Luke 10
38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.
40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.
42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.
Here we find Jesus in this house which He frequently visited. One can understand why He frequently visited them. They not only had an open door but also an open heart. They were active in the Lord’s work. Some Christians imagine that to become a Christian is the end, but that is the beginning – when the real work begins. Are you available to the Lord that He can use you, or are you just cruising along, happy to be among those who work for the Lord, but you do nothing.
There are those who are plain lazy and even though they see others overloaded with the work of the Lord, yet they don’t care and won’t lift a finger to help them.
Others are busybodies. They are not like the slothful ones who do nothing but they are very busy. They invite the weak ones for tea or coffee or go to those who are weak. There they discuss and slander the children of the Lord. They influence these weaker ones with their own ideas. They are not building up God’s Kingdom but are actually breaking it down. Even though they claim to help these weaker ones they are doing more harm than good. They are not in unity with the rest of God’s children but form their own little groups.
But praise God, then there are those who are servants in God’s work. They do God’s will faithfully and help and support and upbuild God’s work.
Let us therefore see where things went wrong in this blessed family and learn from them. As Jesus was in the home He was sharing with those that were there. Note that even to invite Jesus was not such a simple matter. He did not go alone, but His disciples were with him. If you invited Jesus He came with a crowd.
So while Jesus was sharing with the guests there, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. Mary was the younger sister so one can almost understand that Martha reacted in the way that she did. But let us see how God sees things. Let us look at things from God’s perspective. As we serve Christ our own mind try to reason out things in stead of seeing things as God does.
So being the older one in the family (their parents had probably died already as we do not read anything about them), she was trying to keep things running smoothly. The responsibility rested upon her to serve them. She wished to please and to serve and do the right thing. But in her endeavour to serve and make things go right she actually made others feel uncomfortable. She seems to be a perfectionist. She wanted things to be done right the first time. Notice that she wasn’t fighting for the wrong thing. She was convinced she was right but she didn’t take into account how the others felt about it or how the Lord felt about it. She was walking in the flesh, acting according to the old sinful nature, but she did not realise it. She was totally convinced that she was right. This teaches us that even though we are totally convinced about something it could still be wrong. She was so convinced of her own idea that she went to the Lord with it and actually rebuked Him! If she still went to the Lord and spoke in a humble way to ask for direction she would’ve received guidance from the Lord. But clearly her calling was not driving her but her ego. Here Mary sat in the limelight listening to Jesus while she was in the background serving. This is the time when jealousy and the old Adam rises its ugly head.
So we can so easily in the church be jealous of one another when we compare ourselves with others and our calling to their calling. You must be faithful in your calling.
Are we looking at others and what they do or are we simply faithfully doing the work of the Lord and do what He called us to.
We see that the Lord had to calm her down by repeating her name twice, “Martha, Martha”. Sometimes we can become so worked up about a situation that the Lord has to calm us down first, for we cannot think rationally anymore let alone spiritually.
She was always thinking ahead and worrying about many things. We also see it when Jesus asked them to roll away the stone from the tomb where her brother that died had been buried. She wanted to stop Him since Lazarus had been dead four days already. The devil uses doubt and worry to neutralise you. There are some who are so worried about many things that eventually they do nothing. The moment they want to do something for the Lord the devil comes with another suggestion, “are you sure you must be doing this and not rather that.” So one finds gifted people become ineffective because of worry. They get distracted from their calling because of worry.
Note that the Lord did not reprimand her for what she was doing but for the state of her heart while she was doing it. In fact you could be at the Lord’s feet while you do your daily work. It is blessed that while you drive the tractor the Lord can speak to you all the time so that when you are finish for the day you are filled with His Word.
Are your priorities right? Both of them were serving the Lord but Martha’s heart was not right. Do you see things as God does?
It is wonderful to see later how Mary and Martha served the Lord together and had respect for each other and their respective callings. Later we find them together with the Lord again and Martha serving again just before the passover. But this time her mouth was shut.
A person who talks a lot is immature spiritually, finding fault with different people and how things must be done.
May we be faithful in the Lord’s calling.