“Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42).
Introduction
Our reading this morning was taken from Luke 10. Perhaps you were thinking I was going to give a talk on the Good Samaritan, or even the 77. But I’d like to talk today about the last few verses of the chapter: it’s just a few short verses, but I think we can get a lot out of this interaction between Jesus, Mary and Martha. As I was reading this, the word that popped into my head from this interaction between them, was the word “priority”.
The word “priority” is a very commonly used word in our time. I know I, and I’m sure some of you, like to just step back and take stock, and prioritize our busy lives. And as we see the world become more frantic, more fast-paced, more disconnected, more mobile, move involved and literally engulfed in so many different things, the word “priority” seems to be constantly on the lips of all of us, trying to sort out our lives and get some kind of order in terms of the things we need to be committed to. And if we go into a book store or search online, we’ll find many, many books on how to set priorities. We can hire people to come in and lecture us on how to prioritize things. It’s becoming a very popular topic to address in such a complex world we live in.
Now when we use the word “priority”, we usually mean what is the important thing, or what is the main thing, or what is most necessary. But it’s helpful to know that the word ‘priority’ is simply a form of the word ‘prior’. We know that the word ‘prior’ means before, or ahead of. A priority, then, is something that comes before everything else. It’s ahead of everything else. It’s what’s supreme, it’s what’s essential, it’s what is foundation, it’s what’s antecedent to everything that follows. So when we talk about priority, we’re really saying “what in my life comes before anything else and everything else?”
Now if we were to walk up to the average person on the street and ask them, “what is your priority?” we will most likely get a lot of different answers. For my kids to be happy and healthy. To love and be loved by my spouse. To be happy. To be wealthy. To feel secure. To lose weight. To control an addiction. To save for a holiday. To try and help others.
So, I wonder then, what our answers would be if we were to go around and ask others in our Christadelphian community, “what is your priority”? If we were to take out a piece of paper and a pen right now, and write down the number one priority of our lives, as a brother or sister of Christ, what would it be? What would we write down? And I don’t mean trying to make a list here. Like we said before, what is that priority that comes before everything and anything else? Now in just thinking about it, I’m sure some of you might be shuffling and sorting through a few… “Ummm, attending ecclesial functions, loving God, raising a Godly family, having a good job to support my family, witnessing, loving each other”, and so on…. And I guess we consider all of them as very important things in our everyday lives.
But I’m trying to find out if there’s just a way to simplify this list. What’s the one priority we can make, so that all these other priorities we have, will simply follow?
The one priority
We can start to work out what this one priority is, when we see Jesus’ response to Martha. But before we talk about this “one thing that is needed” that Jesus is talking about, let’s take a quick look at a few other things mentioned here.
Now, if we were to look back in previous chapters of Luke, we’d work out that this is the last six months of Jesus’ life. He’s already been travelling on the road for a number of months, and he’s going from town to town, village to village proclaiming the word of God. And when we look on either sides of this story, there’s a lot of teaching being done by Jesus. And his students are not only the people who he’s visiting in these towns and villages, but they’re also his disciples and future apostles. Without knowing it just yet, for the disciples, this was to be the final semester with their loving professor, in preparing to graduate and take his message to the ends of the earth.
First I’d like to talk about the importance of the woman sitting at the feet of Jesus. Now you might not think it today, but back in Jesus’ time, this kind of thing wasn’t allowed. At least one commentator tells us that it was remarkable, some would say illegal, for a woman to sit at the feet of a rabbi. The rabbis didn’t allow it. A woman could learn in the back, or in the woman’s section. But here we have a woman right up at Jesus’ feet, getting as close as she could get, as near as she could be. The position shows how keen she is, how interested she is in his teaching.
Let us go back a few chapters, “Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them” (Luke 6:49) … Jesus goes on to say “builds his house on a rock”. Compare “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?” (vs 46). Jesus is saying here, “Saying I’m Lord, calling me Lord, isn’t enough… It’s those who come to me and listen to me and act on what I say that are truly mine.” And that’s exactly where Mary was placed.
At the feet of Jesus
I’d like you, for a minute, to picture yourself at the feet of Jesus, just as Mary was. You’re sitting on the floor, at the feet of the most powerful, truthful teacher who ever spoke. You’re looking up in awe, listening intently to his every word as he addresses the room. And as you sit there, he teaches about how to pray, about loving God and loving your neighbor, about persecution and suffering, about sin and what to avoid, about how to live righteously. He’ll pause for a drink of water before he continues about humility, pride, forgiveness, judgment. He’ll talk about the Kingdom of God.
Can we picture how monumental this opportunity is? It would be incredible. If we think back (some of us way back) to when we were started school in first grade, and our teacher would sit at the front of the class, and we’d be right there at their feet, feeding off every word they’d say. Their stories, their instructions, their teachings. Except that maybe, for some of us, our attention spans weren’t probably up to scratch back then. So we can get a bit of an understanding of exactly what Mary was going through here. And to throw in that Jesus’ teachings were life changing, radical, powerful, and urgent, would have had her enthralled even more.
So now, coming back to the priority we mentioned before, I expect that now it might be becoming a bit more evident. Well, I might as well make it clear now, what this priority is, by illustrating it by a quotation:
“The single priority for all Christians is to hear the Word of God because that is prior to every other spiritual duty, which is motivated by, informed by, and defined by Scripture.”1
And the story that happens here at the end of Luke 10 makes that pretty clear. So what’s our priority? To hear what God has to say. Here, Mary was listening to God’s word through His Son, Jesus.
