time to do things I enjoy. I feel very grateful for the opportunity, but also a bit guilty for not being more productive. This has reminded me of the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
(Luke 10: 38-42)
I’ve read this story many times and heard various different layers of explanation at what it means. Here are a few things it has meant to me at different times:
Following Jesus and learning more about faith should be a high priority. This is how I first understood the story, and as a teenager heard it used to tell us that having a ‘quiet time’ and attending church should come first above other activities and interests. There’s definitely some truth in the importance to making time for the things we value, but equally this made me feel a bit guilty at times in life when I wasn’t fitting much bible reading in at all, such as when my children were young.
I don’t think it’s right to read this as saying at practical tasks don’t matter, there are many other places in both the Old and New Testaments where practical caring for people (including feeding, clothing and cleaning) are seen as spiritual activities and ways of serving God. So there is nothing wrong with what Martha is doing but, when she criticises Mary for making time to sit at Jesus feet, he replies about her feelings, not about the tasks.
I only realised later that what Mary is doing isn’t a lazy or easy option. Although her body isn’t active in sitting herself at the feet of a Rabbi, she is doing a brave and controversial thing. Women weren’t normally included as disciples, and this is one of several stories where Jesus includes and values women in a radical way (Sarah Bessey’s ‘Jesus Feminist’ is a book about this).
This is also a story about a special time - Jesus visiting their house in person - not a model for every single day. In a similar way to Jesus defending his disciples for not fasting while he is with them (Luke 5: 33-35), Mary and Martha have unique opportunities to learn from Jesus in that moment.
Martha’s question to Jesus isn’t about the housework, it’s about her value and relationships. She wants to know Jesus cares about her and wants her hard work to be seen, so that she knows Jesus recognises how she is trying. Jesus understands this and addresses Martha’s underlying feelings of worry and upset. I don’t think he is telling her off, but giving her permission to join in as a disciple as well.
For me this means trying to let myself enjoy some reading, learning and creative hobbies in in this different season; that investing in those things isn’t a waste - it’s a different kind of productive. One way I am doing this is to spend some time doing origami, which I enjoy, and gives me time to think and pray while my hands are busy folding paper. Hopefully the senbazuru I am making will make a nice decoration at the end but, even if it doesn’t, it is valuable because it represents me making time and space to rest and heal.
