Doers and Thinkers

Whether in action or contemplation, follow hard after Jesus. He loves you.

For some, an ideal vacation includes long stretches of quiet to read, to think, to write, to be. For others, an ideal vacation includes adventures and activities. Of course, we all both think and do, and probably mix both into this imagined ideal vacation, adventuring in both body and mind. That said, at the risk of overly simplifying the complexity of human experience, I think each of us tends toward being either a doer or a thinker. For hundreds of years (thousands, actually), Christian writers (and others) have discussed the relative merits of the two trajectories of life: the active and the contemplative, finding in Scripture pictures of both. The active life shows up in the stories of Martha and Peter, the contemplative in the stories of Mary and John. Each needs the other, and each needs Jesus.

Marthas and Peters

Marthas and Peters (MPs) are doers, active above all things. In the gospels, Martha plans great parties and hosts great dinners. Martha can’t sit still. Work compels her. Martha gets things done. Martha initiates and leads. So too Peter, the ready, fire, aim leader of the cohort of Jesus’s apprentices.

As I said, Christian teachers have historically explained that MPs typify the active life, a life of service and action. Our culture elevates MPs. We love doers who get things done. We despise dilettantes who waste their time. In the words of Teddy Roosevelt: “Do things; be sane; don't fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.” We all love MPs, because MPs make our lives better. I know, because I’m married to an MP. MPs are superheroes.

MPs, though, must be careful, because an MP’s strength also tends toward a specific shortcoming. Look at what happens:

While they were traveling, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.” The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”

(Luke 10:38-42)

In this passage, Martha’s serving has led to bitterness. Martha finds herself serving alone, while Mary just sits with Jesus, relaxing. In the midst of their acting, making, doing, producing, and accomplishing, MPs can miss their moments with the Messiah. Remember Peter on the summit of shining glory, when Jesus’s glory radiates from him and Elijah and Moses show up for the party? Instead of soaking in the Son’s shine, Peter wants to do something: “Teacher, it’s a good thing we’re here, let me make some tents for each of you!” (Mark 9:5). An MP’s obsession to get stuff done can distract them from the one necessary thing, finding themselves in Christ.

MPs sometimes must slow down and take some time with Jesus. The lawn or the laundry will wait. Dear Martha or Peter, your accomplishments do not define you. Jesus loves you, this you know for the Bible tells you so. Jesus gave his life to save you because he loves you, because you’re you, not because of what you do.

Marys and Johns

The Martha-Peter tendency toward action can pull in tension with a tendency toward contemplation, like Martha’s sister Mary and John’s fellow friend, John. As Christian teachers typified Martha and Peter as the active life, they typified Marys and Johns (MJs) as the contemplative life. Martha plans the party, Mary hangs out with Jesus. When Jesus offers to wash the feet of the disciples, Peter objects, tries to interrupt, to act (John 13:6-8). John, though, contents himself with sitting close beside his best friend, Jesus (John 13:23). As I said, our culture exalts action but generally holds contemplation in contempt. A life of the mind, a quiet life of prayer and thought, wastes the opportunity to do something worth doing, so we think. The world—and even Christians—despise the apparent wastefulness of a life spent at the feet of Jesus. The story of Mary of Bethany and her sister Martha, though, requires us to question our values. We must reevaluate. We must revalue what Jesus holds up as a character we should imitate.

Like the MPs, though, MJs must also take care. A besetting sin of an MJ is contemplation devolved into sloth and abstract knowledge-hoarding. For example, when John and Peter race to the tomb on the third day after the crucifixion, after Mary Magadelene’s testimony that the tomb was empty, we see this:

The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then, following him, Simon Peter also came. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then also went in, saw, and believed.

(John 20:3-8)

John is the first to see, but Peter is the first to obey. Thomas Aquinas comments on this episode, noting the danger for the Mary-Johns of us:

These two disciples stand for two kinds of people: John represents those who are devoted to the contemplation of truth, and Peter stands for those whose main interest is to carry out the commandments. Now it very often happens that contemplatives, because they are docile, are the first to become acquainted with a knowledge of the mysteries of Christ—but they do not enter, for sometimes there is knowledge, but little or no love follows. While those in the active life, because of their continuing fervor and earnestness, even though they are slower to understand, enter into them more quickly.

Do you see the point? Knowledge without active love is fruitless, just as action with knowledge is dangerous. Dear John, you are not justified by your theological insight, but only by the blood of Christ. Dear Mary, sitting at Jesus’s feet is good, and so is following in his footsteps.

Marthas and Marys, Peters and Johns, Each Needs the Other—and Jesus

Marthas and Peters can inspire Marys and Johns to act and Marys and Johns can call Marthas and Peters to sit. The doers inspire the thinkers toward action and the thinkers inspire the doers toward contemplation. This mutual benefit shows up throughout the stories of these characters. In the epilogue to John’s gospel, he tells the story of going fishing with Peter and some of the guys, fruitlessly fishing through the night. Jesus shows up on the beach dawn, tells them to toss their net on the other side of the boat and promptly fills the net with 153 fish. John is the first recognize the Savior in the shadowy character on the shoreline: “He said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’” (John 21:7a). John the contemplative thinker sees what Peter the doer doesn’t see yet. And Peter acts immediately, as we have come to expect: “When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea” (21:7b).

So, if you’re more active, press into acting with and for Jesus, yet never let active love empty itself of theological knowledge; let the contemplative in your life remind you to sit and hang with Jesus for a spell.

If you’re more contemplative, think hard about Jesus, spend time with Jesus, yet never let theological insight about Jesus empty itself of active love for and with Jesus.

Jesus loves both Marthas and Marys, Peters and Johns. Be who God made you, be who you are, and learn from who you aren’t.