Finding Resilience, Joy and Our Identity in Jesus Christ Lesson Two

Lesson Two: Mary “of a certain village”

Scripture: Luke 10:38–42

Jesus Visited His Friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, Right?

Did Jesus visit his friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany? Not exactly. Though we have surmised that these three lived in Bethany, this is not in the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 10:38 reads, “Now as they went on their way, [Jesus] entered a certain village . . .” Luke does not name the village. Thus, the title of Lesson 2 in the Bible study is Mary “of a certain village.”

You may know this story in Luke so well that it may be hard for you to see something new in it. But, if you take a look with fresh eyes at Luke 10:38, you will see that it also reads, “a woman named Martha welcomed [Jesus] into her home.” So, the home belonged to Martha, not to Mary or a male relative.

Do you notice who is not in the passage? Lazarus. There is no mention of another sibling in the house. The women in the Lukan passage did not have a brother. There is a Lukan tradition and a Johannine tradition. And, though it is easy to conflate the two, they are distinct.

I love study Bibles, because they have notes with so much rich biblical and theological content. An annotation in The Oxford NRSV Bible reads, “Mary is known in the tradition for anointing Jesus (John 12:1–11). Another, probably different pair of sisters named Mary and Martha appear in Lk. 10:38–42.”[1]

Say what? How did we miss this? I know that often there is new scholarship of which we are not aware, but did we neglect to read this note? Have we not looked at a new study Bible in a while and missed the notes on this passage? Or is it that we know the story so well that we did not think we needed to read it again or reflect upon it?

We know that they were in a “certain village” (most likely somewhere in the north like Galilee or Samaria), we know the place where they were (in Martha’s home), and we know the players (Jesus, Mary, and Martha).

Though we usually think of these sisters together or talk a lot about Martha, I want to state that this lesson is about Mary “of a certain village.” She is the quiet one, the studious one, and the one who did not utter a word.

We do not often know the thoughts or motivations of those who are quiet, because they don’t share this with us. Sometimes, they have facial expressions that we read into and misinterpret. Sometimes they do not even correct us when we make incorrect assumptions about them.

We could speculate that Mary was a docile, passive woman sitting at Jesus’ feet. Some believed that this portrayal of Mary was what the Gospel writer thought was a good model for women. We can see this if we take into account that the Gospels were written in an androcentric, male-centered environment.

Over the years, others have seen Jesus’ defense of Mary as sanctioning women’s scholarship and theological education. This is amazing, as women were excluded from studying the Hebrew scriptures. It is significant for Jesus to publicly state that “Mary has chosen the better part.” Jesus went on to say, “which will not be taken away from her” (10:42).

We know that this story is here in scripture to guide Martha (and us) away from distractions and toward devotion to God’s word, but it is hard not to notice and think about what happened to Mary. But, she was resilient.

Being resilient helped her, and helps us, to stand up to challenge and contribute to the good.

In the study, we will look at a number of Biblical characters as models of resilience, joy, and identity in Christ. For now, though, what we see in Mary in the Gospel of Luke is a woman who seemed to know that when Jesus is in your home, spending time listening and learning from the Messiah is the better part.

[1] Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A.Newsom, Pheme Perkins, eds., The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version, 5^th Edition, Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A.Newsom, Pheme Perkins, eds. (New York, Ny: Oxford University Press, 2018), annotation on Luke 10:38–2, 1890.

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This blog is the second in a series of nine blogs.

Finding Resilience, Joy, and Our Identity in Jesus Christ is the Presbyterian Women in the PC(USA), Inc. Bible study for 2025–2026. Go to presbyterianwomen.org/bible-study/resilience to find more resources and copies for you and your group to study along with us. Call 800/533-4371 or order online.