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.
I can just picture Martha slamming a cupboard door, intentionally clanking some pots and pans together, or shuffling around some silverware in hopes of getting her sister’s attention. She even shoots an “evil eye” in Mary’s direction. But nothing has any effect. Mary only has eyes and ears for Jesus.
Pushed to the limit, Martha does something unprecedented. She clears her throat and interrupts Jesus’s impromptu Sunday School class. Certain that Jesus will take her side, she says, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me” (Luke 10:40 NLT).
This is where many of us want to stand up and cheer! But instead of applauding Martha, Jesus gently rebukes her, saying, “Martha, Martha” (Luke 10:41). And then, once He has her attention He uses this opportunity as a teaching moment that will dramatically change Martha’s life. He says, “You are worried and upset about many things. Only one thing is important. Mary has chosen the better thing, and it will never be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42 NCV).
“The better thing?” Martha must have wondered. What made Mary’s choice to sit so much better than Martha’s choice to serve?
I’m guessing that Mary isn’t a total waste of space. When Jesus stopped by, I’m sure Mary began the visit by helping out and serving like Martha. Maybe Mary took their jackets and walking sticks and piled them in a corner somewhere in Martha’s perfectly ordered house, then hurries to pour some wine for the thirsty crew. But after Jesus and the disciples made themselves comfortable in the living room, complimented Martha on her lovely home and wrapped up the small talk, Jesus began to teach.
Jesus speaks like none else ever has. There is a joy and winsomeness about him, and a magnetism in his words as if they breathe life itself. Mary creeps closer, her arms wrapped around an empty pitcher, just listening to Jesus. She knows that there’s more work to be done, but she can’t move—except closer. It wasn’t customary for a woman to sit in room full of men, but his words are so welcoming. She gradually moves closer and closer until she finds herself kneeling at his feet, savoring his every word. His teaching—full of grace and truth—envelops her, speaking straight to her soul.
Somewhere in the distance, she hears her sister calling her name, but it’s drowned out by Christ’s words. It isn’t every day God visits your house. So Mary ignores her duties, breaks with etiquette, and presses closer. As close to Jesus as possible. While Martha focused on her tasks, Mary focused on her Teacher. While Martha focused on jobs, Mary focused on Jesus.
I’m willing to bet that there are more of us here today who can identify with Martha than with Mary. “You are worried and upset about so many things.” How many of you can say “that about sums up my life”?
Life can get pretty hectic sometimes, can’t it? If you’re like me, at the start of the day you may have every intention of being like Mary—just sitting peacefully at the feet of Jesus, cultivating a closer relationship with Him. But then the phone rings or I’m reminded of the dentist appointment I have today, or the check I was supposed to deposit yesterday. Suddenly all of my good intentions about prayer time and peacefulness disappear, swallowed up by what Charles Hummel calls “the tyranny of the urgent.”
In his book by that title, Charles writes, “We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important… The problem is that the important task rarely must be done today or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and Bible study can wait. But the urgent tasks call for instant action—endless demands pressure every hour and day.”
Does that sound familiar? It does to me. The twenty-four hours allotted to each day rarely stretch far enough to meet all our obligations. Each week I have office work to accomplish, a sermon to write, church members to minister to, a wife to love, children to parent, a book to promote, a blog to write, another ministry with projects to complete and plans to coordinate. As foster parents, we’ve got home visits, and WIC appointments, and court dates.
Some of you are so busy, you’re thinking, “Is that all he has to do!?”
If your family is anything like ours, you’ve got a lot on your plate. You’ve got laundry to fold, dishes to wash, children to care for, a spouse to love, a dog to feed, church commitments to keep, football games to attend, toddlers to chase, lunch appointments, doctor’s appointments, hair appointments and that doesn’t even begin to account for the projects, paper work, and priorities at the office or in the shop or on the farm.
Life seems hectic at every level. Just like Martha, we are worried and upset about so many thing.
