Mary and Martha Examples of Discipleship
Anabella Morabito
03/28/2015
Reflection Paper #4
Mary and Martha: Examples of Discipleship In chapter two of her book, But She Said, Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza explores the Gospel story of Mary and Martha and the ways in which the contrast between the two sisters has been used as a tool of patriarchal restrictions. In common understandings of the story Martha is understood as distracted; and in contrast to Mary she represents a “bad” model of discipleship. However, in this chapter Schussler-Fiorenza explores the ways in which Martha has been unjustly understood, and at times used as a way to repress women’s understanding of discipleship. In coming to liberate our understanding of true discipleship, Schussler-Fiorenza claims that “Whether the example story of the Good Samaritan and the pronouncement story of Martha and Mary are interrelated is debated. Yet both can be read as answering the question of the lawyer, ‘What am I to do to inherit eternal life?’ Both are thus explications of the great commandment. They teach members of the Christian community what true discipleship is about.” (But She Said, 67) In reading this story, it would be useful to employ a hermeneutics of suspicion and remembrance and come to remember the character of Martha and question the readings which represent her as an insufficient model of discipleship. In our modern context, it is likely that women most predominantly relate to Martha in a way that is more profound and realistic than that which they may relate to Mary’s silence and obedience. And coming to bring an interpretation of Martha that is negative also hurts those women who relate to Martha. As Schussler-Fiorenza states
The rhetorical interests of the Lukan text are to silence women leaders of house churches who, like Martha, may have protested, and to simultaneously extol Mary’s ‘silent’ and subordinate behavior. Such a reconstruction of women’s struggle in the early Church also indicates why women have always identified
03/28/2015
Reflection Paper #4
Mary and Martha: Examples of Discipleship In chapter two of her book, But She Said, Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza explores the Gospel story of Mary and Martha and the ways in which the contrast between the two sisters has been used as a tool of patriarchal restrictions. In common understandings of the story Martha is understood as distracted; and in contrast to Mary she represents a “bad” model of discipleship. However, in this chapter Schussler-Fiorenza explores the ways in which Martha has been unjustly understood, and at times used as a way to repress women’s understanding of discipleship. In coming to liberate our understanding of true discipleship, Schussler-Fiorenza claims that “Whether the example story of the Good Samaritan and the pronouncement story of Martha and Mary are interrelated is debated. Yet both can be read as answering the question of the lawyer, ‘What am I to do to inherit eternal life?’ Both are thus explications of the great commandment. They teach members of the Christian community what true discipleship is about.” (But She Said, 67) In reading this story, it would be useful to employ a hermeneutics of suspicion and remembrance and come to remember the character of Martha and question the readings which represent her as an insufficient model of discipleship. In our modern context, it is likely that women most predominantly relate to Martha in a way that is more profound and realistic than that which they may relate to Mary’s silence and obedience. And coming to bring an interpretation of Martha that is negative also hurts those women who relate to Martha. As Schussler-Fiorenza states
The rhetorical interests of the Lukan text are to silence women leaders of house churches who, like Martha, may have protested, and to simultaneously extol Mary’s ‘silent’ and subordinate behavior. Such a reconstruction of women’s struggle in the early Church also indicates why women have always identified