Luke 10:38-42
Devoted or Distracted?
My internet went out Friday, so I went through all the troubleshooting. And then it asked me, “Do you want me to reboot the router?” And I hit the “yes” button. By all means, reboot the router, if that will reconnect me with the information superhighway. And then it came back and said, “Please wait.” I don’t like to wait.
I got to the parking garage at work Wednesday. I was running a little close to start time. I parked, ran down to the crosswalk, and pushed the button. A mechanical voice said, “Wait!” I pushed it again. It said, “Wait!” I tried a third time, and a third time it said, “Wait!” I don’t like to wait.
I am wired for activity. If I’m in a traffic jam, I’ll try every back road I can find, and it usually adds time to my route in the long run. But I hold onto the adage, “Any movement is good movement, even if it’s going further away from your objective.”
And yet a still small voice breaks into my life every now and then and says, “Wait on me, Kerry. Slow down. Listen. Orient your life on me. And you may find that you get done more of the truly important when you put me first.”
In today’s story, Jesus interacts with two sisters very different from each other. How often does that happen among siblings? Martha gets the bad rap of being a busy-body while Mary is remembered as the devoted one. Sometimes people see Martha as practical and Mary as spiritual, and since Jesus favors Mary, they think spiritual must trump practical every time.
But that’s a bit of a simplification. What about when practical IS spiritual? After all, doesn’t it please God when you are a good host to your guests? Hospitality is a big deal in the Bible. And here Martha is hosting Jesus and his disciples. That’s a big deal! If you were preparing a meal for Jesus, wouldn’t that be considered spiritual? The word for “preparations” or “serving” in verse 40 is the same Greek word from which we get our word “deacon,” which means “servant.” It’s a godly thing to serve, so much so that the early church created an office of servers to meet the needs of widows. Jesus said, “I came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45). So what’s wrong with Martha serving?
A clue might be the word “distracted.” Martha was “distracted by many things” (verse 40). The Greek word suggests dragging many things around. Jesus told her she was worried or upset about lots of things (verse 41). Martha was stressed out!
Have you ever been there? There’s so much to do, and it’s all important, and you know you’re never going to get it all done. It’s very upsetting, very frustrating. And yet Jesus says, “Why do you worry about so many things? There’s only one thing that really matters, and it’s me. Just come and sit at my feet for a while.”
And that’s where Mary was; in this story, and in the other two places in scripture we see her mentioned (John 11:32; John 12:3): she is always at the feet of Jesus. She had a heart of devotion and seeking out God.
There at Jesus’ feet, she was carrying out the role of a disciple, a follower, a student. Students often gathered at their rabbi’s feet, listening to every word, taking in the wisdom. Kind of like today, sitting in the front row of class. The only thing is, in Jesus’ day only men were students! Jesus is absolutely counter-cultural here in permitting and even reinforcing Mary to be a student. In Jesus’ day, women only learned from their father or husband, and always in the privacy of their own homes. They never dared to learn directly from a rabbi, as Mary is here with Jesus.
This is a hallmark of Luke’s gospel. In the Sunday afternoon Bible study, we’ve been going through the gospel of Mark, and seeing how Mark focuses on the suffering servant role of Jesus. Well, Luke focuses on how the gospel is for everyone, regardless of background, ethnicity, sin, etc. Jesus came for everyone who would believe. In last week’s passage, Jesus told a story where the Samaritan—an outsider—was the hero. This week, a female student is the hero. Unheard of in Jesus’ day! Who will be next?
Yet this story is much more than gender issues and breaking down walls of prejudice. It’s really a story for anyone who wants to follow Jesus, anyone who professes to be a Christian believer. It’s about devotion or distraction. It’s about choosing our own busyness or focusing on the Lord’s business.
And here’s the thing: it’s not as simple as right vs. wrong. Both Mary and Martha were doing good things. It’s good to study at Jesus’ feet. And it’s good to serve Jesus and his disciples and meet their physical needs. Those are both good things!
Isn’t that where we get into trouble at times? Not in choosing good over evil, but in choosing good vs. best? A while back, my supervisor gave all of us chaplains a book entitled, “Good or God.” The premise of the book is that so many of us are filling our schedule with good things, but we may be missing God through it all. We may be missing out on God’s best for us in that moment.
So what about Mary and Martha? Each one of us has a choice. Will we worry about many things? Will we drag many things around with us each day? Or will we choose to focus on one thing first and foremost? Will we choose to sit at Jesus’ feet and let Jesus help us with our priorities for the day?
Apparently Martha learned a valuable lesson that day. She learned to make Jesus her first priority. Because later, when her own brother Lazarus died, she told Jesus she believed he was the Messiah, the Son of God, who could raise her brother back to life if he so chose (John 11:27).
In one of my past churches there was a person who was always wanting to do, do, do for the Lord. I like busy people, because that’s who you turn to when you want to get things done. But something seemed out of balance in Pam’s life. She seemed almost frantic about pursuing activity. I remember gently challenging her over time to focus on her relationship with Christ, and to let that move her into whatever new ministry pursuit came. But it always seemed to be her own generation of ideas that fueled her. One day she had a stroke. And she was unable to talk for nearly a year. I don’t believe that God causes illness; it’s a byproduct of our sin and the fallen human condition. But I do believe that God can use illness for his glory. I’m convinced that God allowed that stroke to slow her down to the point of learning to be more dependent upon him.
What about us? We all have a little of Pam in us, don’t we? We are Americans. We pull ourselves up by the bootstrap and get the work done. And for most of us, we come from military roots where initiative and hard work is rewarded and even expected. Yet, what if the best thing to do sometimes is to do nothing, and simply check in with our commander-in-chief, to spend time in the general’s or admiral’s hut, to seek out the commander’s intent? As Henry Blackaby put it, we are human BEINGS, not human DOINGS. Sometimes perhaps we just need to be. “Be still and know that I am God.” Help us to be still, God, and to listen for your small voice. Let us pray.
Father, you know there is more of Martha’s busyness in us than we care to admit. We respect her ability to get things done, to take care of the little tasks, to shun laziness and idleness. Yet, sometimes we forget about the main thing that consumed Mary. Sometimes, we just need to spend time at Jesus’ feet, listening, learning, soaking in love and admiration and orienting our life to his teachings and purpose. Help us to put you first, God. Help us to find our own version of quiet time with you each day, to recharge our batteries, to orient our life to your plans, to see the world as you see it, to love as you love, to forgive as you forgive, to join your plans for this world and so complete our lives. In Jesus we pray, amen.
