Published 23 Apr 2026
Bringing the Welcome of God: Imitating Martha’s Hospitality
by Jasmine Obeyesekere
A blog post Women Scholars and Professionals
What does your to-do list include? Preparing exams, grading, reviewing papers, teaching, advising students, writing an article, participating in the contentious department meeting, getting ready for tenure at work. Grocery shopping, cooking, paying bills, folding the laundry at home. Add changing diapers, taking the sick child to the doctor, unclogging the toilet, and cleaning the house — and coaching a child’s sports team and bringing food for the church event.
You might be exhaling sharply as you recollect the many activities you juggle, perhaps remembering a commitment that slipped your mind. How can the story of Martha take away the weariness of our souls and encourage us, instead of heaping more guilt as we reflect on our frenetic lifestyles that squeeze out the time to be quiet and listen to God?
Martha’s hospitality: warm, eager, inviting
We are introduced to Martha in Luke 10, as Jesus and his disciples are walking from place to place and arrives in her village. We are told that “a woman named Martha opened her home to him” (Luke 10:38). Martha is warm hearted enough to invite Jesus and his entourage into her house, knowing that at the very least this would involve a home cooked meal for a large crowd. Her friendly invitation is a welcome respite to Jesus, whose ministry involved being on the road much of the time.
Why did Martha invite Jesus to her house? Was it just to give him a meal? Or did she open her home to Jesus so that he could comfortably carry out his teaching ministry to whoever might show up, rather than minister outside being hot and sweaty as he might usually have been? Martha is providing a hospitable venue for Jesus’s ministry. Jesus coming to interact with people is the main event, with food anticipated at some point during the visit. In opening her home to Jesus, Martha is practicing the generous welcome of God. In his book Your Calling Here and Now, Gordon Smith writes of bringing the welcome of God in who we are and how we engage with people. He says this in the context of work, but this is applicable to any context in human life. Martha is providing a comfortable space for Jesus to relax, chat and teach away from the heat of the day and detractors.
But her invitation becomes a burden…
Even though she welcomes Jesus gladly, “Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made” (Luke 10:40). This is an impromptu invite, possibly made from Martha’s eagerness to hear Jesus herself. Now reality has set in as she thinks about feeding at least thirteen grown men in addition to her own household. What should she serve? Did they have enough plateware for all the guests? Was the good tablecloth laundered? Martha is stressed that Mary isn’t catching her eye and coming over. Perhaps she wanted Mary to stir a pot or chop up vegetables while she made sure that the dining room was set up properly. So she comes right up to Jesus and says “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
Mary captivated by what Jesus is saying is oblivious to the practical demands of hospitality! Martha’s desire to hear Jesus is overshadowed by her inclination to have the hospitality part well under control. What if her chief feeling is hurt, rather than frustration towards Mary for not helping? Her angry outburst conceals her own pain. Martha is upset because although she is working to take care of everyone, no one is noticing her need of wanting to finish up the work faster so that she too can relax and enjoy listening to Jesus.
The one thing needed
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed — or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” In commending Mary’s wholehearted attention to hearing him undistracted by thoughts of hostess duties, Jesus is cutting through both Martha’s practical concerns and her resentment that she is shouldering the practical burdens alone. He isn’t allowing Martha to catch bits of the conversation as she moves in and out of the room so that food is ready soon after he is done. He is calling her away from multi-tasking to the one thing needed, to relax now with him and be spiritually refreshed, rather than working on what comes next — real, necessary, and important though that is.
This is where the story stops and we don’t know how the rest of the day unfolded in Martha’s home. Maybe Martha sat down at Jesus’s feet too, feeling quite embarrassed. Or slunk away to the next room but listened instead of getting back to work. She didn’t expect Jesus to side with Mary. Rather than Mary being gently rebuked, she was! Jesus was more interested in Martha’s welcome to her home and the opening of the space for spiritual nourishment for all including Martha, than in the trappings of entertainment. After Jesus’s discourse, he probably took the lead in helping her set up the meal for all the guests, not out of character for the one who stooped to wash his disciples’ feet much later. Taking their cue, the twelve disciples would have chipped in. Mary would have at last given the help Martha craved. It is important to remember though that the meal wouldn’t have been ready immediately after Jesus’s talk — everyone would have had to work together and be a little hungry till they could all eat! If they managed to put the meal together quickly, it wouldn’t have been a fancy spread, but an everyday simple meal. Instead of sitting at a grand meal set out in the dining room, perhaps the guests walked into the kitchen and served themselves from the pots and pans and sat informally in small groups out in the verandah. Maybe then they all went to the garden tap and washed their own plates. The menu and presentation weren’t important, being together and the reason they got together was. During college and young adult life In Sri Lanka, my community frequently had such simple paan and parippu (bread and lentils) supper gatherings in our homes. Simple meals with hosts not heavily burdened made it possible to invite people often. But we had to shake off the cultural expectations of what serving a good meal to guests looked like. We must change our mindsets from entertaining to hospitality, from being focused on how we measure up as hosts to focusing on how we can make guests feel at home.
