Verses
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. Luke 10:38-42
v38 Martha received him into her house
A good first step. Martha received Jesus into her house. He was in her presence. They shared the same space. Martha wasn’t so averse to Jesus that she refused to have him under her roof.
There’s a lot of people today who get in the house with Jesus. They don’t have any problem showing up in God’s house. Indeed, it’s a good thing when people want to be in the house of God. We should never discourage people from this. We’d rather people want to be in God’s House than not right? Correct. But just being physically present in God’s house isn’t enough, as we’ll quickly see
v39 Mary sat at his feet and HEARD the Word
Martha may have received him into the house, but Mary heard his Words.
In churches today, many people highlight that they want to receive Jesus’s presence.
There’s all these popular songs:
- Come Jesus come, we’ve been waiting so long…
- Holy Spirit you are welcome here, come flood this place and fill the atmosphere.
- I’m not in a hurry, when it comes to your Spirit. when it comes to your presence…
I understand that many people sing these songs with open hearts desiring to see God move in their lives. But also… let’s think about this critically for a second… we’re in God’s house… and WE’RE inviting him to come into his OWN house? Like what? Shouldn’t He already be here?
So, we all want to receive Jesus, but how many of us want to HEAR His words. There’s a reason that the Bible has verse 38 and verse 39 side by side. There is a comparison that God wants us to see. Don’t miss it.
What was the difference between Mary and Martha? Well… Martha was just in the house with Jesus. Not only was Mary in the house with Jesus, but she was also sitting at his feet listening to Him.
Which camp are you in today? Are you content to simply be physically in the house of God, or do you have an all-consuming desire to consume God’s Words. Do you leave his house with seeds of truth rooted in your soul? If not, we’re doing it wrong.
What does the word “hear” mean there? It doesn’t just mean she physically heard the words. It goes a bit deeper than that. She listened and understood .
It’s similar to the “hear” that is used in Romans 10:14
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14
I don’t know about women, but I’m pretty sure every man in the world who has ever had a relationship with a woman understands the difference between hearing and listening. She’ll tell you. Hearing is when you look at her while she’s talking. Listening is when you look at her while she’s talking and you’re actually paying attention to what she’s saying.
v40a Martha was cumbered with serving
What do we do when we see the word “ but ”? We always look back at the previous verse to understand why “but” is there. It’s a point of comparison.
Mary heard his word but Martha was cumbered about much serving.
What does cumbered mean? In this context, it’s a 5-dollar word that means “to be distracted”. This is the only time in the Bible this specific word is used! If you were to ask Merriam Webster, cumbered can also mean to “clutter up”, or “to hinder”.
Regardless of what definition you choose to use, you can see the following:
- Martha was hindered by her serving
- Martha was distracted by her serving
- Martha’s life had been cluttered up by her serving
Wait a minute now Sam… Martha was doing something to honor Jesus. How could that hinder her?
Because she wasn’t putting first things first. Mary was sitting and listening while Martha was busy preparing food. Mary was feasting on spiritual food while Martha was busy preparing physical food.
What about us today? Do we feel conviction from the Lord when we are too busy physically serving to spiritually feast on God’s Word? Do you ever get the feeling that your life is cluttered up. Is the time that you do get in God’s Word hindered by all the thoughts of the things you have to go and do? Are you distracted by service?
This is a valid point that so many Christians are afraid to talk about today. More ministry isn’t always the solution. More serving isn’t always the solution. Just as easily as we can get distracted with all the activity going on in our lives outside of God’s house, we can become distracted with all the activity going on in God’s house.
Well Sam, you know the phrase 20% of all the people do 80% of the work. The Pareto Principle. So if service is a distraction it isn’t affecting everyone
Sadly, it’s true that many people come to church with a consumer mindset. A “what can I get” rather than “what can I give”. But when the overall culture is one that pushes service above all else, it affects 100% of the church, not just the 20% doing the work.
The 80% that aren’t serving continually receive the message that they should be getting involved and serving in food ministry, children’s ministry, music ministry, etc. at church. This the take-home for them every week. Not how to live a life closer to Jesus every day by following principles that were highlighted and explained from God’s Word that morning.
Those 20% are serving think that they are perfectly okay because they’re doing all the things that are physically asked of them in the church. They feel this way even if they themselves are not learning more and more about God from his Word every week.
