It has been among the writer's duties to read aloud daily to an audience consisting of busy women, and there has arisen at times a kind of apologetic feeling when the Scripture portion has included the story of Martha and Mary. The superficial thought that Martha was reproved for industry, and Mary commended for inactivity, has no doubt been accompanied by a touch of fear lest a thoughtful listener should ask why she need give so much time to material labor, if Martha was rebuked for it.
In the light of Christian Science the story loses this crudity of outline, and the scientific dissection of motive which preceded the Master's rebuke is apprehended. We recognize what joy it must have brought the Master that Mary had reached such an understanding as gives to the kingdom of God the first place, and realizes that then, and only then, will human affairs be seen rightly and their demands be rightly met. As regards Martha it was evident, on the contrary, that the things of sense were to her more important than the things of Soul; and because of this reversal of the divine order, consciousness became burdened with a brood of errors, the offspring of material sense. There was first that readiest of faults,—jealousy. Had Mary been helping, Martha would no doubt have been just as active, but it galled her that another should have a privilege which she was not yet ready to enjoy. This jealous sense led to an exhibition of temper, and this by rapid transit to the great breach of good manners in hinting broadly to her exalted guest that he also was not doing his duty. What a lack of humility was here displayed.
Jesus noted all this. He loved Martha for her desire to do honor to him; but he saw that at present this desire was heavily handicapped by a blind and groping sense of materiality. It may be that before this he had found Mary preparing dishes or sweeping a room, and instead of rebuking her he had drawn from these duties some parable which opened the way afresh for Truth's message; and this might have been done for Martha had she been mentally ready.
