Luke 10:38-42
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you
are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary
has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Although Mary, Martha and Lazarus are mentioned in more than this account in the gospels, I will be focussing just on this one.
According to the Rabbis in Jesus' day women didn't really have the capacity to understand religious things therefore they weren't taught about it. But here we see Jesus allowing Mary to be taught.
Jesus and His disciples entered Bethany, a small village only a couple of miles from Jerusalem. We aren't told whether Jesus knew Lazarus, Martha or Mary already or whether they had heard Him preaching, but He was welcomed into their house to eat and have fellowship with them. There is no mention of their parents or spouses so we assume they are a brother and his two sisters living together!
Martha was the one sister who welcomed Jesus into her house, but Mary was the one who welcomed Jesus into her heart that day. Mary sat at Jesus' feet listening to His teaching and the amazing thing is - Jesus allowed her to listen and learn because women are equal with men when they are in Christ.
As Mary was listening to Jesus Martha 'was distracted with much serving'. We don't know how many people she was serving, but presuming it was Jesus and His 12 disciples plus Lazarus, Mary and of course Martha - she probably had at least 16 people to serve. Of course she was doing all of the work while Mary was relaxing which made Martha annoyed. She approached Jesus and we can imagine that maybe she had a bit of anger and frustration in her voice when she said to Jesus "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me!"
What was Jesus' response to this?
He didn't say "Martha, you're being very bossy and rude, I'm a guest in your house..."
No, Jesus was as gracious as ever. This is such a beautiful response:
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Maybe we are worried and troubled about many things. It could be relationships, money, stress, busyness etc and they are valid things which come into our life. We have never been promised an easy time of it, even as Christians BUT Jesus, when we come to Him and focus upon Him He gives us rest, peace, joy, comfort. Mary had chosen to come to Jesus and to sit at His feet to learn from Him, to bask in His presence and to just enjoy His teachings, His fellowship, His company, His peace, His protection, His love. The great thing about Jesus is that when you come to Him, believe in Him, trust in Him and have faith in Him, For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5b)
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle
and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy
and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
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