This story is another of the well known ones. Martha invites Jesus to her home. This fact and her busyness in the house suggest that Martha is looking after the house and its occupants. Perhaps their parents were already dead and as was the custom, the oldest daughter took on the responsibility for domestic affairs.
This was a place Jesus was really at home. It was a good base when he was visiting Jerusalem for festivals. Here he was obviously fed and most likely given accommodation. This is the house we hear of most and it’s near Jerusalem. Martha is busy, well, she would be – she has a guest to look after. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus as a pupil would for a Rabbi. Mary is giving Jesus her attention and listening to him. Martha really could do with a hand. ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But Jesus does not command Mary to get up. He speaks kindly to Martha. ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need only for one thing. Mary has chosen the better part that will not be taken away from her.’ You cannot help but feel at this stage that Jesus is lucky that Martha does not wallop him with a cooking pot! We must look deep into this event, for Jesus did need feeding.
Martha was distracted and anxious and no doubt she had good cause. Very often the lady of the house has to work hard when there is company while others sit having a drink and being waited on. Sometimes we need to share out our tasks better, and sometimes we need to realise that our guests are there to spend time with us and not just to be fed!
Many of our troubles and anxieties occur because we do not spend time in quiet with Jesus. Many churches are hyperactive, doing all sorts of activities but spend little time in prayer. God is our priority, well should be, He should be our ‘one thing’. If we make God our priority, then he will send us out. God does not want things from us; he wants our love and us. The same could be said of many who come to us as friends. We miss healing relationships if we are too anxious or busy.
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.
Listen to St. Paul: ‘do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let you requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 4:6, 7).
It is because our sympathies are with Martha that we need to learn to be more like Mary.
The greatest danger of television is that it encourages us to switch off from one another and God. This is true of iPods and personal CD players. They all help to shut off and enclose us in a world of our own. But we do not need any of these to be inattentive. A child comes in with an important message but the father is filling in his tax forms and the mother is busy preparing the dinner. ‘But..’ says the child and is still not given attention. The parents have not listened and the child is left feeling alone. The generation gap is often created because we do not listen to each other. The child goes out and wonders who will look at the washing machine that is overflowing! When a child plays up or a relationship breaks down, in and woven through the sadness is the lack of being listened too. God wants us to listen to him and He also wants to listen to us. He wants to know are cares and concerns as well as our love and ourselves. He wants us to share in the work of his kingdom, in reaching out to our neighbour and others in the community, and He also knows that we need to take time out for our families and friends. We need to learn to find a balance.
We live today at breakneck speed, rushing here, there and everywhere, yet forever chasing our tails. Despite having labour-saving gadgets such as our grandparents could only have dreamed of, we are part of a society ravaged by exhaustion and burn-out as we attempt to cram yet more activity into our already overcrowded lives. The material rewards are many, yet spiritually most of us are hopelessly impoverished.
We need sometimes to pause and ask ourselves where we are going and why. We need to consider the deeper things of life and to reflect on what actually matters most. Unless we pause to think now, we may reach the end of our days only to discover that we have frittered our lives away on much that is empty and meaningless trivia. I can help asking myself why? Why do we do this to ourselves and our families and friends? Why do we push ourselves and families to doing what seems to be everything and sometimes all at once?
I believe it is because there is a need to be part of this world and it can mean keeping up with others, whether its more money, a bigger car, success for us or our children, bigger house, holidays….. Whatever it is, it doesn’t bring inner peace. It doesn’t bring a joy that overflows, that others can see. It brings tension, it challenges us – some times into making wrong choices and it can pull us in the opposite direction. Away from God.
We need to learn to be a ‘one thing’ believer. ‘But one thing is needful’ (Luke 10.42). Martha was caught up with ‘many things’ (Luke 10.41). Mary was lovingly occupied with ‘one thing’ (Luke 10:42). Are you and I a ‘one thing’ believer? Both David and Paul were ‘one thing’ believers. (See Psalm 27:4 and Philippians 3:13).
In the Christian life, the Lord Jesus Christ is not to be one thing among many things. He is not part of our life; HE IS OUR LIFE! (Or should be) He is the very hub, the centre. In all things, He is to have first place. (Col 3:3-4, Phil 1:21; Gal 2:20 and Col 1:18).
Are you a ‘Mary-like’ disciple of the Lord Jesus? In a ‘Martha world’ (so busy and hectic) we need to have a ‘Mary heart’. We need to be both Mary and Martha and we need to find that ‘one thing’ balance. May God give us Mary’s heart to adore; Martha’s hands to serve? Amen.
Questions:
1. Which are you more inclined to be a Mary or Martha?
2. What distracts us from taking time out to be a ‘Mary’?
3. Why is it so important that we take time to be a ‘Mary’ and why is it so important that we take time to be a ‘Martha’ in our busy schedules?
4. Is Mary’s choice better? If so, why and in what way?
5. What about Jesus’ practical call to servant-hood? What’s Jesus’ point?
6. How do you seek to serve others while also keeping God-given priorities?
7. What patterns and practices could you institute in your daily life that would make you more like Mary?
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