Which Are You Like, Mary or Martha.  (Luke 10 38-42)

This is a tale about two ladies; they were sisters. They had much in common—they're sisters, so they had the same set of parents, grew up in the same town, and probably had similar experiences as they were growing up. Like many sisters, while they were alike in many ways, they were also radically different in some ways.

Now, the reason this story about these two sisters is important to us is that all of us are probably like one or the other. So what I'd like to do tonight is tell you a tale of two ladies. I invite your attention to Luke chapter 10.

Luke chapter 10, where I'm going to begin reading with verse 38. Luke chapter 10, verse 38, "

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

(Luke 10: 38-42)

Now what happened as they entered a certain village." Luke does not identify the village, but information gathered from elsewhere in the New Testament no doubt indicates that they were in the town of Bethany, which is where Mary and Martha were from. 

This is their hometown; Bethany was about two miles north of Jerusalem. The other thing that this says to us is that Martha was probably the oldest and probably the mistress of the house.

Look at verse 38 again, "A Martha welcomed Jesus into her house." So, this is her house, maybe it was both of their houses because they are sisters or maybe it wasn't, because maybe they lived apart. 

But that little phrase seems to indicate that Martha was the mistress of this house, whatever the arrangement might be.

Then Luke tells us in verse 39, "She has a sister named Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word." 

So, the setting is rather simple. We have two ladies, Martha and Mary. Martha is sort of the mistress of that house, and Mary is her sister, and she's over at her sister house listening to Jesus.

What’s going on is explained in verse 40. "But Martha was distracted with much serving," which had to do with serving the food. So, here's the setting: Martha is in the kitchen preparing all the food, and Mary is sitting on a footstool listening to Jesus teach.

Now, apparently, Mary had been in the kitchen. If you just read the story quickly, that's not very apparent. But if you read it carefully, that seems to be what's going on here. For example, in verse 40, it says, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?" 

That seems to imply to me that Mary and Martha were working in the kitchen together, and at some point, Mary left the kitchen to go sit at the feet of Jesus. At any rate, that's the setting of the story: Martha in the kitchen, Mary is now in another room, Martha preparing the food, Mary listening to Jesus.

So, Martha is distracted with lots to do, and she approaches Jesus, "and says, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.'"

Obviously, Martha is a little agitated at this point, and in fact some translations say she was disturbed, but disturbed in what sense?

But here's the key little phrase: "But Martha was distracted with much serving." That seems to indicate that she was preparing a lavish, elaborate kind of meal. 

Maybe that has to do with the fact that perhaps some of the apostles were here, and there was a lot of people to serve. But many take this as she was preparing a lot of food over and above what you would normally think of.

She approaches the Lord and says, "You do not care that my sister has left me alone. Therefore, tell her to help me." Now, she's disturbed, because her sister left her alone; she's doing all the work. 

Let me just tell you, there are people in every congregation who do much serving. Now their special people, the church couldn't exist without them. You know, we'd be in great trouble if we didn't have them. 

But here is the occupational hazard of being one of those kinds of people. I've seen this happen over and over again; they're workhorses, they do all the work, and in the process, they get distressed.

Their standard complaints and criticism are, "Nobody's helping me. This happens a lot.

So, she's got an attitude; she's got an attitude toward her sister because her sister isn't in there doing what she thinks needs to be done. Now, if I'm correct in assessing that the sister had been in the kitchen and left, and that Martha was over-preparing. 

Many bible experts have suggested that that's what's going on here, that she's saying, in essence, "Mary, you ought to be doing what I'm doing." Isn't that the way it is with some people? 

They often judge other people not by some kind of objective or biblical standard, but we judge them based on what we think needs to be done. They aren't doing it like I am doing it; therefore, I've got a problem with her or him.

But she goes way beyond all of that. Look at what she says to the Lord. "Do you not care?" She not only is complaining about her sister, she's complaining about the Lord. "Don't you care? 