“Only one thing is needed” (vs 42). He’s saying here, “If you listen to and understand God’s word, everything will follow. You’ll be able to deal with all those other priorities down the list, working out which is necessary and which isn’t.”
A closer look at Martha
Martha probably also wanted to be sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to what he had to say. But she was distracted. It seems that her role was that of hostess, so she felt compelled to fulfill that function, despite her real desire to learn from the master.
And I know I can easily see myself as Martha at times. Sometimes far too often. And I’m sure we can ALL identify with Martha. When Jesus entered, Martha probably had the intention of sitting and absorbing God’s word from no other than His Son. She had the opportunity to learn the profound, life-changing teachings of Jesus. “But Martha was distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:40). She got distracted, stressed, worried about other things. She had a meal to prepare and serve. She had guests to feed.
Her intentions seemed right. She wanted to be hospitable. She wanted to feed her guests, to share her food, to help others. In her mind, that seemed like the right thing to do. And we could say that serving others is a righteous, Christian act. We could say that her devotion to showing kindness to strangers was commendable. So what was the issue here? Why did Jesus tell Martha that Mary, who wasn’t worried about serving and preparing the meal, was doing the right thing instead?
Well, I believe it’s because Mary had her priority right. And her priority was to listen to the word of God. Forget the meal, forget the arrangements, and forget the fussing around.
And then what’s even more fascinating is what follows. “But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said ‘Lord, do you not care?’ ” (Luke 10:40). Let’s just stop there. Now she was obviously frustrated, irritated. And rather than going to Mary, she took that frustration directly to Jesus. And as soon as she starts with “Lord, do you not care?” I’m sure a fair few in the room, maybe even Jesus himself, were a little taken back. I guess it’s kind of like Martha saying “Well, are you just going to sit there, and just keep talking about life-changing, transforming, sin-shattering, peace-giving, joy-producing truth and ignore the fact that Mary isn’t helping me set the table?”
And we can see here that Martha was too busy, caught up in the bread that perishes. But here she had, in her very house, the bread of life that would never perish. Martha was worried about the bread that feeds the body, and Mary was worried about the bread that feeds the soul.
Now before we become too judgmental and condemn Martha, what is it that keeps US from being here to hear the word of God? What is it that’s keeping US taking the time to discuss the word of God with others? What is it that’s keeping US from doing our daily readings? I’m exhorting to myself here. Seemingly too often, I try time and time again to commit myself to read my Bible more, yet too many things sneak into that growing list of priorities, and that top priority slides down the list. For some of us, it could be our jobs, it could be a social function, it could be some other priority that usually ends up irritating or frustrating us. It makes us mad when we know we should be sitting at the feet of Jesus hearing his word. So before we look at Martha and wonder if her priorities are twisted, before we cast the first stone, let’s take this opportunity today, as we examine ourselves, to see if our priorities are twisted. Because we all allow ourselves to get sucked into all the unnecessary things that only lead to greater frustration. And like Martha, you might even try and condemn those who are doing the right thing, trying to justify yourself.
Now, I guess Jesus could have replied to Martha and said “Whoa, back off Martha”, like we might. But He didn’t. It is recorded: “And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But only one is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her’ ” (Luke 10:41). And we can see here how Jesus highlights this priority.
Our priorities
David has a similar comment:
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, That I will seek. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psa 27:4).
So David, too, had one priority in mind. He wanted to seek out one thing. He wanted to dwell in the House of the Lord and behold God’s beauty. How do we come to know God and see His beauty? How do we get to know His mind? We hear His word. We listen to the words He’s given us, which gives us everything we need to know about Him.
It doesn’t take long for us to step out of our frantic lives, just for a moment, and see that it is so full of unnecessary things. It can control us. It can ruin our attitudes. It can eat away at our relationships. Some of us get frustrated over matters of no consequence, like politics or sports. What Jesus taught both Mary and Martha is to commit their lives to one thing, to see the beauty of the Lord just like David. And that if we want to look back on the list of priorities that we made, we need to know that the path to all those things, prior to all those things, is to hear Him speak through his word.
Deut 8:3 tells us that “Man shall not live on bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. And our one priority, prior to everything else, becomes just that. Jesus tells us that, in our short lives on this earth, nothing is more important than hearing the Lord speak. Nothing compares to it. And when the opportunity is there, we need to grasp it, just like Mary. And Jesus says, “I’m not taking that away from her” (Luke 10:42). It is as if Jesus was saying “I’m not sending her into the kitchen.” It is obvious that Mary was never going to be a preacher. She was never going to be a rabbi. But she was going to know more about God, and long to be like His Son, Jesus, with every word that came from his lips. This rare opportunity was too rich and too critical to turn to anything else.
So in knowing this, let’s step back and take stock, knowing we live in a country where we can freely study God’s word at any time and at any place. And now, as we take in the bread and wine, symbols of the life-giving hope that we have in Jesus who suffered for us, let’s examine ourselves and our priorities. Let’s consider what’s necessary, what’s critical, and what’s most important, as we are seated at the feet of Jesus.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One