Vicki B. Morgan
This passage depicting Mary and Martha is preceded by Jesus’
telling of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37.) Ending with the words, “Jesus
told him, ‘Go and do likewise,’” this parable becomes a
lesson on the Christian life of love for and service to neighbor (v. 37).
Immediately following the Good Samaritan parable we find the
Mary and Martha story, a text that, in a cursory reading, seems to back off
the command to serve. The juxtaposition of these two parables teaches the
importance of loving one’s neighbor and how to tap the source for this
love through a life of devotion to Jesus Christ. Luke may have been worried
that the Samaritan story would be interpreted as support for “works
salvation.” He may have felt a need to temper the command for service
with a passage that explained the proper place of service in the Christian
life. Service can only result from a posture of complete devotion to Jesus
Christ, a devotion symbolized by Mary’s position at the feet of Jesus.
A delightful narrative about Jesus teaching His disciples to
pray follows the story of Mary and Martha. Luke shows the reader how to accomplish
the posture of devotion through a life of continual prayer. Service to others,
grown out of a life devoted to Jesus Christ and bathed in prayer, is the message
Luke preaches in this trilogy of narratives.
Jesus desires that our service come as a result of knowing Him. It is so easy,
as Martha demonstrates, to become so involved in service that we forget the
purpose of service and our source of strength comes from Jesus Christ. When
we remember “only one thing is needed” (v. 42), and adopt a posture
of attending patiently at the feet of Jesus, true Christian service proceeds.
The text differentiates between serving and serving with the
proper attitude. Churches often are blessed with people who are willing to
do “whatever is needed.” Some of these people have the gift of
service and know how to use it well. But there hides the danger.
As human beings, knowing you do something well can lead to you
believing you are the only one who knows how to do it properly. Improper exercise
of service can lead to people overextending themselves—it can lead to
burnout.
Forgetting the source of the gift can mean others are deprived
of opportunities to serve. When “perfect” service becomes the
primary goal, those who might not do the job quite as well are either passed
over or made to feel they are not good enough.
When preaching this text, one must be careful not to make Martha
the villain of the story. She is not evil but has lost her spiritual perspective.
She has chosen a very good way but not the better way. There may be many people
in the congregation who have made the same choice. It is a danger people in
all levels of church leadership face—from the pulpit to the pew. We
can become so busy doing Christ’s work that we forget the One we are
to serve. This is the warning in Martha’s story. On the other hand,
if we have our priorities straight, the service that results will be compounded
through the grace of God. This is the beauty of Mary’s story and Martha’s
potential.
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons.”)
God’s people are held accountable for their service. One
only needs to be reminded of passages such as “the least of these”
narrative in Matthew 25:31-40 to understand the importance of loving Christian
service. Service is not being condemned by Jesus. However service marked by
distraction and worry does not fit the command to love God and others. Service
that loses sight of the need for growth, love, or an expression of authentic
faith misses the point.
In today’s society people are expected to, in the words
of one company’s slogan, “just do it.” Often new believers
and those newly called to leadership positions begin working in the church
desiring to “serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord”
(Ephesians 6:7). However, somewhere in the process, the focus of service shifts
from serving to glorify the Lord to simply taking care of business. The servants
become so engaged in taking care of the needs of others they forget to care
for their own spiritual lives. When this happens, not only do we risk burnout
and fatigue, we begin to deprive others of the opportunity to serve and be
served as God would have them.
We start our spiritual journey at the feet of Jesus but that position is not just a starting point from which we walk away. At the feet of Jesus is always the point at which the spiritual meets the practical, the point at which Christians do what God calls us to. In a posture of submission and learning at the feet of Jesus we become the vessel waiting to be filled to the point of overflow. In our own power we can be gracious, generous, or open to others; it is God’s Spirit that makes us so. We are in the best posture to receive this power when humbly waiting at the feet of Jesus.
