Martha, Martha

“As they went, He (Jesus) entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me.’

Jesus answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.’” Luke 10:38-42

Ouch. As a fellow Marthaian, reading these words of Jesus have always made me cringe a little bit.

Have you ever had thirteen people, or more, (including the Son of God) show up at your house unannounced to hang out for a while? What do you do? Maybe you start by running to the fridge to scrounge up something to drink. And what about food? Are they staying for dinner? What could you put together? You start pulling all the food you can find from every shelf and drawer, you think as fast as you’re sweating, taking out pots and pans, plates and cups, you run around the table setting it…  And you’re getting more and more frustrated by the minute.

But maybe it doesn’t end there. Maybe you’re busy finding enough chairs and cleaning the bathroom and washing the dishes and sweeping the floor, and on and on and on.

That was Martha. (And yes, I may have been known to exhibit this kind of behavior.) And then she stops, out of breath.  She can’t take the stress of it all anymore, and she marches herself over to Jesus.

“Don’t you care?”

In other words, aren’t you paying any attention? Haven’t you noticed that I’m doing all this work by myself and I’m stressed out?

Jesus’ answer to Martha was “you are worried and upset about many things.”

He had noticed, and He did care. He saw all Martha was trying to do. He saw she was trying to serve, and while that’s a good thing, He also saw she was doing it with an anxious and frustrated heart. And so He waited until she got to the end of herself and came to Him. I can imagine Him holding out His hand to her, inviting her to join them.

I know how hard it is to stop worrying and racing around trying to do all the things that need to be done in a day, a month, a lifetime, and just sit at Jesus’ feet.

Yes, some things need to be done, but some things can be left for a day, a month, or altogether. There are always things to be done, but Jesus calls us to come sit with Him.  

Martha was worried about giving them temporal food for their bodies but Jesus wanted to give her and the rest of them eternal spiritual food for their souls.

He knows we can do nothing without Him. Anything He calls us to do He wants us to do, not with anxiety, but in His strength, with His wisdom, His knowledge, and most of all, His love. Our first and greatest need is always to sit at His feet and learn from Him.

Who knows, if Martha had joined the rest of them, maybe afterward Jesus would have set a meal before them a la “wine at the wedding in Cana.”

I think we all have at least a little bit of Martha in us sometimes. We can get so stressed about life that we wonder if God even sees what’s going on in our lives. Doesn’t He care?

He sees and He cares, more than we can imagine. He knows that’s why we need Him. In the midst of it all He wants to give us His wisdom, to prepare us for things to come, to show us His will, to give us rest for our weary souls.

Sometimes God has ways of making us sit. When He has something to show us He will hold out His hand to us, one way or another, inviting us to come sit at His feet. And when we do, He’ll make a provision for all those things we are worried and upset about.

For weeks after my stroke He made a way for us to have dinner first by our church family and then for six months by our gracious neighbors. My husband took over many of the responsibilities I’d always had, and my job was to heal and to seek Him, to read His Word, and to write what He’d show me.

It’s been a hard road of frustration and sweat and venting. And every now and then I try to get up and run around, worried and upset about many things. But He keeps “double-naming” me like He did Martha, not in a condescending way, but with love and compassion, and He pulls me back to the thing that’s needed most: sitting with Him and letting Him feed my soul.

Heavenly Father, we know this life is short and you have much to teach us. Help us not get sidetracked and instead do the most important thing: spend time with Jesus. As we do, please give us His mind and heart and transform us by the power and love of your Holy Spirit. We trust you to provide and make a way and we give you all the glory for what you’re going to do. In Jesus’ precious name I pray, amen.