MARY AND MARTHA....WHICH ARE YOU?

In today’s hectic, hurry-up climate, it’s easy to get ensnared by to-do lists, family demands, and even Kingdom service. But in all our business, we often lose track of the one thing that is needed, or as Jesus put it to Martha, the “better part.” Learning to cultivate intimacy with the Lord and keep Him in the center of our lives can be a challenge. But once we develop this relationship with Him, we’ll discover a greater satisfaction, fullness, and balance to our lives than we’ve ever known.

Luke 10:38-42 tells a story of two very different sisters. Mary and Martha have nearly opposite

personalities, characteristics, and~ in response to the arrival of Jesus in their home~actions. As Christians it’s easy to find ourselves caught in a tug-of-war as we strive to worship like Mary, yet handle the busyness and pressures of the day like Martha.

A Picture of Mary

As Martha scurried to handle all the arrangements of hosting a houseful of men, Mary became so enthralled by Jesus that she made herself unavailable to help her sister serve. She was so enraptured by His teaching and His presence she simply could not pull herself away from sitting at His feet to go help Martha. Due to the customs of the time, this was a very bold choice. Mary chose to ignore the traditions of her day and break social rules just to be as close to Jesus as possible. Mary was probably more mellow by nature than Martha. More than likely she took the unexpected in stride and didn’t allow circumstances to fill her with stress. Because of her personality, she no doubt found it easier to respond the way she did. Martha, who tended to be a perfectionist at heart, needed to be sure that everything was “just right” for Jesus and His disciples.

A Picture of Martha

Martha truly had the heart of a servant. She was honored to have Jesus and His disciples in her home, and she wanted to be the best possible hostess she could. To her that meant taking care of every detail in preparing the food and making her home comfortable for her guests. Although there was nothing inherently wrong in Martha wanting to serve, her personality allowed this situation to produce stress and anxiety. As a result, she became quite irritated with her sister for not lending a hand. She just couldn’t understand how sitting and listening to Jesus teach was more important than serving Him; and essentially, she told Jesus as much: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself. Tell her to help me!”

Jesus’ Response

Instead of sympathizing with Martha, Jesus rebuked her, saying she was “worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.” He continued by commending Mary, saying that she had chosen the “better part.” Jesus tried to get across to Martha that, although she “opened her home to [Him]…that doesn’t automatically mean she opened her heart. In her eagerness to serve [Him], she almost missed the opportunity to know [Him].” Jesus didn’t become angry with Martha. He understood her pain, but He loved her enough to tell her what she needed to hear. He also realized Mary and Martha had very different personalities and gifts, which certainly could have contributed to the way they responded to the moment. But even so, each was faced with the same choice: to work or to worship. Jesus still said, “Mary has chosen the better part.”

Our Response

Just as the “better part” was available to Mary and Martha, it is also available to each of us. When Jesus calls us to come sit at His feet, we shouldn’t view it as just one more thing to cram into our already busy day. Instead, we need to understand that time with Jesus is that “one thing that is needed.” Jesus was never in a hurry and was never “held hostage to the world’s demands or even its desperate needs.” The key to His success~and peace~was that He only did what His Father told Him to do. As we choose the “better part,” we, too, will have success and peace in living a balanced life. Even though the world constantly screams at us to do more and be more, God says to us, “Be still and know that I am God.”

He doesn’t want us to perform for Him. He wants us to commune with Him. We must learn from

Martha and be careful that in our eagerness to serve Him, we don’t miss out on knowing Him.

Worry

The Bible commands~not merely suggests~that we do NOT worry! God knows how destructive the assault of worrying is against our faith and devotion to Him. Yet, many Christians spend too much time in a state of anxiety. It’s critical that we recognize the roots of worry and learn to overcome them if we ever hope to live with a peaceful heart.

A Distracted Heart

When the Lord rebuked Martha, He told her she was “worried and upset about many things.” How did Martha get to this place of worry? Scripture says she was “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” She allowed her busyness to draw her heart away from God.

This is a good place for Satan to launch his attack against us. “If we’re overly worried and bogged down by duties, chances are good our hearts will not hear the Savior’s call to come…getting our eyes off of what is important will certainly make us more vulnerable to attack.” It’s not that what Martha was doing was unimportant. In fact, she was ministering to the Lord…..But she was too busy to see what was truly important at that moment. Martha was distracted.

Distractions lead to discouragement. Discouragement is a precursor to self-pity and depression. When we get overwhelmed, we feel hopeless and useless. Soon we lose all hope and vision for our future. And, most dangerous of all, when we’re discouraged, we start doubting that God

cares about us or even loves us. Doubt is deadly to our faith because it can easily turn into unbelief, which the Bible calls sin.

