But more than the social implications of a woman perceived as "not knowing her proper place", far more than that . . .
This is lesson on priorities.
Some of us, by natural temperament, are high-octane action figures. Others are far more reflective. One sees a job that should be done and doesn’t stop until it’s done; while someone else, though raised by the same parents, may need to walk away from unfinished work and take time to reflect. Such differences in temperaments within a family can make for some real household tensions. But it is not really their temperaments that sets Mary and Martha at odds. It’s their sense of priority.
We all need to take time each day to reflect on God’s Word. We all must respond and act as obedient Christians. Those content to sit all day discussing various Bible verses while ignoring the desperate plight of others will quickly become unhealthy in their spiritual lives. Despite all their spiritual sounding dialogue, they will lose any vital connection with God.
But on the other hand, those who are perpetually busy, labouring night and day -- albeit doing good things, just things, noble things, serving others, may soon forget to depend on God and listen for his voice. And they too, will end up with an equally dysfunctional spirituality. Exhausted physically. Empty spiritually.
So what are the lessons from the story of Mary and Martha? There are several, but the first that emerges is . . .
Developing a unique gift.
The story of these sisters is an interesting study in the distinction between natural ability and a spiritual giftedness. Both women, obviously, are seeking to honour and serve Jesus, but in very different ways. Every day of their lives they engage in perfectly worthwhile and necessary tasks: but the difference lies in how they choose to use their time on this particular day. What is most crucial at this moment? Listening to Jesus, or serving him his lunch? Well, Martha’s choice is to throw herself into preparing a meal while Jesus is teaching in the other room. Mary’s choice is to seize the moment and listen. So Martha scolds, not Mary, but Jesus: why he doesn’t care that her sister has left her with all the work?
But he gently rebukes her. He apparently knows Martha quite well. They are obviously good friends and he’s had many opportunities to observe her over time. I’m sure Jesus would have been perfectly satisfied if Martha had simply put pot of lentils on to boil. Just a bit of bread and lentils Martha, please don’t fuss! But what was Martha doing that got her so busy? This is totally speculative question, but my suspicion is she was busy folding up the napkins to look like little sailboats.
Just kidding.
But Jesus does say she was worried and upset about many things. And she seems like the kind of person who might be upset if the napkin sailboats weren’t working out very well. Or if they didn’t get the best fish from the market or it was the wrong kind of wine or the lentils have bits of gravel in them. . . And Mary’s not helping her.
Maybe.
But on a deeper level Jesus is speaking to her, not just about this one busy hour in one busy day, but about an on-going deep need in her heart. There’s a whole lot going on in this woman. She’s complex. And she’s not the only one. Jesus often warned people not to worry about this life’s needs and problems. ( See Matt 6: 33 ; Luke 8: 14)
Now, it is, of course, good to serve the needs of others. But when Jesus is the guest and he is speaking, it’s time to stop and listen. Because there’s something unique he has to say to you. There’s something unique he wants to draw out of you so that only you can give to the world.
I have this weird, re-occurring dream
Every once in a while I have this dream where I’m invite to preach at a really large church: Sometimes it’s a swanky urban church full of well-heeled people. There’s a grand pipe organ and stone pillars holding up balconies filled with crowds. Sometimes it’s the same dream but it takes place in a very plain blue collar echo-ey tabernacle church filled with ordinary joes. But this church is always huge --like a opera house, or town hall. And the place is always full. These people are all dressed up and waiting and I’m stressed because I arrive a bit late and I’m ushered through a series of back rooms onto the platform. There is superb music, or a moving dramatic sketch -- everything is so well planned, and the pressure is on me, because soon everyone will be listening to what I have to say. But as the service goes on and on, the time is running out and finally, by the time I get up to speak, it’s too late. And just as I get up to start my sermon people start getting up to leave. I’m standing with my jaw hanging open.
And in my weird dream that turns into a nightmare, I then walk through the crowd, and its so large and everyone seems so excited, but I just get lost in the shuffle. And then there’s coffee time, and everywhere I look, there are little groups of people, clutching coffee cups, engaged in conversation, but I can’t seem to work my way into any one of those conversations. It’s like I’m totally socially inept. I’m the unloved outsider. The last straw comes for I when get in the long line-up for the refreshments and find, when it’s my turn, that the cake’s all gone and the coffee pot is dry.
So I slip out of the back door to get some air, and I just go home.
