Luke 10:38-42English Standard Version (ESV)
38Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. 41 But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
How many times have you glazed through this story?
Jesus and his disciples were just walking through a village when a women sees them and a women welcomes them into her house. Immediately Martha starts running around trying to get everything ready while her sister plops down on the floor to soak in every moment Jesus is there and listen to every word him and his disciples speak.
Now imagine being Martha for a second, You suddenly have to prepare a meal for 13 men plus you and your family. Meanwhile your sister is not helping with anything she is sitting around just listening.
She is not
Helping set the table,
cut veggies,
prepare the meat,
get water,
tidy up,
cut, chop or anything.
You are having to do everything. So in a moment of exasperation you bluntly say to Jesus, “…Tell her to help me.” (vs. 40)
He replies back with “(nope) she has chosen the good portion and it will not be taken away.”
So Mary gets to sit at Jesus feet (we can assume) and soak up conversation, that hardly seems fair, huh?
This has been a lesson that has always challenged and really come to the surface these past three months. A lesson that I have sat and stressed the importance of to others countless times. That I have talked about at camp, but always had a hard time wrapping my head around.
Until one fateful day in Moldova where the lord brought this story to a halt at the fore front of my mind. One of those convictions that slam ya a bit and makes you take a step back to really evaluate your own thoughts and actions.
For anyone who knows me you know I am service oriented to my core. I love doing things to show others my love. I tend to be one of those quiet background people who do all the leg work of arranging, set up or tare down and tend not to mind.
But every once and a while this need to be seen and acknowledged creeps in, a need for others to jump in and see how much work this takes or to just no clean up this once. For that person who is sitting and talking for the 100th time to get up and just help already.
That exact thought process is what the lord convicted me about.
In Moldova ministry was extremely consistent. Every day a teammate and I would head down to the kitchen. We would help chop, cut and shred to prepare the soup for lunch each day. The Lunch was for church staff and kids who attended an after school program at the church.
After everyone ate we would wash all the dishes. As the month progressed we talked more and more with the two ladies who cooked. Slowly my teammate began to talk more and more with them after eating.
At first it was no big deal I would jump right in and start knocking out dishes so they could just be done. But I slowly became more and more annoyed until Jesus reminded me the story of Martha and Mary.
As I began to process I realized that there is always going to be dishes. Sometimes those dishes are in the form of
putting away tables and chairs,
Vacuuming,
Building a step,
Weeding a garden,
Cooking dinners,
All important things mind you, but still just things.
The truth is “those things” will always be there. They always need to be done. But the opportunity for that one conversation, to sit, laugh, listen, to teach basic English words, to meet someone where they are at, that is not always available. A chance to shed light, knowledge, to make someone feel heard or loved, to let them know you care, to make memories, to show the love of Jesus.
Though I still struggle with this, O finally think I understand what Jesus meant.
Him being in that home, having whatever conversations him and the disciples were having was never going to be duplicated or happen exactly like that again. Martha choose to see everything that was wrong in the moment instead of right. Choose to see all the small details and fret over them while Mary choose to soak in every second of the night. Martha soaked herself up in the details while Mary soaked up Jesus.
We are always called to soak up Jesus. In the moment some are called to simply do the dishes while one takes the time to talk and be relational. But don’t feel like that is the only thing you can do, don’t be afraid to come out of the background to impact another person on a completely different level that has the chance to change their life around, a chance to give a new perspective a chance to encourage, love, give wisdom and share laughs.
Those kind of impacts last a life time where the stairs will eventually need to be redone. spending time with a fellow human cannot not be rewritten, cannot be duplicated and might only be one chance.
So the next time you start to get flustered take a breath maybe they are exactly where God needs them to help a fellow sister or brother in a way providing the physical need cannot.
Sitting and being relational is serving period.
How will you impact another set in your path this week?
