Sister of Mary and Lazarus, friend of Jesus. Name means "lady, mistress of the household" in Aramaic — probably the elder sister and head of the home. Appears in three Gospel scenes: (1) Luke 10:38-42 — she hosts Jesus and is distracted with much serving, rebuking Mary for not helping and Jesus for allowing it; (2) John 11 — at Lazarus's death, she goes out to meet Jesus with the words "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" and receives from Him one of the greatest Christological statements in the NT; (3) John 12:2 — she is serving again at the supper six days before the Passover — but this time without complaint.
Martha is often reduced to the foil of Mary — the anxious busybody the worshipping sister outshines. That reading is half right and half unfair. Yes, in Luke 10 Jesus gently rebukes her preoccupation with serving to the exclusion of sitting with Him. But John 11 shows Martha as a woman of formidable faith. When Lazarus has been dead four days, Jesus tells her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" Her answer — "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world" (John 11:27) — is the doctrinal equivalent of Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, and it comes from a grieving woman who had just accused Jesus of being late. Martha grows. John 12 shows her serving again — but the text makes no mention of complaint or distraction. She has learned to serve from rest rather than from anxiety. That journey is every mature Christian's journey: from frantic performance to settled faith-driven service.