The image of Martha and Mary has become a classic in Christian tradition, symbolizing two kinds of Christian service—the active and the contemplative—and at the same time establishing their priorities, for the Savior speaks quite unambiguously about what matters most in service. His words are usually understood as pointing to what Mary was doing as she listened to Jesus' words without being distracted for even a minute. Yet “one thing” and “many things” also allow a somewhat different interpretation. It is no accident that Jesus speaks of the “many things” as something that causes a person anxiety and distress—at least, that is what follows if the Greek text is read literally.

Martha busies herself with many things; she is constantly thinking about something that troubles her and deprives her of peace. She has no time to listen, not because she is occupied with household tasks, but because of this constant anxiety that robs her of inner peace. Her many tasks worry her precisely because she is wholly immersed in them: inwardly she rushes from one task to another, anxious that she will not have enough strength for everything she thinks she must do. It is her anxiety, not the number of tasks, that exhausts her so completely that she no longer has the strength to listen to the Savior.

There is only one way out, and Jesus points to it: leave the many for the one, for the central thing that sustains a person—a relationship with Him, with Jesus. When this relationship becomes the center and focus of a person's inner life, all outward affairs are also arranged around that center. The person is no longer scattered or fragmented into a multitude of self-projections connected with everyday tasks, but remains inwardly whole and gathered around the one thing that truly fills both the person and all his work with life.

Paul calls his Corinthian brothers to test ("examine") and investigate first of all themselves - not in the sense of tests for conformity to some religious doctrines, but with regard to their faith. Here the apostle has in mind above all what he has already written much about to the recipients of his letter: personal relationships with Christ as the basis of Christian life, the life of the Kingdom as the foundational experience without which there is no Christianity. About himself Paul says that he is strong not against the truth, but for the truth. For him, however, truth is precisely that very experience of living Christian life against which he invites his readers to check themselves.

The apostle is not going to convince anyone of anything and will not prove anything to anyone when it comes to the many arguments and disputes that were then going on in the Corinthian church. He simply sees no point in it. Not because nothing can be proved that way - something can in fact be proved that way - but because even if one succeeds in proving something to someone, it will be completely different from what a Christian should care about at all. One can prove one's own rightness or an opponent's wrongness on one theological question or another, but who benefits, and how, from all such proofs? It is only a kind of intellectual sport, a contest of minds and erudition, in which victory proves nothing except the intellectual superiority of one rival over another or over others. In the spiritual life of those arguing, such a victory or defeat changes nothing, and if it does change something, it is not for the better: it gives the winner one more occasion for self-exaltation and arouses negative emotions in the defeated.

Paul is not going to Corinth in order to take part in contests of this kind. He does not want to prove anything to anyone - he wants the Christians of Corinth to wake up spiritually, leave useless disputes over words behind, and return again to that spiritual life in the true sense of the word, the experience of which they had, judging by the apostle's words. And if Paul succeeded in this, he would consider such an awakening his chief victory.

Today's reading includes two episodes joined by the evangelist into one account. It begins with the disciples' question about prayer, in response to which Jesus offers them, and through them all of us, the "Our Father" (vv. 1-4). Luke, as one can see, focuses chiefly on the importance of asking, and of asking persistently, as a necessary condition for receiving what is asked (vv. 5-13). It would seem that God is not a human being who needs, like a forgetful or unfriendly steward, to be reminded again and again of what is requested. On the other hand, persistence in this case turns out above all to be evidence that a person remembers his request and that it is truly important to him. Indeed, is it worth granting a request that the one who asks forgets the very next day? One can ask this way only for trifles; important requests are those that a person who truly cares about them is ready to repeat again and again, confirming the seriousness of his intentions.

The same seriousness is at issue in the second part of today's passage. The point is not only that the very idea of casting out demons by the power of their ruler was absurd (vv. 17-18, 21-22). The point is also that for those arguing, everything Jesus did was a kind of game, something remotely resembling their own disputes, which were undoubtedly fascinating but, in essence, demanded no commitment. This explains the demand for a sign that would prove Jesus right (vv. 14-16).

The proof had to be theologically correct; it had to correspond to the "right" ideas of the "right" rabbinic school in order to be accepted. And until such proof was presented, anything would do as an explanation of what was happening, including absurd claims about the "prince of demons." But Jesus Himself was not going to play these games, because for Him everything He did was absolutely serious. And He tries to explain to His listeners the full seriousness of what is happening (vv. 24-26). The games are over; what is at stake is a person's spiritual life and spiritual death.

But professional disputants, as one can see, have no concern for that. What matters to them is whether Jesus will manage to outargue them or not. And in their disputes they lose the Kingdom without noticing it. For the Kingdom is not a game; it is serious. And forever.