ルカによる福音書10:38-42
「マルタ、マルタ、あなたは多くのことに思い悩み、心を乱している。しかし、必要なことはただ一つだけである。マリアは良い方を選んだ。それを取り上げてはならない。」（ルカ10:41-42）
マルタは、キリストに対して次のような苦情を申し立てました。「主よ、わたしの姉妹はわたしだけにもてなしをさせていますが、何ともお思いになりませんか。手伝ってくれるようにおっしゃってください。」（40節）キリストは弟子を引き連れて旅をしておられましたから、その一行の食事の世話をするのは楽なことではなかったでしょう。自分の姉妹がそのために忙しく働いているときに、それを手伝うのは常識的に考えれば当然のことでしょう。そして、その当然のことをしてないマリアは責められても仕方がないし、日本的な言い方をすれば「気のきかない人」ということになるでしょう。
ところが、キリストのマルタに対する答えはそうではありませんでした（41-42節）。このキリストの御言葉は、まず、マルタの状態を「多くのことに思い悩み、心を乱している」と指摘しています。ここで「心を乱している」と翻訳されているソリュバゾーというギリシア語の動詞の受身形は、「気が散る」という意味です。実は、40節前半のマルタが「せわしく立ち働いていた」と翻訳されているペリスパオーというギリシア語の動詞の受身形も、元の意味は「あれこれに気を向ける」という意味です。ですから、キリストはマルタがキリストに奉仕していながら、心がキリストに向かっていないで、「これもしなければあれもしなければ」と気が散ってしまっている状態を指摘しておられるのです。つまり、キリストに奉仕しているつもりでも、実際は心がキリストの方にではなく自分の行いの方に向いてしまっているために、奉仕が本当の奉仕になっていないということを指摘しておられるのです。
そして、キリストはマリアの姿勢を高く評価しておられます。マリアは、キリストの足元に座ってその話に聞き入っていました。ですから、キリストがおっしゃった「必要なただ一つのこと」「マリアが選んだ良い方」「取り上げてはならないこと」というのは、 キリストの御言葉に聞き従うということでありました。もちろん、キリストは聞き従うということを評価しているのであって、「聞くだけで従わない」という姿勢を認めておられるのではありません。マタイによる福音書7章26節でキリストは「わたしのこれらの言葉を聞くだけで行わない者は皆、砂の上に家を建てた愚かな人に似ている」とおっしゃって、「聞くだけで従わない」人のことを厳しく批判しておられます。しかし、それにもかかわらず、ここでは、キリストの御言葉を「聞く」ということの大切さが強調されているのです。 （8月25日の説教より）
Rev. YAMAMOTO Kiyoshi, who was a pastor of Yonago Mission Station in Tottori Prefecture, is a man who became a pastor after a long period of living as a company employee and serving as an elder in a church in Osaka. More than 20 years ago, when Rev. YAMAMOTO was a seminary student, he attended and served at our church. So he had preached sevral times at our church. One of those sermons was a sermon on “the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard” from Matthew 20, where the labourer who worked from the morning and the labourer who worked from around 5 p.m. received the same wage. Let me read you that Bible passage. Verses 1-16 of chapter 20 of Matthew’s Gospel.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Here is a part of a summary of the sermon preached by Rev. YAMAMOTO on this passage.
The behaviour of the master in “the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard” is strange. He went out many times early in the morning to the marketplace to hire labourers; he went out again about 5 p.m., and when he found one who had not yet found a job, he sent him to the vineyard, as if he pitied him. And in the evening the wages paid by the master were the same one denarius for those who had worked from the morning and for those who came last. If I did this in this world, there would be no workers who worked from the morning. I am disqualifying for a manager. It is no wonder that those who worked all day in the hot weather from early in the morning complained. But this strange master is the God who invites us to heaven.
Rev. YAMAMOTO appropriately listens to the principle of the kingdom of God, which are different from the common sense of this world, from the words of the Bible. He states the principle as follows. “In the kingdom of God, values such as strength and weakness, superiority and inferiority, back and forth, and the market and employment principles of this world will not rule, but the mercy of God will rule.” This is particularly important when we think about the kingdom of God and the Christian church, which is built as a manifestation of the kingdom of God. Thus, by listening to the word of God carefully and attentively, we can understand important teachings that are different from the common sense of this world.
In today’s Bible passage, besides Christ, there are two sisters, Martha and Mary. These sisters are undoubtedly Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus of the village of Bethany in chapters 11 and 12 of the John’s Gospel. This is because the characters of Martha and Mary in the Gospels of John and Luke have almost everything in common. Martha is the active one and Mary the faithful one. For example, according to chapter 12 of John’s Gospel, Martha is portrayed as the one who serves Christ’s meal, while Mary is the one who anoints his feet with costly perfumed oil. In today’s Bible passage, Luke 14:38-42, Martha is also depicted as a busy worker in the preparation of Christ’s meal, and Mary as one who listens to Christ’s word. Today’s Scripture passage emphasises the stark contrast between the figures of Martha and Mary: in the second half of verse 39, “Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching,” and in the first half of verse 40, “Martha was distracted with much serving.” If Martha’s figure can be described as dynamic, Mary’s can be described as static.
