THESE two verses come from the story of how Jesus was invited into the home of two sisters - Mary and Martha, and how Martha was left to get the food ready, while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to the teaching of Jesus.
Immediately we can feel for Martha left with all the work, while Mary seems to be lazy for not helping her sister. We must not be filled with indignation against Mary, nor must we criticise Jesus in our minds for apparently condoning Mary's laziness, and not supporting Martha.
The fact is that Jesus is teaching us a very important lesson here. Jesus says that Mary had chosen what is better. What is this better choice? Surely it is the fact that Mary chose to feed her soul unto eternal life. The normal affairs of life like getting meals, etc. occupy so much of our time. We spend so much time caring for this life and feeding our bodies with all that our bodies need. In all this business we neglect our soul. Yet our soul endures beyond this life, while this body is only for this life.
Mary cared about her soul while Martha in her eagerness to be a good hostess was caring only for this life. In fact Martha probably was seeking to get praise from Jesus by the elaborateness of her meal, when really something much more simple would have been enough. She could have then spent time listening to Jesus like Mary.
Perhaps Mary should have helped Martha, but Martha certainly should have cared for her soul and valued the spiritual food Jesus was feeding to Mary. The fact is we spend so much time on the things of this world, and neglect our soul. We feed our body because we know unless we do we will die. We forget that if we do not feed our soul with the Bread of Life it will die and be eternally lost in hell.