Family Ministry Moments - September 2024
Confession - I’m a Martha!
Recently our family was watching The Chosen, a dramatization of the life of Jesus and the disciples. Jesus was at the house of his friend, Lazarus, teaching. Lazarus’ sister, Mary, listened intently while his other sister, Martha, attended to the guests, ensuring everyone was comfortable and fed. Martha attempts to rebuke her sister for just sitting there while she was doing all the work. She does this by asking Jesus to tell Mary to help her. Jesus kindly rebukes Martha saying that Mary, by sitting at Jesus' feet, has chosen the better thing. This story comes from Luke 10:38-42. It was portrayed very powerfully in the show. I was moved because I saw myself in the person of Martha.
The Chosen is a dramatization that takes some liberties to fill in the gaps in scripture so we can not use it as our source of truth; however, it is helpful to see biblical accounts played out on the screen for us, provided we reconcile our thoughts, feelings, and actions with scripture. In our day and age, we are such visual creatures, reading less and less and having less and less imagination. It can be difficult to imagine the context and setting of the biblical accounts. That is why this story touched me so much.
I have read the account of the story in Luke 10 many times. I have taught on it and I have heard it taught many times. For some reason when Jesus told Martha, “You are anxious and troubled about many things” in vs. 41 it hit differently. Maybe it is the stage of life I am in or the busyness of the summer all while preparing for the school year. Whatever it is, I can relate to Martha at this moment.
Martha was anxious because she was, “distracted by much serving.” (v. 40). She has at least 13 guests in her home, one of which was Jesus. She probably wanted to make sure everything was perfect. She was overwhelmed. So much so that she asked Jesus to instruct her sister to help her. Jesus surprises all of us by rebuking Martha, saying there are many things you can be concerned about but there is only one truly necessary thing, the thing that Mary was doing, sitting at Jesus' feet listening.
The gravity of this should not be lost on us. Mary was simply sitting at Jesus' feet absorbing what he was saying. This is a humble and open posture. Someone who wants to take it all in; someone that is not only interested in knowledge, but one that is listening for life change. In my own life, I have noticed a difference between when I am listening to get the information and when I am really listening because what I am hearing is impactful to my life. This happens when my heart and my head connect while I am learning. It doesn’t happen all the time but when it does I have found myself being intentional to listen and have an openness to hear what is being said. This was what Mary was doing, she was listening intently.
Serving the Lord is super important! We are called to serve but there are many of us, myself included, that are just like Martha. We get lost in our service, we find our validation in it and if we are not careful we resent others that are not serving. The prescription for people like Martha is not to stop serving but to make sure we include times of sitting at Jesus' feet. Realize that you don’t have to be busy all the time. Make yourself sit in quiet reflection on the Bible and in prayer. Make sure your posture, both physically and mentally, is open to what God is saying through His Word. Our time of devotion is not just another thing to cross off the list (Marthas love crossing things off a list), it is a vehicle to grow our relationship with Jesus. My challenge for you and myself is to be intentional about spending time with Jesus this week. It can be difficult at first because you will want to be doing something “productive”, but sometimes the most productive thing we can do as a Christian is to sit at Jesus' feet and just listen.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Colossians 3:1-2