This story comes right after Jesus’ conversation about the two greatest commandments and the story of the good Samaritan – which illustrates the second commandment to love your neighbor. In the same way this story of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him becomes an illustration of what it means to love God. To learn from and be in the presence of Jesus, who makes God’s word and presence known to us, is to love God.
The Martha and Mary story also illustrates the priority of loving God as the first commandment over serving the needs of others – which Martha was doing. We are to do both and there is a time and a place for each, but loving God takes priority.
It is also interesting, in keeping with Luke’s emphasis on the lowly and outcasts, that the illustration that Jesus uses for both commandments is one of these. The Samaritan illustrates the second commandment. A woman illustrates the first commandment. (Alan Culpepper – The Gospel of Luke)
This section of Luke 10 can be seen as an inverted outline (chiasm):
A. The command to love God – v. 27
B. The command to love your neighbor – v. 27
`B. An illustration of neighbor love – vs. 30-37
`A. An illustration of loving God – vs. 38-42.
William
