Thursday, 28 March Luke 10:38-42
Written by Dr Graham Leo. ©2019.
This is one of those difficult passages in the Bible. Be honest. How did you feel while you were reading it? Like this is a nice story, but really totally impractical?
Be honest! Did you feel very cross with Mary in this story? Did you feel that Jesus was being unfair in how he treated Martha?
Our lives are characterised by being busy. Busy-ness is a quality of life for us. It is a sign of being important. It’s often said as a compliment: “Keeping busy?”, or “I know you’re busy, but…”
We live in a constant sense of being behind schedule; tasks not done, appointments missed, deadlines not meant, friends not caught up with…
This constant sense of occupation is bad enough, but we also let our selves be overtaken by pre-occupations. Things fill our minds and take our attention before they happen.
What if I lose my job? What if I get sick, or have an accident? What if the stock market crashes? What if there is a war? What if my children aren't happy?
News reporters fill our days. We must watch the TV news, or read it on our phones; the excited voices of reporters convince us that this night’s news is desperately important.
On top of all this is the avalanche of advertisements, and comments on social media.
The message is unrelenting. We will be less than human, our lives will be unfulfilled, we will miss out on something terribly worth having, if we don’t buy this soap, drive that car, wear this brand, see that movie, read this book, buy that funeral insurance.
As if we didn’t have enough genuine worries and causes for concern, TV and social media add a whole new set of fabricated ones.
Our lives are constantly filled up. But a filled-up life is not the same as a fulfilled life. In the midst of our tearing busy-ness, we can have a deep sense of being unfulfilled.
Jesus speaks into this mess of life gone wrong in this profound story. He asks us to shift the Centre of Gravity in our lives. He tells us to stop being distracted. See v. 40.
Distraction and worrying is what causes us to be deeply dissatisfied in our spirits.
Jesus’ response to our distracted lives is not to ask us to pull out, to drop out. It is not just to slow down and have some spare time, or take a holiday.
He doesn’t want us to leave this world, but to be firmly rooted in his kingdom, while still living in this world. What he wants is that we change the centre of gravity of our hearts. This is the central issue of the Mary and Martha drama.
It is totally human to be indignant that Martha should have been rebuked by Jesus. All she wanted to do was to prepare the meal. That lazy Mary was sitting down having a nice chat, when the potatoes had to be peeled, the meat cooked, and the washing up from breakfast done.
This is not a call to be a sloppy manager or a dirty housekeeper, or a holy dropout. It is a call to do whatever it is that you do, with your heart in the centre of God’s kingdom.
This is the internal struggle to establish Jesus as the only Lord and genuine owner of your life. To make the life of the Spirit your life.
It is clear that Jesus did this. He was busy. A casual reading of the Gospels will show that he dealt with huge crowds, with a constantly-interrupted schedule, but with a calm and sure sense of purpose. He had time for the children, and the persistent who came to him.
I want to suggest to you two things that exemplified his life and allowed him to be constantly serving the Kingdom:
Firstly, Obedience to do the work of the Father, arising (secondly) out of a deep and inexhaustible love for his Father. Do you see that these are, respectively, what Martha and Mary were each focussing on?
Jesus’ life resounded with his obedience. From his first recorded words, Did you not know I must be busy with my Father’s affairs? to his last words on the cross, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, he exemplified a life of obedience.
The world is so loud, and we allow so many noises and voices into our life that we drown out the voice of Jesus. We need to develop spiritual disciplines which will help us to hear the voice of God, speaking into our lives the living word of life.
It was not that Martha didn’t have to prepare the dinner. Someone had to! But look at v40 closely: Martha was distracted by all the preparations…
Mary’s choosing the better part was not the fact that she was sitting at Jesus’ feet. It was in not being distracted, remaining unstressed by the busyness.
Martha could have received Jesus’ commendation by preparing the dinner with Jesus as her Centre of Gravity. Perhaps the dinner may or may not have been so grand; perhaps it would have been even longer in the preparation. Or perhaps it would have been exactly as it was, but Martha would have been just concentrating on doing that job well, not on what Mary was doing.
Mary could have been at Jesus’ feet with a wrong motive, to pretend to be holy. There’s always one of those in any congregation! Then Jesus would have swapped the rebuke. The problem did not lie in Martha’s busy-ness and Mary’s apparent idleness. It lay in their attitude to the moment.
What is your Centre of Gravity? Whose voice are you listening to?
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, please help me to establish you as the Centre of Gravity in my life. To live with all my busy-ness and interruptions, knowing that this moment and this interruption is the one you have Given me for this Present. And to live it out for you, in holiness and commitment to doing a good job. Amen.
