Luke 10:41 Commentary and Bible Study

But he refuses her request, and explains why. He speaks such tender words of admonition to her, ‘Martha, Martha …’ It is an endearing way that he speaks to her, full of kindness and wanting the best for her, but nevertheless having something very serious to say to her. Martha is loved too, but she needs to be gently brought to see that in this matter she is not right. She has made the wrong decision for herself, and she is trying to impose that wrong decision on her sister also. ‘Thou art careful and troubled about many things’ – Christ could see into her heart, and he saw the storm of anxiety within her, and the sense of being unfairly treated by her sister. If she were a child, she would have said, ‘It’s not fair.’ But on this occasion her sister was wiser than she was, and she needed to learn from her sister’s choice. The Lord would be with them only for a limited time. They had only a limited opportunity to hear his teaching and Mary was going to take full advantage of it. Both sisters had apparently been serving initially, but Mary had left off to hear Christ’s teaching. He implies that Martha should have done the same, and not worried about the catering. That would have been completely acceptable to him. She should have allowed their souls to be fed first, and then worried about the body later. One can imagine the scene if this is what she had done. After a wonderful lesson, they would have come to eat, and been happy to have a simple meal because of the wonderful time they had had listening to the word of the Lord.