Understanding Context Pt 2: Stories Within Stories
I remember being taught that Martha, Lazarus’ sister, worked too much. What I needed was to find better balance to keep from stumbling down her path, for Jesus wanted women who weren’t too much like Martha. Do you remember being taught something like that?
In Luke 10, Jesus does come to the house of Martha and Mary and does ultimately call Martha to leave the tasks that have distracted her to come and receive something better. But, this passage is not about better scheduling or balancing our “quiet times” with our to-do lists. Nor is it a message about Jesus’ dislike for “women like Martha.” The message will actually take us much deeper into our understanding of self-justification when we consider context—specifically the literary context.
If historical context was telling us about the world of the Scriptures (see our previous training article here), then literary context is pointing us to the words in the Scriptures. The inspired biblical authors write with intentionality in order, flow, and repetition. This isn’t dry historical facts; it’s directional literature for us grasp themes, messages, and the character of God. The story is told in such a way teach us something; some even call it “preached history.”
So, we examine sentences, paragraphs, sections of books, and entire books. Let’s think about it in two movements.
Broad Literary Context
The first step in literary context is remembering that we’re reading larger pieces of literature and not just independent short stories. We want to pay attention to the flow of an entire book, the themes, primary characters, and main tensions.
If we’re looking at narratives, we know that the main character list will involve God and what he is doing—whether he is mentioned or not. And in the Gospels, we’re primarily paying attention to what the narratives teach us about Jesus. When we begin to center other characters, we’ve likely moved away from what the author was intending .
So, the questions we’d be asking would be:
1. What is the flow of the book? How would you broadly outline it?
2. What are the major themes of the book?
3. What are the primary characters?
4. What is the tension flowing through the book?
In Luke, Jesus has been announcing the coming of the kingdom! An upside-down kingdom. One not for those who think they can earn their entrance, but for those who know their need and come to him. For the message from this prophet of God is about himself and what he has brought, unlike the prophets before him. Jesus’ good news is for the poor. We see this theme pulled out by Luke, and the poor in Old Testament terms, and thus the theological context of Jesus, were the taken advantage off, the disgraced, the sick, those without resources, the children, and the women.
The main characters at this point of the book are Jesus and his disciples and the people who he comes across, often those who would be ignored and the “poor.” There’s a rising tension we feel regarding those who accept and reject the claims of Jesus. If this is the kingdom of God, how will this work? As he is dedicated himself to head to Jerusalem, we feel even more an urgency for what Jesus came to do.
Luke has designed a structure for his narrative, and we see him leading us from the prologue, into the stories of his infancy, to his preparation to ministry, and finally his ministry in Galilee (4:16-9:50). Just a bit before our passage in Luke 10:38-42[TT9] , there’s a shift and Jesus begins his journey towards Jerusalem (9:51-19:27). It will be after his ministry in Jerusalem (19:28-21:38), that we see his suffering, death (22:1-23:56) and resurrection (24).
Immediate Literary Context
Now we zoom in and examine the literary context that touches our passage. What is written before and after our text and what is the author doing to weave it all together?
We want to ask where our text fits.
1. What is the literary unit in which our passage lands?
2. What’s the tension in this unit and how does the unit move the bigger story forward?
3. How are the characters developed in this unit? (this is thinking primarily of narrative texts)
4. How does this passage relate to its literary unit?
So, for our passage, Jesus has been preaching the good news to the poor, teaching and doing miracles. Jesus has come down the mountain of transfiguration after talking about his exodus with Moses and Elijah. Luke wants us to see Jesus as the new Moses leading God’s people out of the tyranny of sin and evil. And then he begins his journey to Jerusalem (Luke 9:53). Our passage is here after the transition to the second half of Luke, in Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem. These stories seem to be asking the question, what does it mean to follow Jesus into his kingdom as he heads to Jerusalem? It’s a question about discipleship.
How does this smaller unit move the bigger story forward? Well, we need to notice what is being talked about before this. Jesus has set his face to going to Jerusalem. He has talked about the cost of following him, sent out the 72 who saw the power of God. He’s whispered to the disciples that they are seeing things that prophets longed to see. Then right before the story of Mary and Martha, we have a teacher of the law ask Jesus a question. Do you remember the question the lawyer asked Jesus? “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus affirms his answer of loving God and loving his neighbor, but with a desire to justify himself, he asks who his neighbor is. Jesus tells him the famous parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10).
We, the readers, come into our story of Mary and Martha asking the questions, “How do I get eternal life? How do I truly love God and neighbor?” We see Martha and Mary as characters who are engaging with this same question. Is the answer serving through loving people? Can we truly do enough to get eternal life? Or is Jesus offering something that the lawyer missed and Mary is getting?
The literary context shows how the characters and the story is pointing to the main question of the literary section. It’s pushing forward the same question of the entire unit: How does one be a disciple of Jesus?
While there’s more steps in interpretation, I will say it points us to the way of discipleship where eternal life comes through Jesus. His disciples may be women or men, scandalously. And they are those who recognize their need and come to him, walking away from the worries and distractions of even good things that would be expected by the culture.
Nothing will save us, not even radical love of neighbor, without undivided devotion to the message of Jesus. Luke will go on to show that it is his work, his provision, that gives eternal life for his disciples.
The Profit of Literary Context
Literary context means slowing down. It means bigger stories with smaller stories filling out the movements, like courses of a meal that come together into the full culinary experience. This is just the beginning of interpretation, as we would then ask questions related to observations and meaning, and there’s more context to consider. Yet, our Bibles are exquisitely and deliberately written for us to mine. To do so with skill, we have to pay attention to the design of the inspired authors in literary context.
We’ve already written about a reader’s context and historical context. One more facet of context is coming in our next training article.
We are so happy to provide this free resource to you.
For further training, check out our
Courses -short video courses you can do at your own pace.
Cohorts - virtual training with a group of other women over 7 weeks to hone and grow your teaching skills.
Bible Teacher Community - a private, online community to walk along side you and equip you in your ministry.
