Luke 10:38-end
Jesus gave the wrong answer.
I know that because I asked the children in an assembly last week.
I had Martha peeling a potato, cutting an onion, tidying up and washing up, setting the table – and I had Mary sitting with Jesus and listening to him. And Martha became more and more angry and irritated because she was doing all the work, and Mary was doing nothing.
So I asked them, ‘What should Jesus have said to Mary?’
And they said that he should have told her to help!
But he gave the wrong answer.
What is going on?
1. Don’t ask Jesus to do your dirty work for you
Martha says to Jesus, ‘Tell Mary to help me’
But Jesus, it seems, challenges Martha and not Mary
That also happens later in Luke 12:13-15. A man goes to Jesus and says, ‘Tell my brother to share the inheritance with me’, and Jesus replies, ‘Friend, who appointed me to be judge and arbitrator between you?’ And he warns the man not to be controlled by greed.
In both cases, Jesus challenges the person who asks him to challenge someone else.
They have got something right – they are going to Jesus, the right person.
But Jesus is not our ace of spades. He is not our tame genii.
It can be very unpredictable going to Jesus; and in both these cases he turns the situation around, puts the spotlight on the person who is asking him to do something about someone else, and gets them to examine themselves.
When it comes to prayer, it really is about you and God.
We pray ‘sort out my brother-in-law who is being so unfair, or my boss who is making my life unbearable’.
But Jesus often cares too much for us to do that.
Instead, he often gets us to face up to ourselves: ‘What are your motives?’ ‘Where is your sense of identity? Why are you letting someone take advantage of you at work?’ ‘Why is it that they find you difficult?’ What is it in you that needs to change – so that you can become free?
2. If we look closely at this story, we see that the target of Martha’s frustration is not Mary but Jesus.
She is not resentful primarily to Mary. She is resentful to Jesus
‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me’
In other words, show you care for me, by telling my sister to help me.
They are the same words that the disciples use when Jesus is fast asleep in the boat (Mark 4:38) and they are struggling to keep the boat afloat: ‘Do you not care that we are perishing’.
Isn’t that interesting? People accuse Jesus of not caring for them.
But the point is that Jesus does care for them – but on his terms and not their terms.
They think that if Jesus cares for them, he will take their side, he will make life go well for them. But Jesus cares so much for them and for us that he wants the best for us, the eternal best for us. He wants that we should become perfect, that we should be set free from captivity to sin, that we should know intimacy with God, that we should live ‘holy and righteous lives’, that we should be prepared for the life of the Kingdom of God and of heaven.
And there will be many times when, because Jesus cares for us, he will sleep through our storms, he will not support us in what we think we want, and he will challenge us.
3. Jesus reminds Martha about what is absolutely central in life
Martha thought, at this moment, that the most important thing for her was to be a good hostess to Jesus.
Possibly that was what she thought gave her status or respect or self-worth. It was certainly what the world at that time, and possibly today, says to women.
People would say, ‘If you go round to Martha’s, she has everything so nice. She puts on an amazing dinner.’
And if it was not a good dinner, then no doubt people would say the right words, but Martha would feel ashamed.
Jesus says to Martha, ‘Martha Martha’ – he calls her by name not once but twice – ‘you are worried and distracted by many things; there is only need of one thing. Mary has chosen the better part’.
Jesus was there in her home.
If she had stopped, and quieted the inner voices in her that told her that if Martha was to be any good, the hospitality had to be good; and if perhaps she had gone beyond looking at Jesus’ status as one of the most well-known rabbis, and instead looked at him as a friend, then maybe she would have stopped doing all she was doing, and sat down with Mary to listen to Jesus and to be with him.
And she would have discovered that her true worth was not in what she did, but in who she was: welcomed, forgiven, beloved by God
And she may also have discovered that the man who taught his disciples to pray ‘give us this day our daily bread’, could provide what was necessary. He was quite a dab hand at mass catering. Who knows, when he had finished teaching, Jesus might have said, ‘Let’s get something to eat’?
This story is not about saying that prayer is more important than service, but about getting priorities right. It is saying that true service comes out of prayer, out of that encounter with Jesus.
It is very easy to serve and not to serve. We are really serving ourselves, satisfying our inner demons. As someone said, ‘She served others. You could tell the others by the haunted expressions on their faces’
It is about priorities. It is about getting the centre right.
Because if we don’t, we are going to be worn out by the inner demons or we are going to wear out others, we are going be deeply resentful of others who do not pull their weight, and when – because we are ill or older or out of role - we are not able to do what we do, we are going to be broken.
But if we do get the centre right, then we will begin to discover the Jesus who really does care for us, and we will begin to find freedom and peace and life.
CS Lewis writes, “It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.”
So Jesus didn’t give the wrong answer!
Jesus gave the wrong answer.
