You know the story; Jesus and the disciples drop in on Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and Martha gets steamed at Mary for leaving her to do all the serving by herself while Mary reclines at Jesus feet. Martha is upset enough that she even throws a little lip Jesus’ way (Luke 10:38-42). Sermons about the encounter typically conclude with “be a Mary, not a Martha”. Of course, such sermons are NEVER delivered on the same day that the church holds a potluck. No one gets served if everyone is a Mary.

The Greek word used to describe Martha’s serving is the same word used in Acts 6:1, when the apostles decided that serving food was a hassle and foisted the job off onto 7 deacons so they could focus on prayer and the word of God. Except for the Greek, one wouldn’t see the connection because the King James renders the word “serving” in the passage about Martha, and “ministration” in the passage about the apostles. I guess that means when women serve food, it’s service, but when the men do it, it’s ministry.

There is a sense in which the passage in Acts 6 revisits the Martha situation upon the Apostles, and by extension everyone who serves the body of Christ. Like Martha, the apostles learned the hard way that it’s difficult and frustrating to balance the spiritual needs with the physical needs of the Body.

Reading from Acts 6:1-6. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists rose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. (2) And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. (3) Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. (4) But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (5) And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. (6) These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

There are a few peculiarities in that passage. First, there’s no mention of prayer before the apostles came up with the plan and proposed it to the disciples. Second, is the phrase “what they said pleased the whole gathering”. Thayer’s translates the Greek word areskō (G700) as “pleased” and defines it as “to strive to please and accommodate one’s self to the opinions, desires and interests of others.”

That the definition is “striving” suggests it’s a pursuit of the flesh, to accommodate the “interests of others” or the will of man. That makes it sound like appointing deacons to serve food had more to do with the demands of men than the will of God. I’m further puzzled that while the apostles are leaders and teachers, by presenting the plan to the people, they seemed to be asking them for approval in the matter. Why else report that the people were “pleased” with the proposal? Could the apostles not pray for the Holy Spirit to identify 7 men to serve food like they did to chose an apostle to replace Judas? I can’t say for certain, of course. The passage just raises questions for me, especially since twice before, when faced with the demands of men, Peter replied:

“Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge” (Acts 4:19 NASB).

And “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29 NASB).

It’s notable that Jesus’ gentle rebuke of Martha, whose behavior toward Mary and Jesus was a tad bit odorous, addressed only her attitude toward Mary and to say that Mary had chosen the better portion, to sit at the feet of Jesus. He did not say Martha had chosen poorly, after all, Jesus accepted Martha’s gracious invitation into her home and all were blessed by the meal she served.

So here we are and it’s the apostles who are faced with the Martha dilemma – forced to choose whether to serve food or be ‘in the word’. Unlike Martha who continued to serve, the apostles responded by creating a class of ministry after the example of Martha: Deacons – a word derived from the Greek word “diakonia” (G1248) which in the King James means service (if you’re a woman) and ministry (if you’re a man). Chuckle. Apologies to the feminists.

What puzzles me about creating the servant class “deacon” is a question: is there anything a deacon does that shouldn’t be done by every believer? Christ taught and modeled humble service and we’re being conformed to the likeness of Christ. He even said “(43) Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, (44) and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. (45) For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. (Mark 10:43-45 ESV)

We should all serve. Instructions for service are peppered throughout the letters of the apostles. Paul wrote “if you don’t work, you don’t eat” and Peter said “practice hospitality without grumbling” to name but a few of such instructions.

Before deriding Martha yet again and mindlessly advocating that everyone should emulate Mary, let’s ask ourselves where Jesus and the apostles would have stayed if not for Martha inviting them into her home? What would they have eaten? Would there have been clean dishes to eat from or clean linens?

Consider also the story of Jesus and his disciples who while walking through a wheat field picked and rubbed the heads between their hands to thresh the grain and ate the seeds (Luke 6:1). Surely we appreciate it when someone grinds the grain into flour and bakes fresh bread! Otherwise, if not for servants like Martha and those wonderful “wives of noble character” (Proverbs 31), we’d need to graze like the animals!

My dear mother Joy was a Martha. She shopped, prepared meals, helped me with homework, and made my family a comfortable home. She modeled many of the fine habits attributed to the Proverbs 31 wife of noble character. Likewise my dear wife, who is a devoted servant of God and of her husband and countless students over her teaching career. Her habit of morning devotions allow her to be Mary for an hour before switching gears to become a Martha. What I so admire about her discipline, she’s able to integrate Mary and Martha, often singing spontaneous spiritual songs while doing work-a-day tasks.

In that respect, I’m not as disciplined as my wife because I tend to lose myself in the “merriness” (Mary-ness) of creative writing. She’s been loving and patient while I learn to be a better help mate and share the role of Martha with her. That’s only natural with aging because more and more we’re becoming one at the same time our marriage vows are becoming more of a reality – like the promise of loving each other through sickness and weakness. Marriage teaches a body that love is a verb.

Service is the Lord’s command, in the work of marriage and in the Body until the day the Lord comes to take us home where we can all be like Mary and there are no dirty dishes to provoke our inner Martha.