You’ve got a deadline to meet and a stack of orders to get out, so you get worried and upset. Your co-workers aren’t pulling their weight around the office, so you get worried and upset. Your kids are acting like the Tasmanian Devil hopped up on Mountain Dew, so you get worried and upset. Your mother-in-law is coming for a visit, so you get worried and upset. The preacher goes five minutes overtime on his message, so you get worried and upset!
It’s no fun being worried and upset, is it? You don’t want to feel like that and neither do I. God certainly doesn’t want you to feel that way. But worry has become so “spiritually acceptable” that many of us forget that worry is a sin—we do it all the time. For some of you, being worried and upset is a way of life.
But take a look over at Mary, sitting at Jesus’s feet, hanging on his every word. Does she look worried or upset? Does she seem stressed or bent out of shape? Could it be that Mary’s choice to sit at Jesus’ feet came with a soothing side-effect?
I’m convinced that the more time we spend at the feet of Jesus, the less we’re going to worry about the little annoyances of life.
In fact, Jesus set aside a portion of the Sermon on the Mount to talk about that very thing. He says, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear… Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-27 NLT).
We all know the answer is—no! In fact, just the opposite is true. According to WebMD studies have found that people with even low levels of anxiety, meaning you sometimes stayed awake at night worrying, for example, were about 20% more likely to die compared to people who don’t wrestle with worry.
Instead of being worried and upset all the time, Jesus wants us to seek Him first and when we do, He’ll personally eliminate a lot of our stress. In fact, the Bible says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” (Isaiah 26:3 NLT). When we fix our thoughts on Christ, we experience peace in his presence. Mary experienced his peace in the midst of a pressure-filled day. Martha missed out, because she let her to-do list take priority over her Lord. If we let Jesus help us to eliminate some of the trivial things we are spending so much time doing, we will enjoy our lives more. We’ll be happier…less frustrated…less burdened with guilt…and our lives will be far more satisfying and meaningful.
I think it’s noteworthy that when Jesus corrected Martha, He didn’t say, “Why can’t you be more like your sister, Mary?” (though it may have felt that way). Jesus knew that Martha would never be Mary, and Mary would never be Martha. But when the two were faced with the same choice—to work or to worship—Jesus said that Mary chose the “better thing.”
So does that mean we should all quit our jobs and just sit around doing Bible studies and having prayer meetings all the time? Of course, not. We all have responsibilities, important things that need our attention. Hard work and serving others are good things. But it’s easy to forget that while there’s a time to work, there’s also a time to worship—and it’s the worship, the time we spend with God that provides the serene center to a busy, complex life.
Meaningful intimacy and fellowship with God will never come out of the busyness of Martha’s kitchen. It can only be found at the feet of Jesus. The apostle Paul put it this way: “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.” (Philippians 3:8-9 NLT).
Martha’s story serves as a powerful reminder of how important it is for all of us to slow down, focus on Jesus, and draw closer to Him.
Conclusion
I’m sure Martha’s feelings hurt a bit after Jesus called her name twice. No one enjoys being corrected. I wouldn’t be surprised if Martha felt like stomping out of the room or maybe burning the pot roast on purpose. But instead, Martha took Jesus’s words to heart and learned from them.
The next time we see Martha, in John 11-12, we see a woman of indomitable faith with an overwhelming desire to be in the presence of Jesus. I think Martha’s transformation spells hope for the rest of us. Maybe you’ve spent the majority of your life being worried and upset about many things, but it’s not too late to slow down and take a seat at Jesus’s feet.
Next week, we’ll explore another time when God called someone’s name twice.
Invitation
In the meantime, some of you may feel overwhelmed, overworked and underappreciated right now. If that’s you, I want to encourage you to lay your burdens and anxieties at the feet of Jesus. Take some time today to slow down and connect with Christ personally through prayer, worship and Scripture. If I can help you do that, please talk with me while we stand and sing.
