But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 40. Calvin here ridicules the professors of evangelical poverty, because they gather from this place that there are two states of life, that is the active and the contemplative, figured by Martha and Mary. But what will he answer, when he is informed, that this is the opinion not merely of monks, but even of a Saint Augustine, (Serm. xxvii, De verbis Domini,) of a S. Jerom, (Com. 3 cap. of Jeremiah,) of a Saint Gregory and many others? Not that they were ignorant that there was another more natural explanation; but they were of opinion that nothing could be found more proper for the illustration of these different states of life. Maldonatus.