We need to be more Mary than Martha in this hour
Luke 10:38-42 (ERV)
38 While Jesus and his followers were traveling, he went into a town, and a woman named Martha let him stay at her house. 39 She had a sister named Mary. Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him teach. 40 But her sister Martha was busy doing all the work that had to be done. Martha went in and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are getting worried and upset about too many things. 42 Only one thing is important. Mary has made the right choice, and it will never be taken away from her.”
The Lord spoke to my heart this morning. He said we need to have the heart attitude of Mary and lessen Martha’s attitude. Both of these sisters loved Jesus. In reading the passage above, there is an implication that Martha was the oldest of the siblings. If that is the case it would explain a lot of why Martha was so “busy” preparing for Jesus and the apostles’ visit to their home. It was her responsibility to have a meal ready, the home welcoming, and make the guests comfortable. More than likely, Mary would have been helping her in these tasks. On this occasion, Mary was so caught up in the presence of Jesus, she ignored all the usual physical responsibilities to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen.
The one phrase from the Scripture above shows the heart of Martha; “doing all the work that had to be done”. There had to be food prepared, there had to be mats put out for the guests to sit upon, there had to be water to wash their feet upon entrance into the house. Mary ignored all that to sit with Jesus and hear what He had to say. We cannot judge Martha, we can understand her and see where she missed her opportunity to be with Jesus also. She chose to fret about perfecting the home-welcome, instead of welcoming the Lord.
We are in the same place this year. We have been so focused on survival, on doing the best we can to keep our homes, our families, our ministries, etc… going that we have neglected sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing what He has to say. We are missing time with Him, building relationships. May we resist being too busy to be with Him.