“HEAR the word of the Lord!” When the prophets utter that command, they are not speaking as themselves, but as the Lord. They are not passing on their judgements about God. They are, in that context, God himself passing judgment.

Here, Luke tells how Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying”. When her sister, Martha, grumbles about that fact, Jesus teaches Martha that listening to the Lord’s word is the most important thing anyone can do. It is more important than guest-friendship, that system of obligation and expectation which drove Martha into busy-ness. It was so powerful that it once led Lot to barter his own daughters to protect his guests (Genesis 19.8).

In English, we can distinguish between “listening” and “hearing”. We may experience audition (the receiving of auditory signals); we can also shift from receiving a signal to acting on it. In this way, both “hear” and “listen” can shade into “heeding”, even “obeying”.

When we “hear” the word of the Lord, it should always be in this broader sense of “hearing-and-heeding”. The prophetic call “Hear the word of the Lord” commands our attention and fixes it on the message being imparted. All this work is done, in Greek, by one verb: akouo can refer to hearing, listening, and heeding. Hearing the Lord’s word properly should lead to obeying the Lord’s word.

What was Jesus saying, to which Mary paid such heed, and which Martha was missing out on? Luke does not tell us. The last recorded teaching before this encounter was the parable of the Good Samaritan. After it, Jesus “entered a village” where Martha welcomed him into her home. Perhaps he spoke in more detail, there in the sisters’ house, about being a good neighbour. Or he may have been preparing the ground for teaching how to pray, which Luke describes immediately after this passage.

Once we see this Gospel in context, set between the Good Samaritan and the Lord’s Prayer, an opportunity comes up to see it as an exegesis of the preceding parable: about behaving as a good neighbour, being practical, kind, and considerate. Martha’s invitation to the Lord to enter her home — and the trouble that she goes to when busying herself on her guest’s behalf — could be a real-life example of the practical kindness offered by the Samaritan.

But the Samaritan was commended for being a good neighbour. What is there in Martha’s actions which leads to criticism of her practical kindness? She has been a good neighbour to Jesus (and probably some of his followers) by welcoming him. Presumably she did so because of teachings that she had heard and heeded earlier. Now, though, she has stopped hearing and heeding the word of the Lord.

Her hospitality is commendable. But it is not the highest form of “heeding” the Lord. I feel sad on Martha’s behalf, because she makes me think of the countless armies of faithful women (historically, it has mostly been women) who set the scene for the Lord’s word to be heard by others, while missing out on hearing it themselves: those nippers-out and switchers-on of urns for post-service hot drinks, and other behind-the-scenes helpers. The hearing of some, in church, tends to depend on the sacrificial missing-out of others — usually with the same ungrateful result.

Wait a minute. Did I just call Jesus ungrateful? I think I did. Time to reformulate —fast. There is a positive message to be found in the episode. But we need to expand the scene imaginatively, if we are to discern it. That will get us further than reading it as some abstract antagonism between action and contemplation.

Imagining what people need and then providing it is a good thing. A warm welcome, plentiful food and drink, and a comfortable bed are blessings indeed. But hospitality can become oppressive. Too much fuss is a burdensome form of solicitude, really about the self: “Look at me and my wonderful attentiveness!” Like restaurant staff trained to hover, asking, at ten-minute intervals, “How is everything?

Martha invited Jesus because she wanted to hear him. Perhaps her desire to display her attentiveness became an end in itself. She tried to show her love by doing things for Jesus. All he really wanted was for her to value herself, by hearing the word of the Lord.