Luke 10:38-42
[38] Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. [39] And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. [40] But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. [41] And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: [42] But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Here in this passage, we find Mary and Martha as they had received Jesus into their house – and we find Martha busy working to care for whatever physical needs that were present.
In many ways, I both admire Martha and Identify with her in that. Rather than being caught up in the fanfare of having Jesus there, she worked hard to care for everything that was going. In essence, she was meeting the behind the scenes needs.
The truth is, we need people like that that just get in and get the job done. We need people who will just work hard caring for others!
As often seems to be the case, Martha had a sister – and this sister was no help. In fact, the sister was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to every word that he said.
One summer, when I was young, our family worked to can a bunch of produce. We made a bunch of apple butter, we made pickles, relishes, jellies – all kinds of things! Earlier that year, my sister had been given a calf for her birthday. She loved that calf – in fact, she would brush its hair and even sit with it throughout the day. Many times as my mother and I were in the hot kitchen working, we would look out the window just to see her sitting and reading a book to that calf. I guess in some ways, we felt like Martha did here as she saw Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus.
Martha of course finally had enough – and she begged Jesus to tell Mary to get in the kitchen and help her finish up the meal! But Jesus did not rebuke Mary – instead He had some amazing words for Martha.
What did He say? “Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
He pointed out that Martha was worried about many things – but only one thing ranked as most important or needful – and Mary had picked it!
The truth is we often live like Martha. We get so busy that we forget that which is most important and most needful – but Jesus said “one thing is needful.” I wonder what was He talking about?
Well, He mentioned that Mary had chosen it… and Mary we find sitting at Jesus’s feet listening to His words. Apparently this is the most important thing – for us to stop and listen to the word that He has for us.
That begs the simple question: have you stopped and listened to Him today?
While He does not audibly speak to us today, He has left for us a written record of those Words – and we call that the Bible. We MUST take time to stop and read it – DAILY.
In Matthew 4:4, Jesus quotes from the Old Testament and says, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Friend, we must read it! We must study it! We must meditate on it! We need it!
I challenge you – spend time in God’s Word today!
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