Martha's Choice

Youth Sunday School Lesson – October 25, 2009

“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

Jesus taught us many things and performed many miracles while he lived on the earth. John tells us that there were countless things that were not recorded, because he said it would fill too many books to do so. So out of all of the various things that He did, why would this story, a mere five-verse snapshot, rank important enough to be passed down to us by the Bible?

In this story, Martha makes her choice to do what she believes with her heart to be all the right things. It is she who opens her home to Jesus in the first place, and then goes about preparing a meal for Him and His followers. Keep in mind that by this time Jesus probably had quite an entourage around Him on a daily basis – more than just the twelve disciples. So by her choice, her work was cut out for her. The Bible does not plainly say, but Mary may have lived with her although the house belonged to Martha, as mentioned in the verses. In either case, Martha wanted to honor Jesus by inviting Him into her home for a meal, and that speaks volumes about her heart and her spiritual condition.

Once they arrive at the house, we notice two things. Martha begins preparing the meal because she had a lot of guests to feed, and there were no electric ovens or microwaves back then – it took considerable effort on a woman’s part to feed everybody. The second thing we notice is Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to Him as He taught those gathered in the room. The phrase ‘sitting at His feet’ is a sign of humility. Something else to consider here is that women were not supposed to be taught the Torah (Hebrew Bible) and were instead supposed to be the keepers of the house, children, etc.

So Martha gets upset and goes to Jesus. Notice she doesn’t scold Mary; it is almost as if she is scolding Jesus instead. “Jesus, don’t you care that I’m doing all the work while Mary just sits here? Why don’t you tell her to come help me?” Also notice the tense that is implied by Luke, it appears as though Martha’s anger had been building – she probably wanted to hear what Jesus was teaching, too!

Jesus soothes her feelings in a personal way, He calls her name twice: “Martha, Martha”. He tells her she is bothered by many things, and the Greek word for ‘careful’ used here is merimna, which means to be ‘unduly concerned’. In the Greek, the word used for troubled is thorubazo, which means to be ‘distracted’. Then He says something we can’t be sure about when he states ‘one thing is needful’. I don’t know if He is referring to the food Martha is cooking and saying that instead of several types of food she should have only prepared one dish, or if He is referring to a Spiritual goal in Martha’s life. But in the end Jesus gently corrects Martha while affirming that Mary is doing the right thing. You see, Mary figured it out that listening to Jesus is the best way to honor Him, and is more important than any human action we could ever perform on our own to please Him.

Sometimes a good thing can be the enemy of the best thing. In this case, Martha’s choice to put on a big dinner in Jesus’ honor paled in comparison to Mary’s act of giving Jesus her full attention by listening to His Word and obeying what He taught with all of her heart.

It is a good and important thing to work in church. Someone needs to cook for socials, sweep the floors, change the light bulbs, and mow the yard. Somebody needs to teach Sunday School, take up the offering, and lead the singing. Church members should work as a team to make sure those things get done and always consider it as a service we are performing for God. But we should never neglect how much more important it is to worship God with our hearts, through our praise that we lift up to Him, and in the way we listen and heed His words in our daily lives.