Luke 10:38-42

Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

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Busy & Distracted
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So often the Biblical stories we find in the pages of the Gospel seem like they need to be filtered through layers and layers of translation before they can be understood by our modern ears. They come to us as tales from another time, and we wonder how effectively we can learn from shepherds and fishermen.

Take today’s story for example--can you imagine a situation where you were so busy with so many other things that you forgot to notice the presence of the Lord in that place? Can you possibly imagine what it might be like to be distracted by so many things that needed to be done that you just couldn’t find the time to sit at the feet of God and hear the things he has to say? Can you imagine getting frustrated with those who seem to always have the time to just sit and worship, while you’re so busy trying to make ends meet that you feel stretched beyond the breaking point?

Today’s story is a reminder to us that distractions aren’t anything new. Today’s story seems like it is written directly to us, at a time when we need to hear this message, surrounded by an ever-growing list of options and demands upon our time. There is an endless line of things and tasks waiting to stand between us and God—sometimes we grow so frustrated it seems like the question is not whether or not we will worship God but what we will worship instead of God.

Before we dive into the text, let’s stop for a moment and appreciate where Luke has left this text—it’s right after the tale of the Good Samaritan. Jesus has just finished teaching about what we should do when we notice those in need. Now we have a text about making sure that we notice those in need, rather than being so wrapped up in our to-do list that we miss the needs altogether.

So Jesus and the disciples have just arrived in a village where Martha and her sister Mary reside. She opens her home to them, displaying the gift of hospitality and then stepping onto a treadmill that doesn’t seem to stop. Think of all the things she has to do—clean the house and prepare drinks and food and make sure the dog stays out of the living room. She is in danger of being so busy preparing the meal that she misses the opportunity to sit down and enjoy it with her guests. She’s so worried about the dust on the mantle that she misses the enjoyment of the visitors.

Now, pay attention to the fact that Jesus doesn’t reprimand her for the distractions themselves. Nowhere in the text does it tell us that the things Martha is doing are bad or sinful. In fact, the text says that they had to be done. These were important—if I invited you over to my house and failed to cook dinner, I would be a pretty bad host. Had Martha not offered them something to drink to quench their parched throats, dried by the dusty walk, she would not have been very considerate.

In the same way, many of the distractions we have aren’t bad. If you fail to pick up your child from school or soccer practice, that’s a bad thing. If paying your light bill is one distraction too many and you don’t bother to do it, the light company isn’t going to understand your new desire for Biblical living by less distractions. They’re going to cut your power. They probably won’t even apologize as they do it.

It’s the order in which Martha goes about her duties that is at the heart of this story. Martha has placed her preparations first, whether out of pride that her hosting skills will be praised or some sense of duty to her guests. She has put pressure on herself to make her household appear flawless to these guests, whom doubtless she would have heard about, and this pressure has driven her to lose all focus on what truly matters.

How do we do this in our lives? What sense of obligation is driving you? What things are you doing out of obligation? What is it in your life that is sucking the energy out of you, that is devouring your free time, but you hold on to because you feel like the world would fall apart if you no longer did it? What do you do for the sake of appearances, for the sake of others, that leaves you feeling empty and poor inside, that brings you no joy, and that you can’t remember why you started doing it in the first place?

We put these things in our lives, but we don’t set them down because we’re convinced that if we cease to do them, we won’t be worthy or respected. Listen to Martha’s question—“Lord, don’t you care…?” Martha is running this show on her own, and she wants to know why God doesn’t care that she is doing it on her own. She’s expressing one of the deepest needs of all of us—to know that we are cared for, that we are noticed, that our efforts are worthwhile.

Jesus answers her out of a love deeper than any of us can understand. We’ve seen that love on the cross, but at a certain point it is impossible for us to understand the depths of it—Jesus died on the cross because he cares so much for each one of us. It’s that love he is trying to help Martha see when he turns and responds to her. What he is telling her is that he cares deeply for her, but not because of the things she does. Her worth does not lie in her efforts to prepare dinner, or in how quickly drinks are served to the waiting guests. His care for her does not reside in the cleanliness of her house or the temperature of the coffee that is served—his care, his love for her resides in the fact that he made her, and there is nothing she can do to change that, and so the best thing to do is to put him first in her life, as Mary has done. Jesus does not mean that all the duties of the household do not need to be done, or that he does not appreciate them. What Jesus says is that when we worry ourselves crazy and upset ourselves, and probably our guests, because we’re furious that the pot roast is a little dry, we have forgotten our priorities. Mary’s first priority is to worship Christ. Everything else comes second.

This is the one thing that Jesus mentions. “Only one thing is needed,” Jesus says. It reminds me of the movie City Slickers, when Curly keeps holding up his finger and saying that it is the most important thing in life. Billy Crystal can’t figure it out for the life of him why Curly’s finger is the most important thing, but eventually he discovers that what Curly means is that when you figure out what the most important thing is, and you live solely for that, you have discovered the secret to life.

That is the praise Mary is receiving from Jesus—she has chosen her one thing, and that is her relationship to Christ. Nothing else will stand in the way of that. It doesn’t mean that the rest of her life will be spent sitting at the Lord’s feet—it just means that whenever she can, she will worship God and listen to Him. Her one thing is to be near Christ, to show her love and to grow in relationship with God. Throughout Scripture we are told to be still before God—from Psalm 46 Be Still and know that I am God to Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you, you have only to be still, to any other number of verses. Mary wants to be still and listen to God—she knows her one thing.

Martha doesn’t have one thing. She is worried and upset over many things. It’s not to say that she doesn’t love God, that she doesn’t want to grow in her relationship with God, that she hasn’t acknowledged Jesus as her Lord and Savior and been to church every Sunday for her entire life—it’s that she hasn’t put Jesus first in her heart. One of the amazing things about Jesus is that he was able to live with perfect integrity—everything he did was focused on the worship of God. We, too often, are like Martha. We forget about God in the hubbub of distractions and many things, some good, some bad. We don’t have one thing to which we have given our hearts, as badly as we want to give our hearts to Christ.

David Livingstone, the explorer and missionary, sailed for Africa at the age of 27. His mission was to explore the depths of Africa, but the entire purpose of his life was to proclaim Christ to the natives in Africa. He didn’t explore for the glory of fame and fortune—he explored because he wanted to fulfill the great commission, to spread the news of Christ’s death and resurrection, of Christ’s eternal love. He believed that by opening a route from the interior to the coast, civilization and Christianity would soon follow. In response to concerns about the danger of this operation he wrote: "I place no value on anything I have or possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ." Eventually an exploration was launched to find what had happened to the explorer, which led to Henry Stanley’s famous line, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”

When he finally died, in Africa, an incredible thing happened. His body was dried and carried by his servants over 1,000 miles to the coast, to the port, so that it could return home and be buried in Westminster Abbey. His heart, however, they cut out and buried under a nearby tree, for his heart had always been completely devoted to Africa, and that is where it ought to have its final rest. Africa had always been his one thing.

When you die, where would they bury your heart? What is the one thing to which you have given your life, your heart, your energies and your passion? Have you made the decision to do so? Or are you so distracted, so worried and upset about so many things, that you have never gotten around to giving your life to Christ?

Let us pray.