Luke 10:38-42 "Only One Thing"

I love that today’s scripture, the story of Mary and Martha, comes in the Bible right after the parable of the Samaritan who is a good neighbor. Why? Because it is a good counterpoint to it. Today’s scripture helps to take the parable of the Good Samaritan and put it in proper perspective.

Last week, when I preached on the Good Samaritan, a couple people came up to me afterward to share with me their own Samaritan stories: times where they went out of their way to help someone in need. A couple of these stories were of how people were taken advantage of in their goodness. This happens and therefore it is worth noting that Jesus calls us to be wise in scripture and not just doormats to be walked over by those around us.

But today’s scripture comes right after the parable of the Good Samaritan and I wonder if perhaps the main character in it, Martha, happened to be there hearing Jesus tell of the Good Samaritan. And I wonder if Martha was moved into action by this parable that she heard. You see, Jesus had just told those around him to care for those in need, and the next thing we know, Martha and her sister Mary are inviting Jesus and his disciples to stay with them. This doesn’t seem like the safest thing to do, but maybe she is going out on a limb, trying to “go and do likewise” as Jesus asked those around him to. This I understand.

You see, when I am really into something, I find I want to do something about it with my hands. I’m sure that I get this from my dad. This means that as a kid I built models of planes and spaceships that I liked. It means that in college I would spend a lot of time drawing, and what I would draw would change based on what my interests at the time were. It means that I am constantly looking for a way to act out my interest in something.

Last August, I read a new book by a favorite author of mine where he retells the story of Robin Hood. Next thing I knew, I was pulling out my old bow and arrow and trying to shoot again, something that I hadn’t done since childhood. This is an interesting reaction to my environment. It means that I need to be extra careful after seeing a movie with a lot of action or fast driving in it because I just may find myself trying to act it out. And that can be dangerous.

All this is to tell you that I understand where Martha is coming from in today’s story. She, like me, likes to do things to show what is important to her. She had been out and about and had heard this great teacher preaching amazing things. She invited him to stay with her and her sister along with his disciples. He had moved her with his teachings and her response was to want to make sure that he was cared for.

But Martha, in her desire to do something for Jesus, in her desire to act out her excitement about his teachings, misses out on what is really important. She misses out on a true experience of Jesus. But worse than this, she is forever associated as someone who is a busybody, who works too hard, who is so busy taking care of others that she doesn’t allow herself to be taken care of.

1. Hierarchy

I truly believe that Martha gets a bad rap in today’s scripture. It sure seems like laziness is what Jesus is honoring here. It sure seems like hard work and devotion are being put down. I mean, if Martha hadn’t been running around making sure that everything was okay, her sister Mary couldn’t have sat at Jesus’ feet. Martha’s self-sacrifice allowed Mary to experience that which was truly important. And yet Martha is the one who is attacked by Jesus, who is corrected, who is put in her place. We know that this is the beginning of an important friendship. Martha and Mary both stay close to Jesus throughout the rest of his ministry and he comes to think of them as friends. Each year, as he travels to Jerusalem for the Passover, he goes through their town and spends time with them. Martha’s invitation for Jesus to stay with them has a long-lasting effect on her and her sister’s lives. So, I think we need to look at this story in its broader context to understand it fully.

The context that helps us to understand this story is that Jesus really believes that some things are more important than others. Throughout his teaching, Jesus continues to tell us that taking care of others is more important than taking care of yourself. On the one hand, Jesus tells people not to worry about what they’re going to eat or drink or wear, because God will provide for them. Then, later on he tells them to provide for those who aren’t able to take care of themselves. He encourages them to be about caring for the poor and the needy. Well, why don’t the poor and needy just trust in God and he will provide for them? Well, that’s not the way God chooses to work. Instead, he chooses to use us to provide for the needs of others. And when we take these two teachings of Jesus and see them in context with each other, we see that Jesus is trying to teach his disciples, he is trying to teach us, that we should not spend our time worrying about ourselves, but rather worrying about how we can help those around us.

But this isn’t then end of Jesus’ teaching. It gets weirder. You see, at another point, Jesus is eating a meal at someone’s house and a woman comes in and pores oil all over his feet. Those around him are troubled by this waste. Maybe she should have sold the oil and given the proceeds to the poor. Jesus’ response to this has always troubled me. His response is to say that “the poor will always be among you, and you can help them whenever you want. But you only have me a short time.”

This seems particularly harsh. After all Jesus’ teachings about the poor, here her dismisses them as something that will always be around and not terribly important. And that’s where the context comes into the story. You see, in all Jesus’ other teachings, caring for the poor is extremely important, but honoring Jesus is more important than the poor. Here, again we see the hierarchy of importance in Jesus’ teachings. The poor are more important than yourself. But Jesus is more important than the poor.

2. Becoming…

And that takes us back to today’s scripture. Jesus isn’t saying to Martha that it isn’t important to take care of the things that need to be taken care of. He isn’t saying that preparations for having guests are not important. He is just saying that there are more important things.

As I already mentioned, Jesus has just preached one of his great parables, encouraging people to be good neighbors to all they come in contact with. He shared a story of someone who, at the spur of the moment, decided to do the right thing. But there’s a process that gets us to the point where we are the kind of person who chooses to do the right thing. Again, being a good neighbor is not about what you plan out, it is about what you do at the spur of the moment, and this means that it is showing who you are as a person. And we are constantly going through a process where God is molding us into the people he calls us to be. Here, in the story of Mary and Martha, we are given a glimpse of how to become the kind of person who will help the stranger in need. How do we become that sort of person? By sitting at the feet of the Master. By sitting at Jesus’ feet.

Now, lets look at context again. What comes after the story of Martha and Mary? Instructions on how we are to sit at the feet of the Master. Jesus teaches his disciples about prayer. And we are going to look at those teachings next week. But, again, it tells us what is truly important. You see, we don’t have Jesus physically present at our home, we don’t have the ability to physically sit at his feet and hang on his every word. But that doesn’t mean that Jesus hasn’t given us a tool to grow. The tool that we have, the way that we are allowed to sit at the Master’s feet, is the tool of prayer.

So, let us look at the hierarchy again. First of all, there is the truth that we are called to care for others as much as we care for ourselves. We aren’t supposed to worry about our own needs, instead we need to be worrying about the needs of others. We are to care for the poor and the strangers. And above all of this, we are called to sit at the Master’s feet. If we sit at Jesus’ feet, we will become the kind of people who hold these other things important. And the way to sit at Jesus’ feet is to learn to pray.

Where are your priorities on this continuum? Where do you fit in? I, honestly, find myself pretty low on it quite often. Thankfully, there is a path that God has given us to move up this list. When we learn to put Jesus first, and when we discover the power that comes with prayer, a power not only to change the world, but to change ourselves, then we will find ourselves with our priorities right, just like Mary did. And we will learn when to put down all our activities and all the busy things we do, for ourselves, for those around us, for the church, and we will learn to sit at the feet of Jesus, we will learn to be in the presence of Jesus. And this will change us in wonderful and powerful ways.