Moreover, the contrast between the two is increasingly emphasised by Martha’s words of complaint in the second half of verse 40. Martha lodged the following complaint against Christ. “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” Some may wonder, in detail, which of Mary or Martha was the elder sister and which the younger sister? In the old version of Japanese Bible, called “Colloquial Translation,” which preceded “the New Interconfessional Translation” which we now use in our church, it says: “Lord, do you not care that my younger sister has left me to serve alone?” According to that translation, Mary was Martha’s younger sister, and Mary was translated as if she had her elder sister working and herself listening to Christ. This would give the reader the impression that Mary, who had her elder sister working, was a lazy person. However, according to the original Greek text, this is marked “sister” and not “younger sister.” The newer Japanese translation, “the Japan Bible Society Interconfessional Translation,” translated as “younger sister” in its first edition, but later changed it to just “sister.” So it is not known whether Mary or Martha was the elder sister or the younger sister. It can only be said that one of the sisters worked busily while the other sat and listened to Christ.
But even if Mary, who was sitting, was not the younger sister, Martha’s complaint is very persuasive. Christ was travelling with his disciples, and it would not have been easy to look after the food for the group. When her sister is busy working for them, common sense would dictate that she should help her sister. And Mary could be blamed for not doing that natural thing, or in Japanese parlance, she would be called an “ki-no kikanai hito,” i.e., uncaring person.
Christ’s answer to Martha, however, was otherwise. This can be seen from the words in verses 41 and 42. Christ said, “Martha, Martha, you are fretting and fussing about so many things; only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen what is best; it shall not be taken away from her” (REB). This words of Christ first points to Martha’s state of being “fretting and fussing about so many things.” The passive form of the Greek verb thorübazō (θορυβάζω), translated here as “fussing” means “distracted.” In fact, the passive form of the Greek verb perispaō (περισπάω), which is translated as “distracted” in the first half of verse 40, originally meant “to have one’s attention from one thing to another.” So Christ is pointing out that Martha is serving Christ, but her mind is not on Christ, and she is distracted by the need to do this and do that. In other words, Christ is pointing out that although Martha thinks she is serving Christ, in reality her service is not really service because her mind is not on Christ but on her own action.
Furthermore, Christ says: “only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen what is best; it shall not be taken away from her.” Mary sat at Christ’s feet and listened to him. So “only one necessary thing,” “what is best Mary has chosen,” “the thing which shall not be taken away” that Christ mentioned, was to listen to his word. Of course, Christ was valuing listening and obedience, not the attitude of “hearing but not obeying.” In Matthew 7:26, Christ severely criticises those who “hear and do not obey” when he says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” Nevertheless, the importance of listening to Christ’s word is emphasised here.
Listening to Christ’s word can be paraphrased as listening to the word of God. So why is it important to listen to the word of God? Firstly, because by listening to the word of God we come to know ourselves. More specifically, because it enables us to know our own sins. The sixth to tenth commandments of the Ten Commandments of Moses, the basis of Christian ethics, give us commandments about our relationship with our neighbour in the form of prohibitive injunctions such as “You shall not ~.” You are familiar with these as you always read in worship. The sixth commandment is “You shall not murder,” the seventh is “You shall not commit adultery,” the eighth is “You shall not steal,” the ninth is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour,” and the tenth is “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.” The reason why these commandments are given in the form of prohibitions such as “You shall not ~” is because human beings have sinful nature that causes them to murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness and covet what belongs to his neighbour. And if they are not told “You shall not ~,” they do such things as natural and do not even realise that these are sins. It is only when human beings listen to the word of God that they can realise the sins within them. Therefore, listening to the word of God is “only one necessary thing.”
Secondly, because it is by listening to the word of God that we can believe and be saved. The apostle Paul teaches in Romans 10:10 that “with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved,” and later in 10:17 that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Therefore, we cannot believe without listening to the word of God, and we cannot be saved without believing. Furthermore, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23: “We preach Christ crucified,” so by listening to and believing the word that testifies to the cross of Christ, one can be saved. By listening to the word of God, we not only know our sins, but we also know the way to be saved from sins. By listening to the word of God and believing that Christ died on the cross and rose again on our behalf, we are forgiven of our sins and saved. We can then live a new life following Christ. In other words, by listening to the word of God, we come to know God’s mercy and can live a new life under God’s mercy.
So, first and foremost, we want to be a church that listens carefully to the word of God. We want to be a church that, like Mary, sits at the feet of Christ and listens to his word. Against the way we listen to the word of God, the people of this world might say, “What’s the use of doing that? Why don’t you do more events and service works instead?” Common sense in this world might suggest that this is more like the church. But we still want to be a church that listens to the word of God. This is because listening to and obeying the word of God has an important meaning that cannot be replaced by any other action. It means to know our sins and our salvation from it, and to be able to live a life of thanksgiving, guided by the Holy Spirit. Let us be a church that listens to and obeys the word of God, which does not waver in the midst of these turbulent times.
Thus, listening to the word of God is an important part of what makes a Christian a true Christian and a church a true church. It is also the basis for listening to our neighbour’s word. By developing the service of listening in our relationship with God, we can develop the service attitude of listening to our neighbour’s word in our relationship with our neighbour. Those who are trained to listen to the subtle nuances of the word of God will also be able to hear the subtle nuances of their neighbour’s word. They will be able to understand their neighbour and live with their neighbour. Moreover, they do not have to do whatever their neighbours say, or become in collusion with their neighbours. This is because those who listen to the word of God are able to discern their neighbour’s word by the standard of the word of God. It would be wonderful if we could respond appropriately, not simply adapt ourselves to our neighbour’s word when we listen to our neighbour’s word. However, if we try to listen well, we will tend to adapt to the other person, and if we try to respond well, we will tend to listen insufficiently. By being trained to listen to the word of God, we are also trained to listen well and respond well.