A Tale of Two Sisters

While Jesus was on His way up to Jerusalem, He decided to stop in this little town called Bethany, about 5-10 kms from Jerusalem, a little bit shorter than the distance from here to Marcelin. Three friends of His lived there: a brother and two sisters. When he came to their house the two sisters gladly welcomed Jesus in, and immediately the older one starts prepping food. She’s working and sweating and doing everything in her power to give Jesus the best reception possible. Meanwhile, the younger sister - also responsible for the housework - could be found not in the kitchen, or in the dining room. Rather she’s sat next to Jesus, having not lifted a finger to help her sister prep.

After a while, the older sister realizing , “hey, I’m all alone here!” So she goes to Jesus, as says, “Jesus, have you noticed that Mary hasn’t lifted a finger to help me?? You tell her to come over here and give me a hand with this!”

This story is from Luke 10:38-42. here we see Martha and Mary, to friends of Jesus, take vastly different approaches to His arrival. Martha’s request seems pretty fair, doesn’t it? Martha’s slaving away, meanwhile Mary’s just hanging with Jesus. Seems a bit rude, doesn’t it? Not to mention, in that day and age women weren’t really allowed to learn from teachers like Mary was. Seems like we can find fault with Mary on two accounts now. But do you know what Jesus says?

Let’s turn to Luke 10:41-42 and examine Jesus’ response. For this time, I am going to be using the NLT, because it helps us to capture and visualize the moment, and what Jesus is saying:

Luke 10:41–42 NLT

But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Let me ask a question: How do we love God well?

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This passage demonstrates for us a very important aspect of loving Christ well.

Here’s the bottom line:

Loving Christ well means we must first sit at His feet.

I believe as a church we need to take time to examine this today. As a body of believers, We’re headed down a path of doing - being Jesus’ hands and feet in our world. We strive to be Gospel-focus, outreach oriented, and growing in our faith. This all starts at the Master’s feet, focusing first and foremost on the gospel and listening to Christ and His Word. We need to know it, we need to live it. If we are to be true disciples of Christ, we must first be found at Christ’s feet. We cannot, we must not, get so caught up in serving Him that we forget to be with Him. We must not let the tyranny of our own feeling of urgency get in the way of focusing on the most important thing: The Logos - Christ, and His Word. This is the primary focus of this story.

We’re going to spend some time today and just pull this story apart, because it has important lessens to teach Christ’s disciples. We’re going to examine three realizations that this story holds for us, that help us to understand how loving Christ well starts with us sitting at His feet.

Realize Different “Welcomes” 38-39

Let’s start in vv 38-39. Would you read them with me?

Luke 10:38–39 ESV

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.

We see Jesus entering the village here to meet with Martha and Mary. We know from John 11:1 that Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus (whom Jesus raised from the dead in John’s gospel) lived in the town of Bethany, which was not too far away from Jerusalem. This story is not in chronological order because Luke might have place this story after the one about the good Samaritan as a safeguard: Too often we can fall prey to the mentality that our faith is a result of works. This story helps us to keep things in perspective. Did you notice though how the story goes?

Martha welcomes Jesus into the house. Her sister Mary also is there, and she chooses to sit at Jesus feet. This is noteworthy, because this is the posture of a disciple. Women in the first century were not supposed to learn from teachers, but rather were mostly supposed to keep a clean house, do housework, etc. Contrary to cultural pattern, Mary is welcomed at the feet of the Master - along with any other disciples - to listen and learn. In fact, this is how Mary chose to welcome Jesus. We see in verse 40 that Martha chooses to get everything ready. No doubt as the mistress of the house she felt the responsibility to make Jesus as comfortable as possible. This is her way of welcoming Jesus. it’s not that she didn’t want to listen to Jesus - she did! Yet she felt the weight of responsiblity upon her shoulders to welcome Jesus well. Mary chooses instead to sit at the Master’s feet, listening to His teaching and soaking in His teaching - literally in the Greek His Word.

Were either of their different responses to welcoming Jesus wrong?

If you went home today after to lunch, and Jesus knocked on your door and wanted to come in. How many of us would want to say yes! Come in, Can I get you a coffee? Kids, clean up the house! Let me straighten up the living room - Jesus are you comfortable. We need to make something really nice for lunch! No KD for us - definitely need to make this nice!

