Proper 11 Wednesday Evening

The story of Mary and Martha is familiar we've heard it dozens of times, and for that reason the jolt its meant to give us has become somewhat reduced; but the jolt is still there, no getting around it. The Lord Jesus praises the adoring, dreamy eyed, meditative Mary sitting at his feet, and scolds the hustling, bustling Martha, who after all, was only hustling and bustling in his interest and for his welfare. If we are not on our guard, we are likely to disagree with Jesus evaluation. Had I written this story, I would probably have turned it around. I'd have had Jesus praise active Martha and scold inactive Mary. And chances are, that's the way you would have written it too. But you didn't write the story and neither did I. God did. And he must have had a good reason for writing it the way he did. We want to find out that reason today.

Learn From Two Sisters

Let's be sure to get the full force of the shock the gospel intends to give us. The Martha that Jesus scolded was not a bad woman. She wasn't a slacker nor delinquent. She was a close friend of Jesus. She love Jesus. She was an energetic worker for the Kingdom. She was active. In fact, that's what's wrong with her; she was too active. But if she were present in our congregation this evening, we wouldn't hesitate a minute about calling her a good church member.

Nor was Martha's action a bad action: at least not in itself. To contemporize the story, Martha wasn't sleeping in on a Sunday morning, nor was she out playing golf, nor was she camping. She was, if anywhere, in the church kitchen preparing the church dinner. She was working for a good cause. She simply meant to serve the Lord. After all isn't that what he wanted? Hadn't he said time and time again that his followers were serve him? The Lord wanted activity—and she was giving it. For all appearances she was doing the right thing. So sure was she that she was doing the right thing that she asked Jesus to send her in the kitchen too. And what did Jesus do? He scolded her for her activity and praise the inactive Mary. What an unexpected turn of events!

Analogy: Do you know that you talk with an accent? You may not be conscious of your accent, unless you travel widely. Oh yes, we can hear other people’s accents and speech patterns, but not our own.

What would you think if I told you that as a Christian you are to speak with a Galilean accent? This is what a Scottish preacher named Arthur Gossip said one day in a sermon. Although we may never have lived or traveled in Galilee, a Christian speaks with a Galilean accent, because they have spent time with the Man from Galilee. We are to listen to the Man of Galilee.

— We sit at His feet in worship and Bible study, so he can teach us.

— We talk with him in our prayers.

— We commune with him at his Table.

We love the Man of Galilee. Love imitates. We gradually think and act and talk more as Jesus does.

While Martha made dinner, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to him speak. Whose accent, Mary’s or Martha’s, sounded more like Jesus? What does your accent sound like?

Listen to the Lord

Sometimes a person is said to have had a choice between two evils. But Martha, we might say, had a choice between two goods. There was the good of serving the Lord. There was the good of sitting at his feet and listening to his Word. Mind you, both are good. But now get this, and let it be indelibly written in your memory: the good of hearing God's word is a far better than any good of serving God. Let me say that again: the good of hearing God's word is better than the good of serving God. Project and meditation are both good but meditation is better. Committee work and worship are both good: but worship is better. Actively to work for the Lord and passively to receive his word are both good; but given a choice, it is better that the Christian be in the passive voice, so to speak.

Normally, to be sure, the Christian does both: he or she works and worships, laborers and listens, serves and is served. That's the ideal; that's the way it should be. But while doing both, the Christian, remembering the story of Mary and Martha, is never aware that the worship is more important than the work, the listening is more essential than the laboring, and the being served is more blessed than the serving. And should there ever arise a conflict between these two good things—serving the Lord and hearing his word—the Christian, like Mary, chooses the good part and sits at Jesus feet.

Why was Mary the good part? Well, Jesus said so, and I suppose that settles the matter. But this wasn't really an arbitrary choice by Jesus. If we search the scriptures elsewhere, we soon discovered that he had a good reason for endorsing Mary’s action.

And that reason is this—you can't really serve the Lord unless he first serves you.

You can't actually do good things— unless the good word first comes into you through his word and manufacturers those good things.

You can't be a man or a woman of God unless you less you have first got God, and you can get him only through his word.

You can't be a fruit producing branch unless you're first connected to the vine. You can't really be a Martha, at least a proper Martha, serving in the kitchen unless you are first the Mary sitting at his feet.

In the Christian life there can be no output without input. Oh, to be sure, a person can do whatever seems like good things without God's help. Our world is filled with hustlers and bustlers engaged in good causes. But without the help of God through Christ their motives are all wrong and their methods are all wrong. We need to remember that God doesn't simply want us to do good things; he is yeah he is more concerned that we let him do them, in us.

Conclusion: Small numbers discourage worship. Yet Jesus began his ministry with just a few disciples. “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Mt 18:20). Jesus came to speak with two women in Bethany. But with Martha busy in the kitchen, he spoke only to the one who listened: Mary.

Once a minister went to a small rural parish to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. To his dismay he found only two worshipers at the service. He debated within himself whether to spread out the glorious banquet for only two guests. He decided to go ahead. When he came to the part that declares, “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven,” he interrupted those sublime words and apologized to the two members for having entertained the thought of not conducting the service. He said, “I forgot what glorious company attends this meal.”

The glorious company the pastor referred to is made up of saints, prophets, apostles, martyrs, reformers, pastors, and laypeople—your grandparents and all the other members of this and every Christian congregation in heaven and on earth.

Most important in the glorious company is Jesus himself, at the head of the Table. We listen to him say, “Take, eat. This is my body.” We hear his benediction: “I do not condemn you. Your sins are forgiven you. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (cf. Lk 7:48, 50). Hearing those words from the lips of Jesus is the best part of our life and the medicine we need for our souls.