Thursday, July 28, 2022

Martha - A symbol of hospitality

 

Is there anyone as an elder sister in the family? Elder sister is always a second mother. Gospel does not record anything about the parents  of Martha. We come to know that she is an elder sister to Mary and Lazarus. Martha would take care of them from the birth onwards, to bring them up in faith and love. 

We meet Martha in both the Gospels of John and Luke. Luke presents Martha as a woman of hospitality and John presents her as the one who announces the resurrection of Jesus. 

Martha was worried about how to show hospitality to Jesus. Jesus says "why are you so worried". Some times it is good to worry, sometimes not. Martha knew how to worry. Jesus also worried in the garden of Getsemani. We need not worry in our life. But we should have fear of God. Sometimes people think that one should not worry, but be happy and enjoy the life. That is epicureanism. Cross is the value of Christian life. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” —Matthew 6:27.  We need to worry for the essential things, not every thing. 

The mature way of worrying is to direct to Jesus our worries. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Jesus is the right person you  should show your worries to, not to others, especially not to your enemies. Lamenting to the other is like gossip. 

Build the united family not on earth, but in heaven. His goal is resurrection. Jesus gives Lazzarus his life back, but he dies again. Jesus cried while Lazarus was dead abandoning the family of two girl children. Jesus gave life, but it was just temporary. He died again. So, these worries are all temporary, the main one remains the worry that we should enter the eternal life, by grace of God.

No comments:

Post a Comment