How many of us would have this reaction? We want to serve Jesus! It’s our way of showing Him we love Him and want to honour Him! It’s not that we’re trying to ignore Jesus, but rather that we want to welcome Him as best we possibly can! I don’t believe this response is wrong. Especially for those of us with the gift of hospitality, this is how we would show love to our Lord!

Yet consider Mary’s response: She chooses to spend time with Jesus. She shows Him honour by placing herself at His feet. Simultaneously she communicates both her devotion to Jesus, and her hunger for His Words. Truly, she recognizes how invaluable Jesus’ words are to her life, and the precious gift of Jesus’ presence that she can bask in.

Is her “welcome” wrong? Certainly in later verses Martha seems to think so! She asks Jesus to tell Mary to get up and get going! Mary’s welcome is seen as a neglect of those things which matter. Yet in truth, Mary’s welcome is nonetheless valuable. And in the space, more appropriate and discerning. Martha seeks to honour Jesus with her gifts. Mary seeks to honour Jesus with her presence. Neither response is necessarily wrong.

In this first part of the story, we need to recognize that both Mary and Martha have hearts to serve Jesus - hearts that love Him. Both want to love Christ well, yet they go about it different ways. This story gets taken out of context sometimes, because we see what Martha was doing as wholly bad. however, we must put this in its place: Martha’s heart to serve the Master is not bad at all. Neither is Mary’s, though they go about it differently. While we will see in the rest of this narrative that Martha does need correction, it is important for us to understand that the heart of service and love both of these women had was commendable.

Yet, we see Jesus gently rebuke Martha, what is this all about? This leads us to our second realization on how loving Christ well requires us to sit at His feet.

Realize the Problem 40-41

Let’s read vv. 40-41 together

Luke 10:40–41 ESV

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.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,

We need to focus first on Luke’s description of Martha’s demeanour: She is said to be “distracted” with much serving. What was Martha distracted from exactly? From hearing Jesus. one commentator I ran into helps us understand this well:

Luke Comments

Martha also wanted to hear Jesus, but the tyranny of the urgent prevented her from doing this.

I think sometimes we make the quick assumption that Martha wasn’t interested in Jesus’ teaching at all. This is not the case - Martha cared about Jesus said! But she also felt the weight we had talked about before, to make Jesus feel welcomed. After all, as the mistress of the home it was her job to get everything ready! While this was good - as we saw - it caused her to overlook the guest of honour and spending time with Him for want of a great dinner party.

Luke Comments

Martha’s “service” for Jesus got in the way of her sitting lovingly at his feet.

Martha’s service - the tyranny of the urgent - drowned out Jesus’ words.

Not only this, but her heart, turning bitter from anxiety marred her service as she angrily comes to Jesus demanding that He command Mary to come and help make things ready for the Master! Why should Mary get to sit while Martha preps everything by herself? This is where Martha went wrong:

She allowed her service to Jesus to get in the way of spending time with Jesus.

Martha’s heart to serve Jesus was commendable, but it became a burden for her, getting in the way of actually allowing her to prioritize that which is best: sending time with Jesus’s and learning His teaching. Her worries about prepping the house, making food, making people comfortable, etc. left her in a place of anxiety and unable to hear Jesus’ words. Jesus’ teaching was choked about by her cares of this world.

Let’s go back for a minute to the scenario of Jesus coming to your house. Can you imagine, you do all that preparation and serving, making Jesus comfortable, you work your rear end off giving Jesus the best you can. Meanwhile, your family’s a-wal. Where did they go? Turns out they’re all in the living room, sprawled out with Jesus, talking and chatting and laughing. Kinda rude isn’t it? Why should you have to do it all alone?? It’s their house too, and we need to make this place nice for Jesus!

But then when He leaves your house later on, you realize “oh, He was teaching the rest of my family was He was here. They all got to receive directly from Jesus! But I missed it because I was so busy trying to make Him comfortable.”

