Mary and Martha also appear in John's gospel in relation to the raising of Lazarus. They got to know Jesus because they opened their home to Him. We need to open our homes to Jesus, and that includes allowing people into our lives.
It was Martha who took the initiative here, but it was Mary who seemed to make the most of the situation. It was Martha who took the initiative, enabled things to happen and took care of all the practicalities. She started to feel resentful of the fact that Mary was just listening to Jesus, while Martha was doing nothing but housework.
In some ways Jesus' answer seems quite harsh, commending Mary and rebuking Martha (albeit quite gently). But we so easily get our priorities wrong. The practicalities do matter and do need to be taken care of, but they must not be allowed to dominate. We should also note that this is Jesus' response to Martha. It was what she needed to hear. If He had been talking to Mary maybe He would have said something different.
You see often when we go to God, we want God to tell some other person what they need to do differently. We also have the same attitude when we go to a church leader. We want someone else to change. Now that person may well need to change, but when we go to God He is more concerned with how we need to change.
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