But what is for me just a really nightmare, is, for Jesus a constant reality. It happens to Him lot. Every Sunday! Churches are big and new, sound systems are turned on, preaching talent is astounding, music well done, the coffee is Starbucks.
But nobody’s listening.
Nobody is really getting the message. And at the end of the day, the Holy Spirit slips out the back door grieved. Do you know that Paul says that God’s Spirit grieves. What a profoundly disturbing thought.
Martha planned the dinner so well. But, you see, the dinner itself became so much the focus she had to neglect her guest in order to pull it off, and what purpose did that serve? Mary, on the other hand, realized the whole point of the gathering was a chance to listen to Jesus – to sit at the feet of Jesus.
Why is that so important?
It’s the only way we can grow in our spiritual lives. Being a "doer" never takes the place of hearing the Word and thinking through how it uniquely applies to me.
If Martha is to properly understand the relationship between her abilities and her spiritual gift, she must stop so much "doing" and start listening more. For only then can she truly serve God to the fullest. Only then will she discover what she alone can bring to the world. If she carries on simply using her natural abilities, as wonderful as they may be, she will simply become a very busy person doing many good things, who never learns to operate out of a sense of God’s enablement.
A person can have amazing abilities and talents, yet remain spiritually immature all their life. In order for Martha’s spiritual growth to be woven into her natural energies, she must grow in her knowledge of God. And Paul say, "faith comes from hearing, and hearing form the Word of God." (Rom 10:17)
Could it be that Jesus knows something we don’t know about Martha? Could it be that she is a person with a deep unmet need for love and acceptance. I’m just wondering if Martha might be what we call today a work-a-holic. And a work-a-holic is someone driven to do more and more to meet a need for acceptance from others by. Work-a-holics do so much for so many, yet never quite get to sense they have ever done enough. A WORK-AHOLIC is driven by the unending urge to find some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow where they will finally be accepted and loved. But every time they get close, someone moves the rainbow’s end and they must continue to strive. . .
There’s only one cure for work-aholism and that’s to learn to what it means to live in the GRACE of Jesus Christ. To receive God’s GIFTS unearned. To exercise a spiritual gift in which God works through us to bring glory to himself. But it takes time to discover and develop such a gift. Will Martha ever be able to take the time? Or will her days go by drawing her back, further and further in to the work-a-holic whirlwind?
Martha has a choice to make. There is but only one way out of the whirlwind: she must stop and listen to Jesus. And if she does, then perhaps, she will learn of whole new areas of service where she can direct her unbounded energies. Perhaps Jesus will push her out of the comfort zone of her kitchen, ask her to step out in faith and do amazing and wonderful deeds of love. She has not yet made that choice, but Mary has. And Jesus says, " there is need of only one thing, Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her."
Today, none of us can physically sit at the feet of Jesus as Mary did so long ago. We can however, still learn at his feet as we read and absorb the Bible. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to hear and read the Bible is the only way to grow in the unique spiritual giftedness we each have as believers in Jesus Christ. But we can’t do it alone. So this tale of two sisters is also about . . .
Cultivating energizing relationships
In the kingdom of God, raising money and gaining expertise are not nearly as important as building friendships. Many a Christian has starved to death spiritually alone in a room with their Bible. John Wesley said there is nothing more un Christian than a solitary Christian. ( Mc Grath, The Journey p )
To really come alive as Christians we must spend time with those who energize us. At the feet of Jesus, among the other disciples, Mary has found a place to recharge her batteries.
Picture two tomato plants: this one is healthy. It has put out strong deep roots into the soil and is drawing it’s nourishment from it.
Here’s another plant that’s wilted. It’s in transplant shock. This plant likes to move around a lot. It sees a nice patch of afternoon sun over there and says, " I’d like to move over there." only to realize that over in that other corner, the sprinkler dumps extra water so it wants to move again. But in the process, this poor plant goes through waves of shock. It wonders why it doesn’t grow as much as others, why it hasn’t yet produced any tomatoes? The answer is simple: it needs to stay in one soil long enough for the roots to develop and pull out the nutrients.
People are like that. There are times in our lives when we will experience being transplanted. If relationships grow difficult, we pull out and experience shock and set back -- and we can survive these shocks -- if we are taken care of. But, always, is best to stretch out our roots and get nourishment in one place --from God’s word, and in deep and sustaining relationships. That’s what Mary found at Jesus’ feet. Her sister Martha, however, is starting to get a little wilted: Her hair is falling out of its ribbon, she’s got flour on her cheek with a stream of sweat flowing through though it. . . And she wonders – out loud. . .