It would be a real shame, wouldn’t it, if Jesus came to your house and you missed everything He said and spending time with Him because you were too busy being worried about the house and the food. That’s exactly what happened to Martha. And as this happened she became embittered toward her sister. Mary gets to sit while Martha does all the work. Doesn’t seem fair does it? Yet Mary is commended for choosing the better thing.

Folks, in our serving of Jesus we must not forget to actually spend the time with Him! How often do we purpose to serve God in some way. Maybe we participate in this church event, or go and do this thing over here. Yet the last time we actually cracked a Bible open was last Monday… and it’s Friday. We’ve been serving God all week, yet for all that service we haven’t drawn any closer to Him! I could do the dishes all week, make every single meal, do every last piece of laundry, clean every inch of the house. Yet If I was so busy doing all of that that I didn’t give Katie more than one-word answers for a few days straight, how healthy do you think our relationship would be? Not very - she’d be mad, and probably hurt! How does that work, I’ve been trying to serve her all week! Yeah, but in doing so I forgot to actually spend time with her.

Now imagine if, while I was busy trying to serve my wife, I started getting angrier and angrier with Jon, because he’s not helping me! Silly guy just keeps wanting to spent time with mom! Meanwhile here I am trying to clean up after him and give mom and break. Uh oh, now I have two relationship problems, because I’m angry at my son for doing nothing more than that which is natural. One of the things children prize most is time with their parents. Yet here I would be, mad at him for not helping me instead!

Is this not what happens with God? As His children, our desire should be to want to be with Him. But we have so many other things that seek to get in the way. Doesn’t even have to be church stuff. It can just be life in general. Yet in trying to be good steward of the life God gives us, we miss the One who we should be surrendering our life to: Jesus.

Martha’s problem wasn’t her service in itself. Her heart truly wanted to love Jesus. Yet she allowed cares that are second to the teaching of God’s Word to penetrate and destroy that service in a fury of anxiety. We too must realize that when we put other things ahead of spending time with Christ and His Word, we are failing to achieve the goal of loving God well. Loving God well starts and ends in the learning position of a disciple: at Jesus’ feet.

this brings us to our third realization:

Realize Our Proper Place 42

Would you read vv 41-42 with me?

Luke 10:41–42 ESV

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

I wanted to go back to 41 to highlight something: Did you notice how Jesus speaks to her? The NLT’s rendering of “My Dear Martha” that we read at the beginning captures that heart behind the text. The greek literally read as the ESV puts it: Martha, Martha. This is a tender address to Martha. Jesus sees her heart, but also exposes how that needs to change. How should it change? We’ve already discussed how Martha’s focus needed to shift away from her distractions, but onto what? Onto Jesus.

Jesus says that Mary has chosen the “good portion.” Let’s stop there for a second. in Greek, the word “good” is translated as good, but can also function as “better” or something of that like. I note this because it again reinforces that Martha’s efforts were not necessarily bad. However, Mary chose to spend the time with Jesus. She chose an even better way.

Mary took the posture here of a disciple. We’ve already noted that this is extraordinary for a woman in this day and age. Yet, more important is that she chose to spend the time at Jesus’ feet.

Mary did not let the tyranny of the urgent - the need to fix up the house or prep the food - to get in the way of our number 1 priority: The gospel. As one commentator put it:

Luke Comments

What feeds the soul is more important than what feeds the body

This passage places a strong emphasis on hearing Jesus’ Words. Our number 1 priority as Christ-followers is to sit at Jesus feet. This does not mean that to the exclusion of all else we are sequestered away in our closest studying the Bible. Much as this would be amazing in some way, I know I’m built to move and go! This passage isn’t about excluding everything except for study and hearing Jesus’ Word. Rather, it is about us as a body believers placing top priority on spending time with Jesus, every day. We cannot forsake meeting with Jesus in an effort to serve Him, or accomplish everything else in life that has to be done. Don’t elevate the need to this or that above your time with God.

I am not here to make anyone feel guilty. I struggle too. I sit down to do devotions and immediately my head is thinking about 10 different, non-related things. I am tempted and have given into forsaking my time with God so that I can go do something else. I can’t tell you the number of times I have not necessarily wanted to come to church. So I speak this to myself and everyone here: take time to sit at Jesus’ feet.

