38Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." 41But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
Some notes/comments:
- One of goals of sermon is to rearrange our thinking about how we see this text
- This is not about telling us to stop being active to get us to pray more
- This is not about personalities - "I'm a Martha type person", etc.
- Jesus is not getting on to Martha for serving, but rather for her heart in how she serves.
- Jesus does not rebuke Martha, but rather he loves her. He says "Martha, Martha", demonstrating his tenderness for her.
The point of the text is the last sentence: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." I reminds me of a man I talked with once who was worried about having to balance chores around the house and spending time with his kids. It seems to me that if he is demonstrating to his kids in his every day life that he loves them and cares about them, and if his heart truly is to spend time with them, they will know this and be confident of it. Then if he goes to mow the lawn one afternoon rather than playing with them, then he does not have to be worried about whether or not they feel loved and served, because that is already established.
Similarly, Jesus is not saying here that Martha should stop her serving and preparation for those that came to eat at her house. In fact, Jeff points out this second scripture (John 12):
1Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5"Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" 6He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me."
Things to note here:
- Jesus loved this family. The first sentence says that Jesus went to see them because he knew he was going to die.
- Martha served. The point of the lesson from Luke again is NOT that she would stop serving, but rather that she would see HIM as first. She can only truly serve after Jesus is first in her life. From John 12:1, we see that this is starting to happen.
Mary got this not only more than Martha, but more than any of the other men that were in the room. In Luke, we see that she is either bold enough or so taken in by Jesus' teaching that she goes against social norms and stops her work of food preparation to listen with the other men to what Jesus is saying. Not only so, but she sits at Jesus' feet, a place that is often designated for disciples (so says Jeff). Later in John, she anoints Jesus' feet with expensive oil... she GETS before anyone else that Jesus is to die and why he is to die.
The point that Jeff is trying to make is that this text in Luke is again NOT about work vs prayer and not about personality and things like that. It is simply about worshiping Christ as the "one thing" and the very center of all that we do... and learning from Mary who is always found sitting at his feet, no matter where we find her.
It is neat that Martha is provided as a model for what it looks like when we fail. Christ does not condemn her, nor does she fall apart because she failed. We can keep on serving and going about our daily life, but learning to do so as an act of worship and with a love for Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment