Sister Mary

Lore & Background

In the Gospel of John, Mary appears in connection to two incidents: the raising from the dead of her brother Lazarus and the anointing of Jesus. The identification of this being the same Mary in both incidents is given explicitly by the author: 'Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.' In the account of the raising of Lazarus, Jesus meets with the sisters in turn: Martha followed by Mary. Martha goes immediately to meet Jesus as he arrives, while Mary waits until she is called. As one commentator notes, 'Martha, the more aggressive sister, went to meet Jesus, while quiet and contemplative Mary stayed home.' When Mary meets Jesus, she falls at his feet. In speaking with Jesus, both sisters lament that he did not arrive in time to prevent their brother's death: 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' But where Jesus' response to Martha is one of teaching, calling her to hope and faith, his response to Mary is more emotional: 'When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.' As the 17th-century Welsh commentator Matthew Henry notes, 'Mary added no more, as Martha did; but it appears, by what follows, that what she fell short in words she made up in tears; she said less than Martha, but wept more.'

In Their Own Story

Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 'Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.' He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. 'Leave her alone', Jesus replied. 'It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.' As one commentator notes, 'Mary seems to have been the only one who was sensitive to the impending death of Jesus and who was willing to give a material expression of her esteem for him. Jesus' reply shows his appreciation of her act of devotion.' The accounts in Matthew and Mark add these words of Jesus, 'I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her'.

Reader's Guide

In chapter 10 of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus visits the home of two sisters named Mary and Martha, living in an unnamed village. Mary is contrasted with her sister Martha, who was 'cumbered about many things' while Jesus was their guest, while Mary had chosen 'the better part', that of listening to the master's discourse. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.' For Mary to sit at Jesus' feet, and for him to allow her to do so, was itself controversial. In doing so, as one commentator notes, Mary took 'the place of a disciple by sitting at the feet of the teacher. It was unusual for a woman in first-century Judaism to be accepted by a teacher as a disciple.' Most Christian commentators have been ready to assume that the two occurrences of sisters named as Mary and Martha refer the same pair of sisters.

Did You Know?

• Western Christianity initially identified Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene and the sinful woman of Luke 7, but after liturgical revisions in 1969 and 2021, Mary of Bethany is celebrated as a separate saint on 29 July.
• The Greek word used for Jesus' 'love' towards the two sisters in the Gospel of John account of the raising of Lazarus is agapaō, meaning divine or self-sacrificial love.
• According to the Markan account, the perfume Mary used was worth 300 denarii, a year's wages.
• Easton (1897) noted that the family of Lazarus likely belonged to the wealthier class, helping explain how Mary could afford expensive perfume.
• Eastern Christianity never adopted the medieval Western identification of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene.