I was listening to a sermon about Mary and Martha the other day, and as sermons sometimes do, the preacher wanted to look at things from a new angle. That is, said preacher wanted to get to grips with the notion of 'busy-shaming.' According to her, Jesus really shouldn't be busy-shaming Martha, who legitimately had a lot to do, and whose work should be appreciated. And that's half right.
Something you need to work out is that scripture interprets scripture. This is a method of interpretation that has to work in order for the entire scripture to mean anything. I'll explain what I mean.
There's a pretty dumb movie out there called 'Re-Animator.' It's based on a story by HP Lovecraft called 'Herbert West, Reanimator,' which is all about a man who discovers how to bring people back from the dead. Sort of. There are problems, difficulties, and eventual zombies. The movie follows the same sort of plot, just modernized for the 1980s. And that's fine so far, given that you're watching a dumb horror movie, and you have to acknowledge that, in the movie's logic, people can be reanimated. You're not going to enjoy the film if you're always saying 'wait a minute, people don't get reanimated, that don't make no sense.' Sure, but once you've accepted that people can come back to life, as zombies, then you're settled in for the movie to tell its story.
When the first movie ends, the main character, Herbert West, is dragged to his death by the entrails of his former boss (it's complicated). By the start of the second movie, he's just strolling around, helping out with making more of a stable reagent to re-animate more corpses. This is a film series in which people can be brought back from the dead, and the return of a dead character could be addressed, but it isn't. To paraphrase, Re-Animator interprets Bride of Re-Animator. And if there are big holes in the story, holes so large you could walk a camel through it, then you're not going to be satisfied.
Scripture interprets scripture. That way the story makes sense. If you're going to give Jesus a hard time for 'busy-shaming' Martha, then you're going to have to show your notes as to why that's in line with the rest of scripture. That is, in the scriptures, do you see busy-shaming or do you not, and is pushing for rest to listen to the word of God in line with what God would want, or away from it?
In Exodus 31:15, God makes a declaration that the Sabbath is to be observed, and that if anyone does any kind of work on the Sabbath, that person is to be put to death. And lest you think that it's exaggeration or hyperbole, in the book of Numbers (the most boringest one), a man is stoned to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Rest, in the scriptures, isn't a matter of an option, where God says 'hey, if you feel like it, you can take a break.'
Instead, from the way I read it, rest is required. On pain of death. You can try to gather sticks, holmes, but you may very well end up dead because of it.
But the reason for the Sabbath needs to be explained. That is, yes rest, but why? Why rest? What's the reason for the resting? Just to take-a-break? The whole point of resting was not just to do nothing, but to do something without all the distractions that are a perpetual problem . Think of the story in which there was a party that people were invited to, and they all came up with excuses: 'Oh, I can't come, I have to look at some cattle.' 'Oh, I can't come, I have a wife.' 'Oh, I can't come, I bought some land and have to see it.' Sure sure. The idea is that you're always going to have busy things trying to creep in. Always.
It hits its zenith where you find Martha, with the Lord and God of the universe in her home, and she can't take the time to listen to his word. She has a lot to do. which she does. I'm not going to tell you that her work was pointless, valueless or silly. On the contrary, she was fulfilling her vocation as host, homeowner, sister, friend, all those sorts of things. And she was doing her best, but something that has to be acknowledged is that she's not going to be done. There's never going to be a moment where she is all finished, through, and can finally sit down and listen to Christ.
There's a short story by Ray Bradbury called 'the fruit at the bottom of the bowl,' in which there is a murder right at the beginning of the story. A killing where the killer plans on getting away. But the killer knows that he is going to leave fingerprints, so he's going to have to make sure that he wipes them all off, lest he be caught. He starts by wiping his fingerprints off of the obvious things - murder weapon, surfaces, that kind of thing. But then he remembers all the things that he's touched over the course of his relationship with the murder victim, and so he has to polish all of those too, to make the fingerprints go away. By the time the police show up, they arrest him handily, as he's up in the attic scrubbing all the old civil war coins that have been up there, untouched, for decades.
You're never done cleaning, you know, until you say you are. In the world of the Sabbath, which is not enforced by death anymore, you're never done your buying and selling and consuming and purchasing until you decide you are. Then you're done. Martha is working hard, and getting lots done, but she was never going to be finished until she declared that she would be. Jesus isn't telling you not to do anything, not at all. He's quite keen to let us all know that we are to serve, to do good works, to do what needs to be done, that kind of thing. But he's also keen to tell us to rest. Not just for the sake of rest, though, but to hear the word of God, learn it, and respond appropriately.
In Mary and Martha, you see a microcosm of that - The word of God is being preached by God himself, and at a certain point, you have to decide that you're done with the work that will never finish, and it's time to listen and to learn. To be ministered to, and to be refreshed. Because Mary isn't doing nothing, you know. She's doing what she's supposed to do. Six days you shall do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, set aside for rest, and set aside for you to listen and to learn from the Lord God himself. The fruit at the bottom of the bowl will never be clean, the work will never be done, until you say it is. And at that point, you're set to listen, to receive the sacraments, and to be restored. That's also what God wants you to do, and that's why he gave you that extra time to begin with.
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