The more time I spend in the body of Christ, the more I’m struck by our proclivity to place culture above His kingdom. The problem we run into is that Christians all over the world, throughout very different times in history, have had dramatically different cultures— indicating there isn’t one “correct” culture for Christians to have. In fact, faith in Jesus may be the only thing many believers have in common. If you were to ask the average Christian, “which comes first, your faith or your culture?” I’m sure the majority wouldn’t skip a beat before claiming their faith should be their top priority. But our problem isn’t in knowing what should come first, it’s in the practice of it.
When I look around at the global church, I’m overwhelmed by the endless teaching and resources on cultural matters. There are thousands of books you could read and sermons you could listen to about cultural issues, and the majority of them are essentially saying, “this is why my culture has the right way,” or at least “the best way.” Ministry, church models, family models, gender roles, vocation, schooling, finances, how to speak, how to eat, how to dress, on and on and on. Even down to finite, trivial matters (I’ve literally seen books claiming there is a “right” and “wrong” way for certain Christians to exercise). There are advice and opinions for everything under the sun. Some of these matters are very important to discuss and some of them are petty, but ultimately they’re all secondary. Objective truth is found in the Gospel alone, and we can’t afford not to keep the main thing the main thing.
So many believers fall into the deception of believing their practices to be biblical, rather than cultural. When other believers come along with a completely different practice also claiming it’s the biblical way, our tendency is to argue, rather than to seek the Lord together in humility. Sadly, thus the body of Christ has been completely divided into denominations, belief systems, and camps of people who waste their lives fighting with each other. I’m grieved when I see Christians spending years writing and reading books about how to win culture wars. I don’t want to reach the end of my life and say I spent a substantial amount of time fighting culture wars— or any at all. I can only imagine the importance of recognizing when we might be wrong, when we could both be right, or when it’s not even a matter of “right versus wrong” to begin with. On cultural matters, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.”[1] To the Romans, he urged them “not to quarrel over opinions.”[2] When Jesus called people to follow Him, He called them to leave behind their cultural priorities. No matter how important the practice seemed, nothing compared to loving Him.
Our issue isn’t disagreeing that we want to have a “kingdom culture,” it’s defining what that is. The moment we start to say, “my personal practice is the kingdom way” is the moment we’ve fallen to the pride that Satan wants to use to divide us. Women, men, and the nations were made to glorify God each in their own unique ways.[3] All people, their languages, expressions, traditions, and practices were all meant to reflect different parts of God. This is the beauty of us being called to unity, not uniformity. One thing is transcendent across nations and generations, and it is the unwavering character of God.
If we look at the Bible as a whole, it’s primarily a collection of stories about God moving amidst really sinful cultural practices. So much of ancient Jewish culture was ridden with sin, abuse, debauchery, and overall bad customs. How many times have you read the Old Testament and been extremely disturbed by all the twisted things people were doing? Much of what they were so accustomed to was far from the ways of God, but He was gracious enough to reteach them over time. God moving amidst them, despite their cultural failures, was never to justify or condone their actions. By the time we reach the New Testament, we see a lot of their cultural practices being addressed as sin, and we can be sure it was only God’s mercy that He showed up for them despite how lost they were— and because of how lost they were.
Throughout the four gospels, Jesus is often with a group of his dear friends, sibling trio Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. After Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, they host a big dinner in their home to celebrate. Now, if living in the Middle East has shown me anything, it’s that the way someone treats their guests is a huge deal when they’re hosting anything. The pressure is on. So, naturally, Martha was working and being hospitable towards her guests. She got left alone to do all the work, so she asks for help—very reasonable, if you ask me! If I had signed up to host a dinner with my siblings and they left me with all the work, I’d ask for help too. Martha sees Mary just sitting at the feet of Jesus, and asks Him if He’s going to send her to help with the work.[4]
Now, we all know how the story goes, and we all want to scoff at Martha for being so blind as to be working when Jesus is in the room. Every sermon I’ve ever heard about this story is focused on how ridiculously foolish Martha was to put other obligations first when Jesus was present. But if we’re honest, most of us are her. Most of us are not Mary. If we really picture the reality of being in an equivalent situation, it’s likely we’d do exactly what Martha did.
The thing is, Martha asked Jesus to send Mary to help her, because she legitimately believed it was the right thing to do. You don’t ask the Messiah to help you if you know you’re doing the wrong thing.
How often are we unknowingly asking Jesus to help us do the wrong thing?
How often are we genuinely believing our cultural practice to be what would most please God?
Jesus responds, “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; but only one thing is necessary; for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”[5]
We know Jesus’s loving correction of Martha was not to say “it’s wrong to serve your guests.” It was to say, “your priority is to be a disciple, not to fulfill cultural obligations.” Everything Martha was doing would’ve been acceptable and good, had it not been placed above being a disciple of Jesus. This is where most of us get tripped up—not in deciding whether or not to call our sin holy, but deciding whether or not something good will take precedence over being a disciple. Jesus doesn’t bow to our cultural opinions. They bow to Him.
In first century Jewish culture, it would’ve been alarming and scandalous for anyone to suggest that hospitality shouldn’t come first, especially for a woman. The cultural expectations of hospitality and gender roles run deep in the Middle East, and obviously Jesus was well aware. In His quintessential fashion, He dismantled the boxes of cultural idolatry and taught the whole room what mattered. To sit at His feet and learn from His teaching was what epitomized being a disciple.
And who was doing exactly this?
Mary.
She smashes every pretty little box of cultural expectations, just like her Rabbi. The same way she smashed her alabaster jar to anoint His feet in an act of worship. Every major “don’t do” in her culture went out the window, because her King was in front of her. Not only was she not tending to her guests, but she was in the room with all the men, on the floor, and touching the feet of Jesus. I can’t explain how inappropriate that would be to most Middle Easterners even now, let alone then.
All the elitist men sat around her and scoffed, but she disregarded them. She gave Jesus what He was worthy of even if it would cost her dignity, her reputation, her life’s savings. She set aside her culture in order to glorify Jesus, and ignored the expectations of man. The One who didn’t ignore them was Jesus—He rebuked them for criticizing her.
There are only a handful of events we get to see detailed in three out of four gospels, but this is one of them. Jesus said of Mary, “Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”[6]
So may we remember her reckless abandonment of cultural idolatry, and the King who made it worth it. May we remember this Gospel of the Kingdom that charges us to leave behind all we held so tightly to, all we thought gave us identity, and follow Him. Let this offering bring the proud low, for "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”[7]
Autumn Crew is the Managing Editor of FAI Publishing. She lives in the Middle East and serves a number of disciple-making initiatives. She can be reached at autumncrew@faimission.org.
[1] 1 Cor 11:16
[2] Romans 14:1-12
[3] Revelation 7:9, 15:4, Psalm 86:9, Genesis 1:27
[4] Luke 10:38-40
[5] Luke 10:41-42
[6] Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, John 12:1-8
[7] 1 Corinthians 1:27-30