Although we all have busy lives and many responsibilities that continually crowd our hearts

and minds, our job is not to allow those things to become the central issues in our lives. In order to achieve the “better part” that Mary found, we have to make sure Christ stays in the center of our world and everything else revolves around Him.

Making Room

Keeping our hearts centered on Christ requires time and an act of our will. We must be willing to make time~to make room~for God in our everyday lives. We may need to actually schedule time with God into our day, and then make sure that nothing interrupts it. Everything else needs

to come second place to our relationship with Christ. When we don’t make room for God, we will begin to notice the effects, as we start feeling empty and frustrated. Because we may not even realize how much we’re missing God’s presence, it’s important to take a regular spiritual account of our lives to evaluate our relationship with Him. “Sometimes we have to realize how empty we are before we’re willing to be filled.”

Don’t Limit God

God wants to fill us with all His fullness. He wants us filled more than we do! Being filled with God requires us being stretched out of our comfort zone. If we are serious about achieving the “better part,” we’ll need to take an inventory of our lives to see what’s holding us back from spending time with God. Many of these things could be good, even holy things. But if they are keeping us from God, they are sin because the very definition of sin is separation from God. We are the ones responsible for limiting God’s presence in our lives. He will meet us wherever we are.

Martha’s Transformation

Martha’s life changed forever the day Jesus came to her home. And even though she probably

didn’t realize it at the time, it was Jesus’ rebuke of her attitude toward Mary that changed her the

most. Later in the Gospel accounts, as we witness Martha’s amazing transformation, we can look back on that day of new beginnings and realize it holds lessons for us as well.

Hearing Jesus Out

When Jesus rebuked Martha for being worried and anxious instead of at peace in His presence, He was going after a change of heart, not just a change of action. Jesus chose to confront  Martha’s attitude because He knew this was a root in Martha’s heart that needed to be

pulled out. Martha felt valued because of her productivity, but Jesus wanted her value based solely on Him.

To Martha’s credit, she didn’t storm from the room or argue with Jesus. She simply stayed put and quieted herself long enough to hear what He had to say. When we’re “busy in the kitchen, the rebuke sounds harsh and demanding, just one more duty to fulfill. But when [we] listen from the Living Room, [we] hear the love in God’s voice.” It benefited Martha greatly to stay in the Living Room and receive Jesus’ reprimand. Based on Martha’s subsequent transformation, it appears she humbled herself before the Lord that day, receiving His rebuke and allowing Him to change her heart. humbled herself before the Lord that day, receiving His rebuke and allowing Him to change her heart.

The New Martha

In the story of Martha and Mary from the book of Luke, Martha is seen as impatient, anxious, and bossy. She had allowed the cares and worries of her duties to consume her, leaving no space for Jesus in her heart. But later, in the story of Lazarus’s death, we witness a new, improved Martha. When Lazarus died and Martha heard that Jesus had finally arrived in her town, she left a houseful of guests and ran to meet Him. Nothing mattered to her at that moment but seeing Jesus. She poured her heart out to Jesus when she saw Him, exhibiting a new vulnerability

and intimacy with Him that we did not see before. Additionally, there was great faith now evidenced in Martha’s life as she tells Jesus, “I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Having a Teachable Heart

The reason behind Martha’s transformation is her teachable and humble heart. If we want God’s

power to change us, we, too, need to be teachable. There are three keys to having a teachable spirit. First, we need to be willing to listen. The Bible offers countless examples of how God couldn’t do His work in people because they did not listen to Him. With us, we either deliberately don’t listen, we subconsciously don’t listen because we’re afraid of what God may require of us, or we get too busy to listen. Whatever the reason, when we don’t listen to God, we miss the opportunity to teach us and transform us. Second, when we do hear God, we must act on what He says. If we do not take action once we receive His instruction, we may prevent ourselves from hearing Him again. Disobedience is sin, and sin can plug up our spiritual ears. Jesus tells us if we love Him we will obey Him.

Remaining Intimate with Jesus

It’s imperative to arrive at a balance between the two sides of our Christian life~work and worship. We must learn to walk the tightrope between having a quiet Mary heart and using our busy Martha hands.

The most important thing we can do to achieve and maintain a life of balance is to develop and

grow our relationship with Christ. This relationship is the support that makes balance possible; the stronger the relationship, the more stable the balance. As we surrender each day to the Lord, asking Him for direction, He will make sure that our lives reflect the perfect balance of worship and work.