I know that because I asked the children in an assembly last week.
I had Martha peeling a potato, cutting an onion, tidying up and washing up, setting the table – and I had Mary sitting with Jesus and listening to him. And Martha became more and more angry and irritated because she was doing all the work, and Mary was doing nothing.
So I asked them, ‘What should Jesus have said to Mary?’
And they said that he should have told her to help!
But he gave the wrong answer.
 |
| Christ in the Home of Martha and Mary, Johannes Vemeer, Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh |
What is going on?
1. Don’t ask Jesus to do your dirty work for you
Martha says to Jesus, ‘Tell Mary to help me’
But Jesus, it seems, challenges Martha and not Mary
That also happens later in Luke 12:13-15. A man goes to Jesus and says, ‘Tell my brother to share the inheritance with me’, and Jesus replies, ‘Friend, who appointed me to be judge and arbitrator between you?’ And he warns the man not to be controlled by greed.
In both cases, Jesus challenges the person who asks him to challenge someone else.
They have got something right – they are going to Jesus, the right person.
But Jesus is not our ace of spades. He is not our tame genii.
It can be very unpredictable going to Jesus; and in both these cases he turns the situation around, puts the spotlight on the person who is asking him to do something about someone else, and gets them to examine themselves.
When it comes to prayer, it really is about you and God.
We pray ‘sort out my brother-in-law who is being so unfair, or my boss who is making my life unbearable’.
But Jesus often cares too much for us to do that.
Instead, he often gets us to face up to ourselves: ‘What are your motives?’ ‘Where is your sense of identity? Why are you letting someone take advantage of you at work?’ ‘Why is it that they find you difficult?’ What is it in you that needs to change – so that you can become free?
2. If we look closely at this story, we see that the target of Martha’s frustration is not Mary but Jesus.
She is not resentful primarily to Mary. She is resentful to Jesus
‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me’
In other words, show you care for me, by telling my sister to help me.
They are the same words that the disciples use when Jesus is fast asleep in the boat (Mark 4:38) and they are struggling to keep the boat afloat: ‘Do you not care that we are perishing’.
Isn’t that interesting? People accuse Jesus of not caring for them.
But the point is that Jesus does care for them – but on his terms and not their terms.
They think that if Jesus cares for them, he will take their side, he will make life go well for them. But Jesus cares so much for them and for us that he wants the best for us, the eternal best for us. He wants that we should become perfect, that we should be set free from captivity to sin, that we should know intimacy with God, that we should live ‘holy and righteous lives’, that we should be prepared for the life of the Kingdom of God and of heaven.
And there will be many times when, because Jesus cares for us, he will sleep through our storms, he will not support us in what we think we want, and he will challenge us.
3. Jesus reminds Martha about what is absolutely central in life
Martha thought, at this moment, that the most important thing for her was to be a good hostess to Jesus.
Possibly that was what she thought gave her status or respect or self-worth. It was certainly what the world at that time, and possibly today, says to women.
People would say, ‘If you go round to Martha’s, she has everything so nice. She puts on an amazing dinner.’
And if it was not a good dinner, then no doubt people would say the right words, but Martha would feel ashamed.
Jesus says to Martha, ‘Martha Martha’ – he calls her by name not once but twice – ‘you are worried and distracted by many things; there is only need of one thing. Mary has chosen the better part’.
Jesus was there in her home.
If she had stopped, and quieted the inner voices in her that told her that if Martha was to be any good, the hospitality had to be good; and if perhaps she had gone beyond looking at Jesus’ status as one of the most well-known rabbis, and instead looked at him as a friend, then maybe she would have stopped doing all she was doing, and sat down with Mary to listen to Jesus and to be with him.
And she would have discovered that her true worth was not in what she did, but in who she was: welcomed, forgiven, beloved by God
And she may also have discovered that the man who taught his disciples to pray ‘give us this day our daily bread’, could provide what was necessary. He was quite a dab hand at mass catering. Who knows, when he had finished teaching, Jesus might have said, ‘Let’s get something to eat’?
This story is not about saying that prayer is more important than service, but about getting priorities right. It is saying that true service comes out of prayer, out of that encounter with Jesus.
It is very easy to serve and not to serve. We are really serving ourselves, satisfying our inner demons. As someone said, ‘She served others. You could tell the others by the haunted expressions on their faces’
It is about priorities. It is about getting the centre right.
Because if we don’t, we are going to be worn out by the inner demons or we are going to wear out others, we are going be deeply resentful of others who do not pull their weight, and when – because we are ill or older or out of role - we are not able to do what we do, we are going to be broken.
But if we do get the centre right, then we will begin to discover the Jesus who really does care for us, and we will begin to find freedom and peace and life.
CS Lewis writes, “It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.”
So Jesus didn’t give the wrong answer!
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