The Sons of Martha

I have written (and spoken) about the Sons of Martha several times, as it was the title of my first civil engineering textbook as an undergraduate, the title of a pointed poem by Rudyard Kipling (which inspired both the title of the textbook and the title of a lengthy short story (or short short novel) I wrote about a young engineer in training). Nonetheless, I wish to write again about this subject because there appear to be two forms of confusion about the story of Mary and Martha, one of which the poem represents (by far the rarer form of confusion), and the other a lack of personal responsibility present in the lives of many Christians that is by far the more dangerous of the misunderstandings.

Let us begin with the poem, by Rudyard Kipling, because the poem is rather shocking to the sensibilities of many people, although it has long been an inspiration to engineers, for reasons that will soon be clear:

"The Sons of Martha" by Rudyard Kipling (1907)

The sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

They say to mountains, "Be ye removed." They say to the lesser floods, "Be dry."
Under their rods are the rocks reproved-they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit-then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.

They finger death at their gloves' end where they piece and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,
And hale him forth a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall.

To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden - under the earthline their altars are-
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city's drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when they dam'-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's day may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat -
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed - they know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the Feet - they hear the Word - they see how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and - the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!

The importance of this poem and what it means to engineers can scarcely be overestimated. The poem is, in fact, the source of one of the more bizarre rituals that engineering students (including myself) have participated in. Not coincidentally, the Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer, which involves engineers wearing a ring (formerly iron but now steel) and reciting a rather serious oath much like the Hippocratic oath promising good conduct as an engineer and the service to one's fellow man, springs from this poem, and was actually started by Rudyard Kipling himself, who was invited in 1922 to develop this ritual by seven past presidents of the Engineering Institute of Canada who were meeting together in Montreal. Kipling accepted the invitation, and developed the ritual rather quickly based on the ethos of his poem. So, it may be said that all engineers are the sons of Martha, burdened with heavy responsibilities that most people are more than happy to surrender up. Certainly some of us more thoughtful engineers have reflected often upon the burden our knowledge has given us in a world that takes labor, both intellectual and physical, far too much for granted.

The poem is, of course, somewhat hostile to the sons of Mary (the rather nonchalant mass of humanity that cares not how things work, or what must be done to maintain our infrastructure, but rather takes it all for granted), and by implication to the Bible as well. This is due to a misunderstanding, or rather, to a reaction to a more serious misunderstanding by (probably) most people in the Victorian era and thereafter. The verses referred to in the poem are in Luke 10:38-42, which reads (in the English Standard Version): "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

Now, before we address the two misconceptions held, one by Rudyard Kipling, and the other by most people, it is first necessary to determine what this passage does and does not mean. In context, this passage follows directly after the parable of the Good Samaritan, which tells in a rather pointed way that love for one's neighbor involves the taking on of heavy responsibilities. Why then, immediately afterward, does Jesus chide Martha for being too troubled with serving him? The reason, interestingly enough, may be found in Matthew 10:41-42, which reads (in the New King James Version): "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward." This passage certainly has other applications, but one of its applications is to the nature of the responsibilities Mary and Martha had towards Jesus Christ. For one, Jesus did not demand a great and lavish banquet for himself, nor did he command such for his followers. A cup of cold water refreshes someone on a journey, and is not that difficult or burdensome to provide. What Jesus is telling his believers is that they were not required to provide lavish service, but rather such service as was useful (a cup of cold water after a journey) or necessary (the help provided to the wounded man by the Good Samaritan), rather than lavish and sumptuous service, as Martha was distracted with while Mary chose the good part of listening to the teaching of Jesus Christ, which was the point of his presence there. Our service should not prevent us from learning God's way or from obeying God's law--if so, our service distracts us from our calling rather than serves as an aid to others in bringing glory to God's name.

And it is this that is the fundamental issue. We are called to serve, but our service must be in balance. Far too often people shirk their responsibilities--whether those responsibilities are to learn the Bible and apply it to every aspect of their lives, to be fruitful and productive and godly people capable of handling families, companies, congregations, cities, and nations under righteous administration, in binding the wounds of others damaged in this fallen world or in celebrating joyfully with others who have been blessed by God in their lives. All of these responsibilities we have, and all of them are to bring God greater glory and serve to point other people to His righteous commands and His perfect ways. But far too often we put our faith under a bushel and fail to act as the stewards of God on this earth, and as the ambassadors of God to the rebellious province of earth, who are to bring all things under subjection to God's law. Nonetheless, we are to undertake these responsibilities without being embittered, without becoming weary in doing good, and without letting the cares and troubles of this world separate ourselves from our eternal calling.

The failure of Christians to undertake their responsibilities as the viceregents of God on this earth has rather baleful consequences. For one, people are not educated as to their responsibilities and fail to uphold them, which means that instead of becoming mature Christians whose influence expands, we become immature Christians unable to be profitable servants of our Lord. This means that much work that we are called to do remains undone because people are too passive to do it. Someone must do the work, though (in whatever realm it may fall), and so those people who do the work often do far more than they ought to, and can even become embittered (as the poem "Sons of Martha" indicates is true for many engineers, even in the early 1900's, and just as true today) against the lazy masses who take their blood and toil for granted. The vacuum left by Christians not acting responsibly is often filled by those who are willing to perform the work in society that must be done and are hostile to a Christianity they misunderstand because the examples they see are so poor.

What then, must be done? Both misconceptions must be corrected. The self-proclaimed Sons of Martha, who glory in their labor and scoff at the believers who lazily drift through life must be educated that God does not sanction laziness (think of Paul's comment in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 [NKJV]: "He who does not work, neither shall he eat."). Therefore, they have no reason to be hostile to a Bible that in fact praises them for their efforts to bring the earth under dominion due to a mastery of the physical laws created by God. What they need to do, rather than praise themselves, is to offer gratitude to the God who gave them their gifts of diligence, as well as a strong mind and a healthy body to do that necessary work. It is to the lazy masses, though, that have a much more serious lesson to learn--and that lesson is that salvation and dominion require work. In working out our own salvation with fear and trembling we will automatically have influence over other areas, and are responsible for living our faith in our families, among our friends, in our workplaces, in our congregations, and in our societies. There is no area of this earth outside of the jurisdiction of God's law, and no undertaking that cannot benefit from Christians applying God's law to these realms, be they politics, engineering, law, medicine, agriculture, music, entertainment, literature, marketing, psychology/counseling, experimental science, or anywhere else that mankind's energies may turn. We are called to be kings and priests, and that learning starts here, on earth, in this life, where our application of God's law successfully leads to greater responsibilities and a greater sphere of influence.

In that way, may we all be sons of Martha (at least in part) in the way that Kipling speaks, diligent, capable, responsible, doing the work that God has set before us, without seeking credit for it, but rather giving glory to God, who has given us all that we possess. Let us also be sons of Mary in the way that the Bible speaks, not forgetting the service we owe God and others, but also not so caught up in the cares of this world that we neglect the most important aspects of our life, or fail to maintain our vision for the Kingdom of God that is to come, remembering that our present labor has an eternal reward.