Doesn’t anybody care?
"Lord, don’t you care. . .?
It’s interesting that this incident comes directly on the heels of the parable of the Good Samaritan in which a man falls into the hands of robbers. Sometimes people rob us. They may not be thieves or abusers -- (they could be our own beloved children) but just being with them can really take it out of us. They rob us of our energy. We come away from spending time with them feeling just a little wilted.
But in the parable, who revives this man? The religious folk, the priest and Levite, walk on by offering nothing. But a Samaritan comes along, brings him to the inn, and is says he " took care of him." And he gives the innkeeper money and instructions: "Look after him. . . " he says. It’s the same Greek verb in both verses. It means care involving both forethought and provision. And it’s the same verb used in 1 Tim. 3:5, of a leaders care of the church—a significant association of ideas. In that verse Paul says if someone can’t take care of his own family, how can they take care of the church the household of God?"
To take care of another means we must be able to re-energized them. And in order to do that, the care-giver must first of all sit at the feet of Jesus. It means we are in a vital, energizing relationship with the Word of God. But that implies more than merely a private devotional life -- walking alone down the Jericho road is precisely the place where we can expect to run into the robbers. We don’t need that. For there was one who was beat up for us. Went to the cross for us. And we need to but sit at his feet. But what does it mean for us today to "sit at the feet of Jesus"? It can never be merely sitting alone in a room with a Bible. It means actively seeking out those people who have the ability to energize us with the word of God. And when we do
We will find our place in the kingdom
Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.
Jesus was not asking Martha to become a different type of a person any more than he asked that of Mary. What each sister needed was to find the place in the kingdom where God wanted them to be: "Only one thing is needed," Jesus says, and it is for us to be in that place. And Mary had chose to be in that place. And she would not be cheated out of the empowerment that would come from remaining where God wanted her to be. No one could take it away from her.
A few years back we rendez-vous-ed with our Rainy River, Ontario friends in Radium. It was so great to soak in the pool and catch up on the news -- especially from the Christian school where Korleen taught for ten years. And we were delighted to hear on that occasion that Daniel Neusbaumer had graduated.
When Korleen started at this school, this little boy was in kindergarten. Daniel is Down’s Sydrome. Daniel would never be able learn in the same sense others would learn, yet he would become one of the greatest blessings to that school. For one thing, he is an incredibly happy, funny guy. No matter how gloomy the day, his smile brought contagious joy to his classmates . He was also a very determined kid, who seemed never to get discouraged, even though at times it must have been incredibly hard for him. Yet he worked hard at his studies in spite of the challenge. No student could fail to be spurred on when facing their own difficulties simply by watching Daniel do his work. But something else happened when Daniel came to the school. Because of Daniel’s special needs, the school was able to hire Marylyn, to be a learning assistant for Daniel. But Daniel never took up all Marylyn’s time, especially as Daniel moved up through the grades, Marylyn, was increasingly free to help all the students - -especially those who needed extra help. And not just with school work, but with personal problems, during lunch hour or recess, Marylyn was always there. But if it weren’t for Daniel, Marylyn would not have been part of the school.
And finally Daniel graduates. And at the ceremony, it was noted how Daniel, in his later high school years, had taken on the school’s recycling programme -- collecting all the pop cans and juice boxes -- that was his job. As the MC of the grad ceremony listed all the rest of Daniel’s achievements, he grinned and pointed to himself to say, " That’s me, I did that!" Then Daniel received a long, long, standing ovation from parents and teachers and fellow students lasting many minutes. They acknowledged the blessing this guy had been to his school. Daniel Neusbaumer will never hold a Phd. or be the Prime Minister or play NHL hockey. But who can estimate the power he can have in the kingdom? Who can imagines the energy released by one person who is in the right place in the kingdom?
Which is really what this story is about.
Each one of us has been placed somewhere where only we can make a difference. All we have to do is "choose the one thing that is needed." Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus.
So here’s the life application question: Am I more like Mary? Or am I more like Martha "worried and upset about many things"? And you can ask yourself that. But, to be honest, I’m more like Martha far too much of the time. Maybe you, too? But here’s the Good News: We need only to chose that one thing in our lives that is truly needed. What might that be? We can know that God accepts us by his grace and not because of what we can do but because of who we are: redeemed, renewed people.
We can simply take our place and work and rest where we belong in the kingdom.
