Martha and Mary

I have often thought that Martha and the everyday tasks of homemaking don't come off well in this story in the way I have always heard it interpreted. Which is the idea that Martha is annoyed that she is doing all the housework while Mary lounges around learning. As if learning isn't hard work. I have always been uncomfortable that Jesus' words would be interpreted to devalue the women's work of that day. Indeed that work has been viewed almost solely as women's work until the last 20 or 30 years.

I wonder if the point of the story has nothing to do with one sister doing the chores and the other sitting at the feet of Jesus. I wonder if the point is that Mary had chosen to follow Jesus as a disciple and Martha had not yet done so? And that following Jesus is "the better part"?