Mary And Samaritan Analysis

Luke’s theme is about new conversion and the rapid spread of Christianity, however, with the addition of the story of Mary and Martha it becomes confusing as to how this story fits in with the overall theme of the Gospel of Luke. However, Luke continues his theme with this story because he wants everyone to know the truth about Jesus. Jesus wanted Martha to stop doing the busywork and focus on the truth of Him and who He is. Before this passage, we have the story about the Good Samaritan who was there to help even when it was frowned upon socially. After this passage, we have where Jesus teaches about prayer. The passage about Mary and Martha go with the Good Samaritan story because Martha was doing what was expected by her culture and society, while Mary was going beyond it and sitting at the feet of Jesus.
MARY AND MARTHA: Luke 10: 38-42
This specific type of narrative was so we could see how they are just every day people like us who struggle with which subject is more important: service to Christ or worship to Christ. Mary wanted to sit as Christ’s feet and worship Him because she cared about what was happening now, not like Martha who was worried about things that did not matter in comparison to Christ. So, when Martha becomes upset at Martha for not helping her in verse 40 saying, “’Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (New International Version Bible). According to Keck, when Mary goes to worship Christ instead of helping Martha she violates “a clear social boundary [and] she is bringing shame upon her house” (231). We can see here it must have been a social understanding and practice that the women of the house would have prepared a meal and the house for