Martha's Matters

By Grant Marshall

At the Home of Martha and Mary

LUKE 10: 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Often Martha is portrayed as the one who was simply too busy with her chores to sit at Jesus feet. However, she was the one who made sure her visitors had food to eat. She was being hospitable after all, was she not?

I wonder what you would do if Jesus came to dinner unannounced?

Now Martha could have said, ‘ Let’s all sit down, we’ll have some lemon and melon juice for refreshments, we’ll listen to Jesus, and then we’ll have dinner. Now that sounds like a sensible plan.’

All the visitors came and sat at Jesus feet. Martha, I dare say wanted to do the same, but was taken up with her hospitality.

The event is seems is quite chaotic and for me, at least, general courtesy seems missing. Was any effort given to Martha to help come to Jesus?

Did anyone say, ‘Martha, stop what you are doing and sit, Jesus has something to say.

We are not told, but Martha obviously got annoyed . The script says’ Martha got distracted by much serving. In the Greek, the word for this type of busyness in serving is ‘Kovia’, which is translated ‘deaconry’.more on this later.

However, it looks like she was still serving when she brought the notice to Jesus.

Imagine missing Jesus speaking when he was in your house and having to get His words second-hand.

What we see in the story is that Jesus is not specifically asking her to serve at all, but wants her to prioritise the event. Perhaps he’s saying, ‘Don't worry for now, Martha. All this stuff can be done later.’

Martha knows her visitor is an important man and wants to do what is culturally right.

The lesson we learn is that some things can wait a little longer and are not as urgent as you think. If you know you should be spending time with the Lord and things are distracting you, then you need to show wisdom and priorities. Worry and anxiety affect the mind’s thinking. Rationality of thought is affected, and things can become so quickly unsettled. Being anxious and worrying about things puts everything in the now.

During the harvest season, I see several combine harvesters in the fields, all working together. The drones of their machines flood the acoustics of the day. The farmers are all hard at work from early dawn into the late hours. The skies are illuminated with the floodlights of the vehicles, making the night seem like day.

No longer is there a single farmer having to do all the work. There is much to do, and the effort needs many hands.

Now compare that to the work of ministry. In Acts 6, Paul sees that the disciples’ time is being spread into areas of hospitality. He acknowledges that the service needs doing, but where is everyone? Discipleship is waiting at Jesus feet, dealing with kingdom matters; it is our responsible worship. We can serve in the kingdom — seeing to many tasks, but danger comes when those tasks overtake the important matters. We need more hands on board. It adds gravitas to Jesus’ saying about the lack of workers bringing in the harvest.

Do you know that you can affect time? Remember, time is an aspect of creation in our cosmic world plane. The days exist for us to count. They are governed by the laws that hold our solar system together. The disciple is to make himself ready by preparing for the return of Christ. That’s his role. It is not to run around to every meeting going. Their role is to attend to the spiritual growth of themselves and to the flock of which they are a part Those who seek Jesus, look for Him, as a watchmen. He appoints those in the body to do that. The work of His spirit deals with the administration of the kingdom, so those in ‘the office’, so to speak, are meant to seek and wait for kingdom instruction. However, they can’t get that work done as well as attending to the housekeeping. That’s why God has given gifts.

In Martha and Mary’s story, Jesus never made Martha less important than Mary. He was helping Martha to prioritise the moment.

In Acts 6, we begin to see how Paul is setting out the government of the church.

Acts 6:2

2So the Twelve summoned all the disciples and said, “It is unacceptable for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will appoint this responsibility to them 4and will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

The passage in Luke, is not as clear as most have been taught to understand.

Note, Paul is not ordaining priests or setting apostles over them. He is setting in place Holy Spirit-filled, wise men. Don’t forget the wise.

Titus and Timothy give us a better understanding of church oversight.

Men, full of the Holy Spirit, must be chosen to lead (deacon). To "deaconate" is the verb that means to represent complicated and specialistic proceedings, often symbolically so that all, especially the uninformed and least educated, may benefit from its knowledge.  In doing so, the consistency, strength and health of the community are preserved.

We must all learn to prioritise, understand our roles, get our jobs done, be clear about them, and then help others when we can. There are always matters of the day to be seen to. We must not consider our work done because we have spent 20 minutes or 2 hours doing it. We must look to serve others and help them to do theirs. That way, the jobs get done quicker, time is saved, and we can spend more time finding peace and joy in the time of day that remains with family and each other, which are blessings from the Lord.

We need to look closely at how productive we are in the time we are given to tasks. God’s community is a functioning one where his people dwell, wait, serve, produce, and work humbly for each other. However, some believe that just fulfilling their task is enough. That’s because they don’t know the rules of what it means to commune.  They are, in essence, believing that what they have done is sufficient and enough. There will always be those who work and slog it out, and those who will want to do as little as possible. When our work is done, we must ask if others need a helping hand.

I think Martha wanted to sit at Jesus feet as much as anyone else. But the situation for her needed tending to. It was her house, and her duty was to attend to her visitors. She became anxious and may have felt that her daily routine and her control of things were being taken out of her hands.  The task would have been done sooner if others had helped, for sure.

Time and productivity would have been influenced. This is a power which we have all been given. We can influence the matters of the day.

We must not become idle but active in service. In this passage in 2 Peter, we read how our activity relates to discipleship and how this occupation is compounded in holy and consecrated character as we hasten the return of our Lord.

2 Peter 3: 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and [c]its works will be [d]discovered.

11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

We also need to consider that when Jesus turns up, whether announced or not, things will change on a sixpence and matters may be taken out of your hands.    

Shalom.

Grant