The danger is the same for both sides. Instead of the highlight of church being the Word of God being explained and taught from the pulpit (and therefore heard by the congregation), the majority of the time spent in God’s house is consumed by the extracurriculars. This is wrong. This messaging is detrimental to believers in the long run. The distraction of “service” affects everyone!
v40b Martha throws it on back on Jesus!
Martha has the audacity to ask Jesus if he cares! Then she tries to bend Jesus to her will, telling him to bid Mary to help her. She effectively tells Jesus that Mary is doing it wrong.
Martha is a firebrand for sure. She comes to Jesus directly to explain to him that the things He cares about must evidently be out of order!
We need to be careful that we don’t accidentally slip into this mindset today. Just because someone isn’t outwardly involved in all the activity in the house of God isn’t necessarily a reflection of the care that they have for the things of God. As we’ll soon see, it was Martha who had her cares out of order, not Mary or Jesus.
Notice the pride in Martha’s statement. She alone is serving Jesus. Without her, nothing would get done. Without her effort, Jesus and Mary wouldn’t be eating at the house that day. Without her labor and work, people would leave the house that day hungry and unfilled.
When you start to believe that YOUR ministry is what spiritually fills people, you need to pause from ministry for a time and get back in God’s Word to realign yourself.
Jeremiah had something to say about this…
16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16
The word “eat” there literally means to consume and devour. When we come to the house of God, we should be seeking to consume and devour His Words, which come from His book, the Bible.
Many churches today are caught up in the charisma of leadership figures within the church. If you are in one of those positions where you are taking on a role of active service. Maybe as a musician or deacon or pastor or teacher, you better make sure that what you do for God never selfishly becomes YOUR ministry. You better never take the opinion that you alone are serving Jesus and everyone else is slacking or somehow not on the same level as you. Thoughts such as those allow pride to fester and grow in your life.
God did it without all of us 100 years ago. He can do it all without us now. It is by His grace and providence that we’ve been given the ability to honor Him and uplift others for His glory. Take heed that you never view it differently.
v41 Jesus shows Martha the real problem
Jesus didn’t strike Martha down. He didn’t begin to berate her or yell at her. Instead, he invited her to look at the real problem
“Martha you are careful and troubled about many things”
- careful - to be anxious and concerned
- troubled - to be distracted
Jesus was essentially telling Martha, “Martha, you are concerned and distracted by so many things”
In my head I have this image of Martha. It is by no means Biblically accurate. She was running back and forth from the kitchen. She’s sweating. She’s got flour all over herself. Pots are boiling in the background. Meat is sizzling in pans. There’s open flame under these pots. There’s piles of onions and potatoes that need to be peeled and chopped. She’s almost burned herself 3 times and nicked herself with the knife once or twice
Martha is stressed out.All the cooking and preparing were good things, but they were taking away from the main thing… listening to Jesus. She was so concerned about the meal, that it was being used as a distraction to keep her away from Jesus, both physically and mentally.
This is the problem people have today. We’re concerned and we’re distracted . We may not be in the kitchen, but we’re just as frazzled.
We have work stresses, school stresses, family stresses, marriage stresses, kid stresses, church stresses. Life is stressful!
And it’s not just stuff that other people cause for us! We distract ourselves!
Let me give you just one example.
- The average American checks their phone 205 times a day .
- When surveyed, over a third of Americans said they couldn’t go a day without their device
- My generation, Gen Z, spend an average of 6 hours and 27 minutes on our phone every.single. day. Each generation spends more time than the last. What is happening?
We are seeking to distract ourselves from the stresses and the drudgery of our lives with the screens. Yet somehow, these screens exacerbate them. More so than anything else in the world, the electronic screens in your life are windows into the wickedness of man.
Yes… you can watch funny TikToks, see Vine reruns on Youtube, and peruse Pinterest for new recipes and home decor tips. But that’s not all that those screens are being used for.
- We see people on social media flaunting the highlights of their lives and we feel inferior. We become jealous, discontent, and greedy.
- We see tragedies unfolding real time with foreign wars and acts of terror taking place on our soil. These cause us to become worried and pessimistic.
- We become engrossed in political sewage being thrown back and forth across party lines, propagated primarily by pundits on both sides. This breeds distrust and disharmony.
- We become desensitized to deeply important moral issues though our culture and entertainment. Homosexuality and Abortion are mainstream officially. Gone are the days of the traditional family structure being portrayed in shows and movies. Foul language has become the norm. Our president drops F-bombs to news reporters openly.
