Jesus knew what was going on in Martha's house that day. He knew that Martha was becoming distracted and then indignant. His response to her should give us all some pause. First, He needed to call her by name twice! Martha was so busy in her service to God she did not hear Him call her name the first time! After calling her name the second time, Jesus finally got her attention. Then He lets her know exactly what her problem is. Martha was worried about a great many things. Her worrying leads her to then be upset over a great many things. This is the nature of worry. It feeds off of itself. It is the same with fear and anxiety. The worry breeds more worry and the anxiety breeds more anxiety. The end result is an inappropriate reaction, in Martha's case - she gets upset. Maybe we get angry or maybe depressed. Maybe we get indifferent or apathetic. All because of allowing our worry to breed more worry. What did Jesus teach us about worry?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6: 27
But there we can be too. Our Martha dominating our lives. Always working for the Lord but never sitting at His feet. Never slowing our lives down enough to just listen to Him. More worried about the minute details of a ministry than the relationship we have with the lover of our soul. More upset if something goes wrong in our ministry than if something is wrong in our relationship with Christ. Martha loved God just as much as Mary; she just became numb from the work she took on. As a friend once preached, she developed a noisy spirit. Her worry led to upset and her upset led to her actually blaming God and claiming He did not care. She knew what she had to do in that house that day but forgot what she needed. Jesus next words reminded her that she only needed one thing. That one thing was her relationship with Him.
Jesus is saying the same thing to us today. The world needs our service. The church needs our service. Our service takes our faith and puts it into action but there is only one thing that we personally need. That is our relationship with Jesus. Is Martha's service wrong? Absolutely not. But Mary chose what was better. The message from Jesus here could not be clearer. Our relationship with Jesus has to be more important than our service unto Him. Not that you sacrifice one for the other but that we remember that Jesus in our life is our priority. Our walk must be our priority.
That is what Mary represents in this story; our walk with Christ. Mary represents our relationship with Jesus. Mary doesn't hear the bustle in the kitchen. She doesn't see the work going on around her. She is focused intently on the Lord, at His feet, listening. What a beautiful picture of how our relationship with Christ should be. Mary chose the better thing. Not the right thing; the better thing. Martha is not wrong; she just allowed her service to affect her walk.
And that is the true admonition in this story. We cannot confuse our service to God and our walk with Him. It happens all the time in churches as people are hurt in ministry and leave the church. Somewhere we left Mary behind in our pursuit of Martha. Why is Jesus making this point in the Gospel of Luke? The key is the final sentence of the story:
but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10: 42
Beloved, only one thing is needed Jesus Christ. Mary chose what is better because it will not be taken away from her. The truth is that no matter how important our ministries are, they will all fade away in time. No matter how vital our service is, it can always be taken away from us. But no one can take away our relationship with Christ.
