When God Calls Your Name: Martha Series

When God Calls Your Name… Twice: Martha

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 8/21/2016

For the last few of weeks, we’ve been talking about how you might respond if God called your name—not just once, but twice. As I mentioned before, God calls plenty of people in the Bible often by name, but I’ve only found seven times where God calls out someone’s name twice in a row—Abraham, Abraham! Jacob, Jacob! Moses, Moses!

Each time that God calls someone by name twice, he follows it with something profound and powerful. He called Jacob in order to calm his fears and assure him that God is always with him. He called Moses to tell him that he sees the suffering in our world, and he wants us to do something about it. He called Samuel to demonstrate just how important it is to listen to God’s voice.

The fifth person God calls by name twice is Martha.

Martha, along with her sister Mary and brother Lazarus, were close friends and followers of Jesus. They dearly loved the Lord and the Gospel writers tell us that their home was a “home away from home” for Jesus and His disciples.

Martha’s story, which finally brings us to the New Testament, is among the most familiar stories in the Bible. Just mention the names Mary and Martha in a group of Christian women and you’ll get some knowing glances and nervous giggles. Her story begins in Luke 10. So if you have a Bible or an app on your phone, please open it there. The Bible says, “As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home” (Luke 10:38 NLT).

What we often overlook about this familiar passage is that Jesus and his disciples show up unexpectedly at Martha’s door. They didn’t have cellphones or even corded phones in those days and Jesus couldn’t call ahead. Instead, Jesus just showed up at their door, and Martha says, “Come in! Come in! Sit down, Lord. I’ll go to the kitchen and fix us something to eat.” So Martha hurries off to the kitchen, probably assuming her sister Mary would be right behind her.

Now, before we go a step further—can you imagine thirteen hungry men who had been walking the better part of a day just showing up at your front door unannounced? Most people would go immediately into panic mode!

But not Martha.

She just invites Jesus along with his twelve hungry apostles to stay for supper and she doesn’t whip up an impromptu casserole of Kraft macaroni and cheese and Ballpark franks. Not, this hostess! She goes all out. Martha is the Queen of the Kitchen—and probably the rest of the house too. The Bible doesn’t tell us her last name, but I’m betting it was Stewart. She’s the Proverbs 31 woman, Israel’s answer to Betty Crocker.

Martha scraps her ordinary everyday menu of soup and bread and pulls out all her cookbooks. After all, this is Jesus! Martha’s going to prepare a banquet fit for a King—the King of Kings. She has to make sure the centerpieces and the napkins match. She has to slaughter a lamb and slice those delicious pomegranates she bought at the marketplace the other day. Soak the lentils! Pound the grain! Knead the dough!

And what about dessert? A little goat cheese and a tray of fresh fruit. Will Jesus and his disciples stay overnight? Someone needs to change the sheets and fold some towels. Forget about stopping to smell the roses, Martha has to pick the roses, cut the stems at an angle, and arrange them in a vase with some baby’s breath. Then maybe she’ll take a second to snap a quick picture and upload it to Facebook before moving on to the next chore. So many things to do and so little time. Martha’s mind is as busy as room full of kindergartners!

Of course, you won’t find all these details in Scripture. Rather, Luke sums up Martha’s whole afternoon in one sentence: “Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing” (Luke 10:40 NLT).

Distracted? That’s an interesting choice of words, don’t you think? So many times, the things we think are important are just distractions. And what’s Mary been up this whole time? Luke answers that question too: “Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught” (Luke 10:39 NLT). Even if you’d never heard it before, you can already tell where this story is going, can’t you?

Maratha’s blood pressure skyrockets every time she glances into the living room and sees her sister just sitting there at Jesus’s feet enjoying herself. With everything still left to do, there sits little Mary totally oblivious to all the work Martha’s doing.