وبَينَما هُم سائِرونَ، دخَلَ يَسوعُ قَريةً، فرَحَّبَت بِهِ اَمرأةِ اَسمُها مَرتا في بَيتِها. وكانَ لها أُختٌ اَسمُها مَريَمُ، جَلسَت عِندَ قَدمَي الرَّبِّ يَسوعَ تَستَمِعُ إلى كلامِهِ. وكانَت مَرتا مُنَهمِكَةً في كثيرٍ من أمورِ الضِّيافَةِ، جاءَت وقالَت لِـيَسوعَ: “يا رَبُّ، أما تُبالي أن تَتْرُكَني أُختي أخدُمُ وحدي؟ قُل لها أن تُساعِدَني!” فأجابَها الرَّبُّ: “مَرتا، مَرتا، أنتِ تقلَقينَ وتَهتمِّينَ بأُمورٍ كثيرةٍ، معَ أنَّ الحاجَةَ إلى شيءٍ واحدٍ. فمَريَمُ اَختارَتِ النَّصيبَ الأفضَلَ، ولن يَنزعَهُ أحَدٌ مِنها.”
(لوقا 10 : 38 - 42)
This verse always caused me confusion, I never understood why god didn’t appreciate what Marta was doing, and why did he prefer what Marie did. I feel that offering food and serving is very important and as important as any other spiritual activity we live. And for the first time I feel I got it. If we started reading the verse from the beginning, we find that Marta is the one who went to invite Jesus for the food. She wanted to astonish him, to tell him I did this for, I’m good, I can do great things…she basically wanted to astonish him. She didn’t love as much as she wanted to astonish him. Then there the shock he didn’t give her any expression or word of complement, he didn’t tell her you are the good one, you are active, you serve and your sister is lazy. Shocked and frustrated by the strange reaction of Jesus, she decides to triger him and take his attention to what she is doing. She complains from her sister, waiting for some words of praise for her and another words of scolding for Marie. But here is the last shock, he raises Marie, he says, “she is the one who has chosen the good share”, he says I want someone who loves me, I don’t want someone who wants to astonish me, I want some who stays beside me, I don’t want someone who tells I did so and so for you.