That’s a bit of an indictment, she's left me." But she feels she can even tell the Lord what he should do. "I want you to tell her to come help me." 

So, she is thinking of the sister as being selfish, and she's thinking of the Lord as showing favouritism and not appreciating what she is doing. She's clearly got a critical attitude.

The simple truth is the picture that Luke is painting is that she is distracted, and she is distressed, or to say the same thing another way, she is simply too busy doing stuff, to the point she misses what is important here.

Now, at this point, Jesus responds to her. Verse 41 says, "Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha,'" and that's a repetition that seems to indicate some kind of affection. "Martha, my dear Martha," he says to her in probably tender tones, "you are worried and troubled about many things." Now, I want to focus for a bit on "you are worried and you are troubled." 

"Do you know how often the scripture tells us that we should not worry? If you looked up many of those references, you would discover that Jesus warns us about this emotion, more than any else.

Today we have an epidemic of worry, with more and more people struggling with depression and anxiety. 

As a matter of fact, in the sermon on the mount we hear Jesus say, 'If I say to you, do not worry about your life—what you will eat or what you will drink—or about your body—what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?'

So, Jesus warns us not to worry about such things as food and clothing. He asks the question, 'Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?' 

I mean, imagine worrying about your height, and Jesus is saying you could worry for the rest of your life and you're not going to add one inch to your stature. 

So, he says, you know what he's saying: you're doing all this worrying about such things—what to eat, what to drink, what to wear—it doesn't do any good. 

I mean, I've got another way. Have you ever worried at work? Did you ever worry, and it helped? In my experience, with me personally, all that worrying I do was for nothing. It didn't help one bit; it was a waste of energy.

Hear me, and hear me well. Paul said, "Be anxious for nothing." The Greek word translated as "worry" in Luke is the same one that's translated as "worry" in the sermon on the mount which I quoted a moments ago, and it's also the same one translated as "anxious" in Philippians 4:6. "Be anxious about nothing? 

How do you manage to pull that off? “In everything, by prayer with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to the Lord."

The Lord may not always answer; there are many passages in the Bible that say, "If you pray, you'll get an answer if you believe, if you're in the will of God," and so forth. However, this passage says you may not necessarily get what you want, but it does promise that the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds, eliminating worry.

Jesus says to Martha, who is worrying here, " She is runnning around." Jesus says two things about her in verse 41: "Martha, Martha." She's not only worrying; she is troubled, and that's the word I used a while ago to describe her. It means she's distressed, even disturbed. She is anxious, and she is restless, almost trying to get all of this done. 

So, her response is to blames her sister and the whole thing; she maybe even blames the Lord for not helping deal with the issue as she see’s it.

So here's what Jesus says to her, "Look at you, you're worried and you're troubled about many things. What are the many things? The meal, all those people she has to serve, and probably a few more things.

Then he says this, "But one thing is needed." Now, that is the pivotal point in this message, very critical. What is the one thing? Well, there are two different theories. 

One is that he's saying, "One thing is needed," meaning you are preparing too much food, and one simple dish is sufficient. "I never asked for a big spread; One course of a simple meal is all I want." It's an interesting spin because that's not the normal way that's read, but I think that has some merit.

That's definitely part of what's going on with Martha; she's all wrapped up in getting all this done, and she doesn't feel appreciated at all.

The other interpretation, which is no doubt the most common, is that he's talking about the one thing you need to do is worry about your spiritual nourishment, the spiritual exercise of spending tie and communing with the Lord. 

Jesus is telling Martha that the one simple thing that Mary has chosen to do was more important than the many things Martha had chosen to do. The implication was that Mary should listen more and lab or less. 

The good thing that Mary would not lose was the blessing that came to those who pay attention to the teaching of Jesus. 

This then was a lesson in the priorities of Martha and all of Jesus' disciples. Jesus' point was not that a contemplative life can be better than an active life.