Even though we may agree that Martha’s work can be postponed, that it is better for her (and for us) to first sit with Jesus, often we expect Martha to go back and take care of those practical responsibilities herself. But Martha can take care of the one thing needed only if others will take on some of her responsibilities, or at the very least, not expect as much from her.
We need to ditch idealistic expectations of ourselves wherever we might have picked up these ideals from — whether family, church or social media, or even because of our own perfectionist standards. The reality is that we cannot do it all perfectly, nor are we supposed to.
“Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her” says Jesus. Jesus is not condemning Martha’s loving service, but indirectly inviting Martha to prioritize being with him too.
The Reflective Martha
Fast forward three years and we see Martha again meeting Jesus at the tomb of her brother Lazarus. In their interactions in between which we can only imagine, did she take Jesus’s words to heart? As Jesus raises his friend from the dead, he uses the miracle to illustrate who he is. Of the just seven “I am” self-revelations of Jesus, this is the only revelation during a one-on-one conversation. It’s mind-boggling to realize that Jesus chose a female friend rather than a male disciple to be the first hearer of the remarkable words, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25- 26) Jesus’s words are in response to Martha’s hurt accusation that he didn’t come early enough to prevent her brother dying. But she has a glimmer of hope, “I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask” (John 11:22). When Jesus tells her “your brother will rise again,” she expresses the Jewish hope in the final resurrection: “I know he will rise again at the resurrection at the last day.” This is when Jesus reveals himself as the one who holds the power of life and death. He asks her, “Do you believe this?” and Martha declares, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world” (John 11:27). Interestingly it is to the practical, bustling Martha, rather than to the devout and reflective Mary that Jesus makes this theological revelation about himself. Martha’s declaration of who Jesus is, is every bit important as Peter’s declaration of Jesus: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16). Most of us have been challenged by sermons based on Peter’s assertion, but we’ve not heard many messages that unpack Martha’s declaration of faith. Ironically though, these words affirming Jesus as the resurrection and the life spoken first to Martha have reverberated at Christian funerals through the ages.
Jesus entrusts Martha with truth about himself that he hasn’t shared with anyone else yet. In their one-on-one theological conversation, Jesus honors and affirms the spiritual depth of Martha, not always evident in her constant movement. She recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, someone more than just their family friend and spiritual teacher. We get the impression that in unrecorded other visits between these two encounters, that Martha had spent time listening to Jesus and reflecting on his words.
Our final glimpse of Martha is at a dinner party celebrating Lazarus being raised from the dead, one of the last festive occasions in the life of Jesus, as soon he will be put to death. She is back in her familiar role, serving the guests, while Lazarus is reclining at the table and Mary is anointing Jesus. We can imagine though, through Martha’s own growth, that she is holding her gift for hospitality lightly, neither being distracted nor consumed by the work of entertaining.
Finding our own “one thing needed”
God sees the complexity in our lives. You are not spiritually deficient just because your life is full of practical responsibilities. God invites us to engage in our commitments as part of our walk with him. Cooking, cleaning, coaching our kid’s baseball team, bringing in a meal to a friend who’s recovering from surgery, leading a Bible study, shopping for food, having a friend over to dinner, teaching, reading, writing, going to church, visiting your elderly parent regularly, spending time alone with God, talking with friends on the phone for mutual support — all that make up the stuff of our lives are the multi-faceted callings God has for each of us in the here and now, and therefore sacred.
Recognize your ordinary everyday responsibilities as part of your daily worship of God. And embrace the one thing needed that rejuvenates your spirit and helps you connect with God so that you can go about your tasks from a place of rest. It may be a solitary walk, listening to music, reading, reflecting, baking, or creating something simple with your hands.
We allow God to recharge us, so that we are unhurried in our inner lives despite living lives whirling with activity. And as you carry out your daily, ordinary responsibilities of loving service, remember you are bringing with you the welcome of God.
How do you feel about the endless list of responsibilities you need to juggle? Is there something you can let go of? Maybe something that can be done at 80% that will be pretty good rather than to an impossibly perfect standard? Whom can you ask for help to share the load?
In this season of your life, what is the one thing you need to be spiritually refreshed?
A version of this article was originally posted on Jasmine’s Substack.
Jasmine Obeyesekere Fernando is WSAP’s book club host and vocation specialist. She hails from Sri Lanka and has a thirty-year relationship with its national university ministry, the Fellowship of Christian University Students (FOCUS). She has also been involved with InterVarsity for twenty years. She has a BA (Hons.) in English from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and a MA in International Relations from Syracuse University. She loves writing about theology impacting real life and enjoys British, Korean, and Chinese drama. Jasmine is married to an academic, is mom to a college student and high schooler and lives in Upstate New York.