John 11:1-3,20 [NLT]
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.

Dear God, I want to do a little series on Martha and Mary. I’ve thought about them before as people who were described in a given situation, but I’ve never tried to get to know them a little better through the stories we get about them in scripture. In this case, Luke and John are the ones who tell us about them and only John tells us about Lazarus’s death and resurrection. I wonder why.

So in this story, Mary and Martha, right up front, have different responses to the loss of their brother. Mary stays home to just melt and mourn through her grief while Martha is motivated into action. I suppose she has to do something. That’s kind of her personality anyway. She has to be in motion. So they seemingly both get word that Jesus is coming and Martha doesn’t even wait. She goes immediately to meet Jesus on the way. Mary doesn’t. We don’t know why except that this tells us something about their personalities. It helps us get to know them as people. I think one thing I’m taking from this is that Mary is much more emotional than Martha. That has its strengths and its weaknesses.

As for me, in a day when there were no cars and I would have to wait on a walking Jesus to get to me, I probably would have walked out to him as well. I don’t sit still very well. I’m identifying much more with Martha as a personality type than I am Mary.

Father, I don’t think the lesson here is that either one is better than the other. But each woman had strengths and weaknesses. They were just different. Help me to look into my own life and identify the weaknesses you want me to address. Help me to find the things in Martha that are like me that I should embrace and help me see what Mary has that I should try to adopt. And help me, Father, to be your child in every situation. Forgive me of my sins. I’m really sorry for letting you down and for allowing my heart to turn selfish. Guide me into completeness in you.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen