Two sets of people, both are visited by the Lord God and both self-effacingly welcome Him. First is Abraham and family, who, according to the custom of the desert country, extend hospitality to those who seem to be wayfarers. Next is the visit of the Lord God in the person of His Son, Jesus, to the sisters, Mary and Martha.

In both these cases, the Lord comes to visit. Do His hosts realise it is the Lord they are entertaining? To Abraham, the visitors are people to whom he owes the essential duty of providing for their needs in the hostile desert environment. No more than that, yet he does his very best for them. To Martha and Mary, Jesus is a dear friend, and Mary sits at His feet, the position of a pupil of the Law in the Jewish community. She serves Him by learning from Him, but it is not an unreflective passivity on her part. Martha rushes about, preparing to serve Him, but in activity. She complains, not because she grudges her service, but because she too wants to sit at the feet of the Lord, to listen to the Word, rather than to fulfil a role, the role of doing good.

The Lord is not interested in how good she is at feeding Him. Similarly, the Lord is not interested in our achievements, but in the person we are. Our relationship with Him is what counts. He wants our attention, like the attention awarded to Him by Abraham and Mary, and, ultimately, our undivided hearts.