Thank you, especially for working with teenagers (as a18-year youth ministry veteran, I always enjoy reading those of kindred spirit! Keep it up!).

But let me take just a little issue with the point.

I would suggest that Mary’s better part is actually being a disciple.

To sit at a rabbi’s feet is the posture of a disciple. This is truly a radical action given the patriarchial culture of the first century. Evidently, part of Martha’s frustration is that Mary has crossed a line and decided to do what only the men are allowed: sit and learn at the feet of a rabbi.

In this culture, those who are disciples of a rabbi are expected to become rabbis themselves.

What Mary is doing is subversive. Jesus commends her for it. While he is sympathetic toward Martha he does not commend her (nor does he condemn her). Rather, he gently rebukes her. Mary has chosen the better thing — which means, Martha has not. It isn’t that Mary is more intuitive or devotional or necessarily relational. It is that she has chosen to learn as a disciple.

Don’t forget, even the male disciples had to serve a crowd of 5,000, so it’s not that Mary isn’t organized or uninterested in pragmatic details (or that somehow that isn’t a disciple-sort-of-thing to do). It’s that she has decided to do what only men were allowed. To learn.

Just a thought to consider.

Keep up the writing!