The more I write the more I think about this stuff the more distressed and distracted I get. It’s horrid. And it’s so unnecessary. What can I do about Trump choosing to pass the OBBB? What can I do about the Israel-Iran War? What can I do about so-and-so going buying their dream car, getting a promotion, or signing the paperwork on their new house?
If Jesus was standing before you today in the flesh, you think he’d say that you were concerned and distracted? In the time that you’ve been reading this, have you gotten distracted?
And it’s not just the distractions outside of the church walls. As we’ve previously touched on, it’s the distractions inside of them as well.
Until you address the problem of concern and distraction in your life, you will be handicapped as a Christian.
I’m not saying you can’t be a Christian. I’m not saying you won’t be able to have a relationship with God. I’m saying, until you understand what Jesus is trying to teach here (and you act on it), you will be a Christian like Martha rather than a Christian like Mary. Your walk with God will not be as fulfilled and deep, because you will be allowing the distractions and cares of this world to strangle your relationship with your Heavenly Father. You will allow all the other things to prevent you from spending time at your Heavenly Father’s feet.
Jesus was calling Martha out of this. He bluntly told her that she was careful and troubled because He wanted her to see the reality of her situation. She was giving up time that she could spend with her Savior because she preoccupied with things that didn’t have eternal importance. Is that where we are today folks? If so, we need to change. Yes… we have things that we must take care of. God has blessed each of us with responsibilities and given us passions to pursue while we’re here on this earth. But these things should never take precedence over our relationship with Him. They simply aren’t as needful in the long run. But there is something that is needful…
v42 Choose the good part.
We see here in verse 42 the words of Jesus. He tells Martha that ONE thing is needful. This means there was one things that was essential.
The first time I read this verse I confused a bit, because Jesus doesn’t directly say, “listen to Me, that’s what’s needful”. He says that Mary hath chosen that good part . God’s expecting us to use the brains he’s given us to read the Scripture in context.
What’s the good part?
The good part is putting Jesus above everything else in your life. It’s that simple.
I need you to understand that everything we have in this world will eventually be taken away from us. It will all fade.
Everything you seek to amass in this life will eventually pass away. Every dollar you get paid, every car you drive, every article of clothing you wear, all gone. Every degree you earn, every accolade you are given, and every job you’ve ever worked. It will pass away.
This is not me being doom and gloom . This simply a fact. It’s all going to be taken away because none of it is eternal.
But Jesus will remain. He exists outside of our humanity. He exists outside of our idea of time. Because we have eternal souls, and he is an eternal God, He will be the only one that remains with us.
If you’re not putting listening to Him as the first priority in your life today, then a change needs to be made. You may be doing a lot of doing , but if you’re not listening , you’re missing the plot. I implore you today to make the decision to choose the good part.
If you’re saved, but you know that you’re spending most of your time doing stuff in God’s house, it’s time to come out of that. If you spend more time “doing things” for God than you spend in prayer and Bible reading, then today is the day to make a change. No praise songs, live-stream work, greeter activities, Sunday School teaching, nursery work, Children’s church, bus ministry, counseling, or any other act of service equates with the time you should be spending at His feet.
If you’re not saved, but you know that you’re spending most of your time doing stuff trying to be a good person, it’s time to come out of that. If you spend more time trying to do things to convince yourself and others that you’re okay in the light of eternity, then it’s time to come out of that. You’re dosing yourself with a dangerous medicine, lulling yourself into a sense of false security that you’ll be okay when you stand before God one day. That’s not how it works. God doesn’t load up all the good things you ever did on one side of the scale and all the bad on the other. He simply looks for the sign that you accepted His Son and made a commitment in faith to him while you were here on this earth.
If you’re reading this, you still have the opportunity to make that commitment today if you haven’t. You can still make the commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Pray to the Lord, admitting that you are a sinner, believing that Jesus died and rose again to save you from your sins (as you can’t do it yourself), and make the commitment to follow Him the rest of your days.
Start reading your Bible daily. Start praying daily. Ask God to draw you closer to Him and reveal His next steps for you specifically. Get involved in a local church that prioritizes TEACHING God’s Word. Remember, as we’ve seen in this article, God’s Word uplifts us, but it also challenges us. It warns us of the consequences of sin, and encourages us to walk in paths of righteousness. Be wary of the church that seeks to simply make you feel good. Hell should be preached and admonishment of sin should be a focal point. If every message sounds like a feel-good motivation TED talk, you’re in the wrong place.
Don’t let the time you have left be spent selfishly on yourself. Make the decision today to spend more time at His Feet.