Get Er Done Series

Luke 10:38-42

At the Home of Martha and Mary

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Get - er – done (Christmas Perspective 3)

Luke 10:38-10:42

According to our scripture it was her own fault. She had invited Jesus and his disciples over for the night.

It was a simple act of hospitality. Any decent person would do it.

But inviting 13 people over for the night is a lot of work. But it could be more. The number may include in the group traveling with Jesus at this point in scripture may have been around 70 people. If that is true, then we are talking about needing a caterer.

There is a good chance that Martha, Mary and Lazarus already knew Jesus and many of the disciples. They lived in Bethany which is on one of the main roads that lead to Jerusalem. I will compare it to Kissimmee Florida and its position to Disney world. Worshipers go to and from the temple all year around and of course as the festival times every place for miles around would be packed. Bethany is only a mile and a half from Jerusalem.

There is a chance that their home is a family run business. Sort of a bed and breakfast kind of place that could handle many guest. However, we don’t know what their livelihood really was.

We have spent a couple of weeks examining Christmas perspectives.

-- And right now, you are probably thinking that this is obviously NOT one of the Christmas stories. And technically you are correct. However, I think that these 5 verses contains a Christmas perspective.

So lets do a quick review, we looked at Mary, a young girl that had a total view of how her life was developing changed by an angel.

How she was the first to understand that God was sending the messiah to be with us, to be like one of us.

Last Sunday we looked at Joseph. A new husband that is surprised by the news that his wife is pregnant. We talked about a view in his culture where he had rights to deal with an adulterous spouse. But, he was mature enough or wise enough not to just react to shock and hurt but to consider the situation. His first reaction was to handle the situation with as much love as he could muster. Then he has his on messenger from God which helps him to deal with his fear of what other people might think about him…Perhaps deal with his loss of pride based on his rightness.

It helps him to deal with how people will view him. And even to trust that what happened and will happen is from God.

-- This week we are looking at two sisters as we identify another Christmas perspective.

This is a passage of the Bible that makes my mother feel uncomfortable. She relates herself to Martha and is uncomfortable with the message that she hears in this text. Many of us probably feel the same way.

While this text is not directly a Christmas text it jumps into the situation that many of us are in right now with all the preparations for Christmas. And more importantly it can be used to keep the right view of how to view all the things that need to be done at home and in church throughout the year.

Think about this. What would you need to get done around the house if you invited Jesus over?

Would you want to run the vacuum?

Maybe dust just a little?

Perhaps a once over in the bathrooms?

-- Maybe put the family Bible on the Coffee table?

So in today’s scripture we have this brief snapshot of what happens when Jesus is invited into a home.

We have the older sister, rushing around the house and kitchen getting things ready.

Maybe she starts in the kitchen getting the cooking fires going. Preheating the oven for bread and getting some coals started to be able to heat the pots and pans.

Then she dashes through the main rooms, fluffing pillows and generally straightening up. Then back into the kitchen for a shopping list.