Giving attention to Jesus' words is of primary importance. This is the better way to serve him. This passage should be a warning to disciples who tend to be too active in Christian works but neglect the word of God."

That's by far the most common interpretation. I'd like to make a suggestion; it is probably both.

I think what Jesus is really saying is, "Martha, you're doing too much. Only one of the many things you are doing is really necessary; you are doing too much." Now he says to Mary in verse 42, "Has chosen the good part." It's not that this is better; it's good, and you can do both, as I mentioned earlier.

I think it's very possible that Mary had been in the kitchen; she had done her part in the kitchen, and Jesus is saying that she chose to do something else that was also good. And Martha ought to learn from that. 

I'm not going to say to her, "Go help Martha," because Martha is doing too much, and she needs to learn to not do so much. She's overthinking and overdoing things, so she needs to settle down and do what Mary is doing. And what is Mary doing is simply listening, and I would assume that means she's learning.

So, it good to serve, absolutely. But along with that, you should also listen and learn. 

So let me sum all of this up very simply. I think Jesus corrected Martha for being too busy and not learning and listening. If you are too busy to listen and learn, you're too busy. 

If you are too busy to just calm down and sit and listen and learn by listening to the scripture, you're too busy.

And the too busy could be something simple like housework, but it also could be something like being busy in the ministry. 

There are some people in churches who are just too busy, and I’m not just talking about Pastors and ministers.

Now don’ get me wrong, both learning and serving are necessary. Sitting and serving are both necessary. The issue in this story is not serving versus learning. I think sometimes it gets preached that way, and that's unfortunately innocent.

Mary and Martha represent two equally legitimate aspects of the Christian life: devotion to the Lord, learning from the Lord on the one hand, and activity on the other. It is not that one is good, and the other is bad. Both are necessary.

The right balance is between the life of quiet worship in spirit and truth and the practice of active service. Religions people can tend to lapse into either excessive contemplation or into dry outward formal religion. 

Jesus calls us to worship as well as live a life of practical service. My observation is that people get all wrapped up in, let's call it, the contemplated life, and there are others who get all caught up in serving. And I'm saying that we need both. 

Mary and Martha were often contrasted but we are not called to make a choice between being a worker like Martha or a worshipper like Mary.  The Christian life is not either-or; the Lord wants us to imitate Mary in our worship and Martha in our work. "Blessed are the balanced."

But here's the problem: we're tend to be naturally bent one way or the other. That's the problem.  "They show us the clash of temperaments going on here. 

You see some people are natural dynamos of activity, and others are naturally quiet. 

It is hard for the active person to understand the person who sits in contemplates. And the person who is devoted to quiet time and meditation is apt to look down on the person who would rather be active. There is no right or wrong in this; God didn't make everyone alike, and he needs us all, he just asks us not to judge the other type of person.

So, here's my suggestion: if you're the kind that would like to sit and read and meditate and contemplate, that's fine. Just make sure that's not all you do.

And if you're the kind that would rather work than read, that's fine. Just make sure that you spend a little time with the Lord, not just reading, but learning what you read.

I want to close by talking about the point of the passage. That is, that serving should not be overdone to the point were spending time learning from the Lord is neglected.

The point of the passage is that Martha is overdoing it, and she's neglecting what Mary is doing. And that is learning from the Lord. 

To say that in the same way, we must never get so busy that we fail to learn from the Lord. Service must not be anxious and agitated. We must not get that way with our fellow Christians or with the Lord himself. 

We should not busy ourselves to such an extent that outward things are neglected, like quiet worship of the Lord. Am I making sense? Got it? 

Are you more Martha or are you more Mary? Do you need to be a little more like Martha or a little more like Mary? 

I think all of us can figure out we need something from both of them. 

The message her I believe is, if you are doing the work you do for the Lord them please regularly stop long enough to learn from the one you are supposed to be doing these things for.