The Word of God is so important. It makes the difference in our lives between life and death. Romans 10:17 says

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Mary recognized the importance of first sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to the life-giving Word Jesus brought. The gospel message must be our first priority. Without it, we have no hope, no faith, no life. And certainly nothing life-changing to give other people.

As a church we are on a path of reaching out into our community. Why? Because we are convinced that Christ desperately loves the people here and wants to have a personal relationship with them. So we are working through things like the fall festival, the thanksgiving dinner, the family fun night, and other events to intentionally build bridges and reach people for Christ.

But what is the life-changing element? Is our whole purpose simply to serve people? To give them the best BBQ, or best dinner, or best fun evening possible? Or is it something much much more?

Truly, the ultimately reason we serve others, that we strive even to meet physical needs is so that we can meet spiritual needs - so that we can present the gospel, and introduce people to Jesus. It is more important that Jesus’ Word goes forth, and that we build relationships that become a catalyst for introducing people to Christ then that we have a perfectly executed event, or the best food, or whatever. That’s what Martha missed. Her want to serve Jesus and welcome Him well was commendable, but she needed to keep it in perspective. We must place first priority - both in our own lives and in the life of our church - on the gospel going forth, and people having life-changing relationships because of the power of the gospel.

Our proper place as Christ-followers, ahead of everything else is at Jesus’ feet. This is the realization that must hit home for us. Jesus Christ and His Word - the Word of God - come first in our lives. In our personal lives, that means both an emphasis even daily on spending the time with God. Don’t let life get in the way of your time with God! Don’t let the tyranny of the urgent keep you from that which is most important. Your relationship with Christ.

In the life of our church, it means first and foremost that we are pointing others to the feet of Jesus, inviting them to sit and listen as well. Will we run great events and effective programs? I hope so, and I believe we’ll continue to grow in this as a strength Lord willing. Will we run some events that are less than stellar? Yes, we’ll run those too! But no matter the quality of the event or program, what matters most is introducing people to Jesus and building them up in their walk with Him. Our proper place, as individuals and as a church, is at the feet of Christ.

Conclusion

The story of Martha and Mary - this tale of two sisters - is a short one. A mere 5-6 verses. We don’t get many details, but we do receive a powerful message to place our primary focus on sitting at Christ’s feet. As followers of Jesus, we love our Lord and want to express that love well. If Jesus showed up at your house this afternoon I have no doubt you would want to find the best way possible to welcome Him, make Him comfortable, and communicate as a whole that you are thrilled He’s come. This story shows us our primary focus, the focus of our love should be on Jesus and His Words.

Loving Christ well means we must first sit at His feet.

We saw three realizations to go along with this main idea:

Realize different “welcomes”

Realize the problem

Realize Our Proper Place

How does this hit the road for us? We’ve already covered a lot of ways that it does.

If you do not have a personal relationship with Christ here today, I pray that God’s Spirit will utterly convince you of the life-and death decision you need to make. Jesus is life, and the gospel message carries with it the power to save you from your sins and give you new life, and hope. Don’t wait to give your life to Christ, Instead, I urge you to run to Christ, and repent. Ask Him to forgive your sin and cleanse you, and give your life to Him. He will not fail you, and you are welcomed as one of His disciples if you will simply choose to give Him your life, repent and follow Him.

I would like to speak for a moment to our church as a whole.

We are reaching out into our community. This church has had emphasis placed on this for a long time, and as we move forward I am looking forward to the many ways in which God will use us to touch Leask and surrounding communities. However, we must be utterly convinced as a church in the supreme importance for God and His Word to be first. When we plan an event, we must find a way to communicate the gospel. When we create a program, we ultimately have the aim to build people up in their faith. This is where the rubber meets the road of us as a church. I would like to encourage each of us to cultivate in your own mind and heart this emphasis on God’s Word and the gospel first and foremost. Each of us has to be convinced that this is too important a message to miss or not tell others. That conviction is what needs to be exhibited in everything that we do. So I want to ask us as a Church to hone the desire like Mary to sit at Jesus’ feet. Above all else, we must first be characterized as Christ’s disciples. Therefore, we must take the posture of a disciple and be found at the feet of our Master, ready to learn and receive from Him.

Pray