Luke 10:38-42: Spiritual Priorities

Introduction:

Where does Jesus fit into our day?

What is our attitude toward stopping to spend time with Jesus?

Does our service to Him deceive us into thinking that we have a relationship with Him?

Here in this passage we see a very short but poignant story

We are taught that spending time with Jesus is the greatest priority of all

This is an area we can all learn and grow in

Here we see a great contrast between two sisters that love Jesus

1. We Need To Differentiate What Is Essential And What Is Important v. 38-39

God wants my heart before He wants my service

We see in this passage that Martha welcomes Jesus into her home

And immediately after entering the home we see the third character in the story

Mary is most likely Martha’s younger sister

And here we see a very short description of Mary

All we see is that she sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word

Every time we see Mary of Bethany in the Bible we find her at the feet of Jesus Luke 10:39; John 11:32, 12:3

Luke 10:39 KJV 1900

39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.

John 11:32 KJV 1900

32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

John 12:3 KJV 1900

3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

This might not seem like a very significant detail

And that might be a root of our problem - that we see her actions as insignificant

But that’s actually what is most admirable in the whole passage

Jesus has spoken about people like this all throughout the book of Luke Luke 6:47; 8:11, 21; 11:28

Luke 6:47 KJV 1900

47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:

Luke 8:11 KJV 1900

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Luke 8:21 KJV 1900

21 And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

Luke 11:28 KJV 1900

28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

The expression “sat at Jesus’ feet” is a call to discipleship

Jesus will receive any person that will sit at His feet

Jesus calls us to come to Him first Matthew 11:28-30

Matthew 11:28–30 KJV 1900

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

David required to be in the presence of the Lord all the days of His life Psalm 27:4

Psalm 27:4 KJV 1900

4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; 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.

Here David simply wanted to “behold the beauty of the Lord”

Paul desired to know Jesus with His life Philippians 3:10

Philippians 3:10 KJV 1900

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Our first calling as christians is to seek after and to know Jesus

This is what Mary does when she sits at His feet to hear His word

This is done through Bible reading, preaching, teaching, worship

Spending time in fellowship with the body of Christ

Spending time in prayer and meditation on the Word of God

2. The Important Can Distract Us From The Essential v. 40-41

Immediately after seeing the description of Mary we cut back to Martha again

We need to remember that Martha is a good woman

She had also believed on Jesus

She probably owned the house, ran the house and even opened the doors to her house in order to host Jesus

This passage has been used many times to make Martha a villain

But she was actually a very close and dear friend of Jesus

And her service wasn’t even the problem

The problem in this story is that she got distracted from the right priority

Surely Martha wanted to give the best she could to Jesus

She wanted there to be the best meal

She wanted all the plates to be in the right place

She wanted all the chairs evenly distributed

She wanted the house to be clean

She wanted there to be enough drinks for everyone

The Bible says that she was “cumbered about much serving”

All these things she was cumbered with were probably good things

But the problem is that there were so many important things that she got distracted from the essential thing

This creates anxiety

Here we see all the descriptions of Martha’s inward and outward anxiety

She is worried with many tasks

Jesus says in v. 41 that she is “careful and troubled” with many things

This creates wrong attitudes

Martha’s attitude toward her sister and toward Jesus are completely wrong

Martha criticizes her sister for not doing what she’s doing

Martha rebukes Jesus for not letting her sister help

This creates wrong perspectives

Martha is angry because Jesus isn’t cooperating to make this event the best it could be

Martha is upset with Jesus and rebukes Him

Martha thinks that Jesus doesn’t care

But we know or God is full of mercy Exodus 34:6; Psalm 103:8; 116:5

Exodus 34:6 KJV 1900

6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Psalm 103:8 KJV 1900

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

Psalm 116:5 KJV 1900

5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yea, our God is merciful.

Martha gives Jesus the solution of what He should do to make her life easier

3. There’s Only One Essential Priority v. 42

Jesus teaches Martha that there’s only one thing that’s “needful”, necessary, essential

There can be a lot of ingredients in a party, but without the guest of honor there’s no party

And when someone chooses to sit at the feet of Jesus you can have everything that Martha was looking for:

At the feet of Jesus there was calm instead of worry

There was rest instead of stress

There was peace instead of trouble

Martha’s service to Jesus would one day be lost

There’s no registry of the meal she served or the amount of guests present

But what Mary chose was eternal

The greatest priority in the life of the believer is to listen to the Word of God

This is the most fundamental duty over any other in the christian life

Don Whitney said it this way:

No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God—intimately. - Don Whitney

“Our duty is to accept of Christ’s inviting of us. What will we do for him, if we will not feast with him?” - Richard Sibbes