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Gospel: Luke 10: 38-42
Jesus entered a village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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I’m so glad that Martha lost her cool.
Her frustration allows us to learn a timeless lesson in discipleship.
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We can imagine the scene.
Perhaps Martha was moving around the kitchen for an hour or two, banging pots and pans, cutting vegetables while mumbling under her breath.
Finally, she storms into the dining room to confront her sister, Mary, who’s listening attentively to Jesus.
Interrupting their conversation, Martha bursts out, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?”
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Martha just made several mistakes.
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First, she accuses the Lord of not caring about her burdens. “Lord, do you not care?”
The disciples say the same thing to Jesus while caught in the middle of a storm on the Sea of Galilee. Waking Jesus up, who was asleep on a cushion, they holler at him, “Lord, do you not care that we’re drowning??”
After accusing the Lord of not caring about her, Martha then blames someone else for causing her anxiety. It’s Mary’s fault! “My sister has left me by myself to do the serving!”
Then Martha polishes off this cocktail of complaints by telling Jesus exactly how to solve her problems. “Lord, tell her to help me!”
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Have we ever sounded like Martha? Have we ever complained to Jesus, accusing him of not caring about us? Have we told him how to solve our problems?
What might Martha have done differently? What is the cause of her anxiety, and at times our own?
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She lost her focus. At least today, she’s motivated more by duty than by love.
“Martha, Martha,” Jesus says. “You are anxious and worried about many things.” Her focus is off; she’s distracted by mundane chores.
The root of the word “worry” means, “to strangle.” To be “distracted” means, “to drag apart or to separate something that should be whole.”
Martha has separated her love of the Lord from her work. In that kitchen, she sees a mess: water boiling on the stove; vegetables half cut on the counter; flour on the floor; an absentee sister; and a whole lot of “work” to be done.
What she could’ve seen was the Lord’s face behind that boiling water; his empty stomach filled with those vegetables; his impending gratitude for a meal well served.
But Jesus wasn’t the focus of her labor; she was.
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”
Me, me, me.
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At times, we can feel the same way.
Think about how quickly attending another sports event for your child can feel like another “thing to do,” another demand placed on your time.
Or maybe you do more housework than other members of your family; you tote the kids around town; you do more dishes.
Or maybe you care for an ailing spouse or parent. Another day of phone calls, doctor visits, and pharmacy runs can feel like an imposition on our freedom.
If we focus solely on the tasks that we’re doing – driving, cleaning, childcare – then naturally we can end up tired and frustrated when our focus turns to “me,” instead of to Christ.
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The same is true in prayer. If we spend an hour thinking, then we’ll end up exhausted. We just run around in circles in our head, because the focus is on “me.”
But if we spend an hour sharing our heart with the Lord – even if our circumstances in life haven’t changed – then we can feel a deeper sense of peace, knowing the Lord has heard us.
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“You are anxious and worried about many things.”
In the midst of an often full and crazy schedule, what blessings in my life have begun feeling like burdens? Like Martha, where do I need to re-focus my attention on Christ?
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“Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her,” Jesus says.
The better part isn’t necessarily prayer; it’s recognizing Christ behind whatever we do.
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Image credits: (1) Cross Encounters Ministries (2) Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Vermeer (3) St. Bede, Twitter