When I told a dear female friend of mine that I was writing a reflection on Luke 10:38,* she rolled her eyes. “You mean where he scolds Martha for doing housework?” she asked with a sigh. “C’mon, Jesus. Really?”
I’d been turning the Luke passage over in my mind for a week now, looking up different interpretations of the Greek and the Aramaic, trying to find some hidden meaning. My scholarly work had led to no great revelations other than this: Easy for Jesus to say, “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” He wasn’t the one who had to do the laundry and make dinner!
After a good laugh though, my friend and I paused to reconsider. We were sitting in the grass outside her apartment. Each of us had set aside these hours from our busy lives of work and family to be together and contemplate some big questions we’d been carrying with us for months now about faith and purpose. A trio of kids played beside us, and we were silent awhile as the sun softened into the golden hour.
Slowly, my breath deepened, my body opened, and something new occurred to me: Jesus never says what the ‘one thing’ is. He never tells Martha she should stop doing her housework.
My friend smiled in recognition. “It’s like when he tells the disciples to let the dead bury the dead. The meaning changes depending on how you hear Jesus’ voice. Does it sound like a command? Like he’s a drill sergeant telling soldiers to leave their dead comrades and march on into battle? Or does it sound gentle, loving, encouraging – like a consolation: It’s OK. I know you’re hurting. But you can let go. God is calling you to more life. Let the dead bury the dead.
Too often, we allow our own internal conflicts and harmful cultural conditioning determine how we hear Jesus’ voice. If Jesus sounds harsh, dismissive, aloof, or cruel, then it’s probably not Jesus talking, but the voice of our own inner critics, our trauma, or our supremacist culture.
When I let the silence deepen and the day soften, I hear him differently. Listening in this way, in the company of trusted friends, cannot give us the answers to all our questions, but it can give us a taste of that “one thing” we need to continue on our way with dignity, faith, hope and love.
–Kip O’Connell Dooley, 8th Day Faith Community
- When have you been challenged about the tone of your voice?
- What tone of voice do you hear in Jesus’ words?
- What is the “one thing” you need to hear from Jesus?
