Jesus and Mary and Martha

 
The story of Jesus, Mary, and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) has long interested me. It is a short story that says many things. I pasted it below from the KJV. Let's get started.

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³⁸ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

⁴⁰ But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

⁴² But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

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The story is something many of us can relate to. While we are busy doing our service, others are, seemingly, loafing. As we saw in the story of Lazarus, these women (sisters of Lazarus) were aware Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. To have the Savior of the world in your home must have been, at best, nerve-wracking. These women showed two different ways to deal with having the Son of God visit their home (some argue their home was a home-church, as it was not common that women owned homes then, or, perhaps, it is the home of Lazarus). But let's continue.

This story is part of a trilogy involving this threesome (Mary, Martha, and Lazarus). The last story, which I will touch on in a future post, is Mary anointing Jesus for his burial, which has been preached around the world. Mary knew who Jesus was and what his ultimate mission was and what it would take to accomplish. She knew He was the Lamb of God, destined to be sacrificed for all of us. She knew that her time with Him was short. He was going to be taken from them. She didn't want to waste any time doing anything else but sitting with Jesus and soaking up His teachings. There would be time for other things later. And Jesus' words show He was aware she knew these things. As Jesus points out, what Martha was doing was good, but what Mary was doing was necessary.

Martha wasn't doing anything bad when Jesus essentially rebuked her for wanting to control Mary and get some help. In her mind, it was probably necessary what she was doing, and I'm sure she needed help. But both Mary and Jesus recognized what Mary had chosen was ultimately better than the service — the busy-ness — that Martha had chosen. And everything in life is a choice. We feel some things are sat upon us, but it's our choice what we do with those things. Being busy is not necessarily the best thing we can do. And, truthfully, there is time for that later, as we see here. Jesus' time with his disciples was running out. 

This speaks to me because many times in my life I just don't have time for everything. We all choose what we do with our 24 hours each day. We have to sleep. We have to eat, clean, take care of our families, do our jobs (ugh), and many other things. But how necessary are all of those things? And can we push some of those things off our plates to make room for things of God — to sit at Jesus' feet? Yes, of course. Not all things are necessary. I'm frequently very busy, but am I busy doing what God wants me to do?

Many churches are heavily invested in doing things God has not told them to do. What Jesus told His disciples was very simple. It's a short list. Save, heal, deliver, speak with new tongues, etc. How many churches are doing all of that? If you're lucky, you might get saved in a given church, but, then again, you might not. And that's where a lot of churches begin and end their ministry. They're so busy building buildings and worshipping (very necessary, of course, but worship should come from the heart and not necessarily from an overwrought theatrical experience that leaves worshippers in a trance-like state) and chasing after new members (they'll come to you if you fill their needs) and everything else that looks like "success" to the world but not necessarily to God. It's a whole lot of busy-ness. You're lucky to get a few verses preached at you from the pastor's sermonette. More likely, you'll get a few bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation. Maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe not.

I think this is where my country got off track. The churches abandoned doing the things they were supposed to do in order to do things that are, arguably, good and right but are misguided. They got into busywork. The churches are full of Marthas. We stopped saving, healing, and delivering people, who then turned to their government or some other entity for help. Now our government is our god, and they're busy taking away all our God-given rights. We can still right the ship, but it will take a whole-hearted return to God from His people. A whole lot of people are hurting out there. They are lost. They need help. But the churches are so busy with their works, they've lost the ability to truly help people. And they don't want to preach anything offensive such as forsake your sin (eww) and follow Jesus (hard) because they don't want to lose members because then they wouldn't be a "successful" church. An obvious example of that kind of preaching is Joel Osteen. He fills stadiums because he preaches a style of gospel that is inoffensive. He may as well be a clean Tony Robbins. You're welcome. 

So the churches are careful and troubled about many things, but they aren't necessarily doing the best thing. They do good things, just not the best thing, which Mary had chosen. That's what we need to get back to in our churches. That will right the ship. Get our eyes back on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

A final note on churches: what is happening in this country is accelerating because, with all the lockdowns and quarantines, Christians have not been able to assemble and pray, which has great power in the spiritual world. We are seeing things rapidly deteriorate because Christians are afraid to gather and pray. We have power alone in prayer, but it's not the same as when we gather. If one can chase a thousand, two can chase ten thousand! Pray we can assemble again so we can fight this thing!

Thank you for letting me preach at you. God bless.

Speaking of having too much to do, I recently dropped one of my fall courses. It wasn't so much not having time but the rigid schedule of the class which made me unable to complete assignments on time. I don't understand having a hybrid class (combining elements of online and in-person learning) because you don't get the benefits of either, just the drawbacks. I work full time and have my son half the time, so I'm not available to do assignments EVERY DAY. Anyway, that was a disappointing thing, but I also feel God answered me about it that same day when I prayed. So, I hold tightly to His hand and trust His direction.