#87 Lu. 10:38-42 MARTHA AND MARY CHRISTIANS

Introduction:

    Our text last Sunday dealt with the question of how to inherit
eternal life.  In our text today the two women involved are both
already Christians.  Therefore our text does not deal with the
question of how to become a Christian, but rather it deals with
the question of how to live our lives after we are saved.

I.  Jesus received as guest in the home of Martha

    V. 38, "Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered
into a certain village..." Luke says that Jesus and His disciples
were traveling and they came to a small village.  He does not tell
us what village it was.  John tells us that this was the village
of Bethany near the city of Jerusalem.  The implication is that
Jesus and His disciples were on their way to Jerusalem for one of
the three Jewish religious feasts that were held there annually.
    (V. 38), "...and a certain woman named Martha received him
into her house."  There was a certain village and a certain woman.
Luke uses a play on words to catch our attention.  However, even
though Luke did not tell us the name of the village, yet he does
tell us the name of the woman.  Her name is Martha.
    It appears that Martha was a widow.  Neither Luke nor John
mentions her having a husband.  They do both tell us that she had
a home and apparently it was a large home.  It was large enough to
accommodate Jesus and His disciples as guests.
    In the realm of possibility she could have accumulated enough
wealth as a business woman to buy such a home or she could have
inherited the home from her parents.  Most likely she inherited
her home from a deceased husband.

II.  Mary and Martha's conduct toward Jesus

    V. 39, "And she had a sister called Mary..."  It appears from
this account and the record in John that Mary may have been an
unmarried girl who was living in the home with Martha.  That is
not necessarily so, but she was present there in Martha's home on
two separate occasions when Jesus and His disciples came there.
    Luke tells us about her sister, Mary, but he does not say
anything about Lazarus, her brother.  John tells us about Lazarus
also.
    (V. 39)  "...which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his
word."  Jesus, as always, continued to teach whoever was around
who would listen to Him.  Being in a home it was probably not a
formal speech or discourse.  It was probably a very informal
occasion with the twelve disciples and what other people could
crowd into the home gathered around Jesus.  In all likelihood
someone asked Him a question and that led into a whole teaching
discourse by Jesus.
    Luke tells us that Mary, the sister of Martha was right there
with what we might call "a front row seat."  She was taking in
every word that Jesus said.  She was seated right down at His feet
so that nothing would interfere with her hearing every word.  And
right there she sat.  She didn't budge.  As long as Jesus was
talking, she was right there listening to every word.
    V. 40, "But Martha was cumbered about much serving..."  The
Greek word that is translated "cumbered" means that she was not
only busy, but that she was overly busy.  She was in a tizzy
trying to serve food for her guests.
    It was not just that she was trying to provide sufficiently
for them.  Rather she was making too much of a to-do about it.
After all, this was Jesus in her home.  She wanted everything to
be just right.  She wanted the very best of everything to serve
Jesus and His disciples.  For this reason she was doing a lot more
work than was necessary.  I started to say that she was doing
about ten times as much work as was necessary and that probably
wouldn't miss it very far.  After all, Jesus did not come to her
home very often and she wanted to take advantage of it while He
was here and do her very best for Him.
    Luke does not mention the tidiness of the house, but I feel
sure that Martha scrubbed everything and made it shine.  She must
have hurried down to the market to get the supplies that she
needed for cooking the meal.  She planned the best meal she
possibly could.  She put on the pot roast and vegetables, prepared
the salad, planned the desert, polished the silverware, got out
her best dishes and did a dozen other things that Luke did not
mention and I have not even thought about.

III.  Martha's resentment

    Martha was just about done in.  She had worn herself out
trying to get things ready and there was still a lot of work
yet that she thought just had to be done.
    And there sat her sister, Mary, at the feet of Jesus taking in
every word that Jesus was saying.  I can just imagine it.  Martha
was fuming.  Every time she looked at Mary just sitting there and
not offering to do one single thing to help her she fumed all the
more.  Martha had not only worked herself down physically, but she
had worked herself up emotionally.  She was about ready to
explode.
    What is worse, she was not only angry at Mary, but she also
became angry at Jesus.  In her mind she began to blame Jesus for
letting Mary put all of the work off on her.  It was His fault.
If He had not actually cause it, He had at least allowed it.
After all, He could see how busy she was and He could see Mary
just sitting there doing nothing.  He should have seen to it that
Mary helped her.  He should have told Mary to help her.  At least,
that is the way Martha felt about it.
    So finally Martha had just about had it up to here and so she
just marched right into the room where Jesus was teaching.  She
marched right up to Jesus and she interrupted whatever it was  He
was saying.  (V.  40), "...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."
    She said in effect, "Lord, I don't think you care about me.  I
don't think that you care how much work Mary puts off on me.  She
sat right here and has not lifted a finger to help me and you have
not said a word to her about it.  Would you, please, tell my
sister to get herself up and to get in there and help me?"  She
was angry.  She was very angry.  She was angry at Mary and she was
angry at the Lord.

IV.  The Lord's answer to Martha

    V. 41-42a, "And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha,
Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one
thing is needful..."
    The words of Jesus to Martha sought to accomplish three
things.  First, they sought to calm her angry spirit.  Listen to
the soothing, calming effect as He spoke her name.  "...Martha,
Martha..."  There is no harshness in this expression.  There is
nothing there but tenderness.  It says to her, "Martha, if you
think I do not care about you, you are wrong.  I do care.  I care
deeply." It was designed to have a soothing effect.
    Secondly, His words were designed to inform her that she was
too busy.  He said that she was careful and troubled about many
things---too many.  She was doing things that were not necessary.
She could have provided abundantly for her guests with a fraction
of the trouble that she was going to.  She had worn herself out
unnecessarily.  I am sure that Jesus was appreciative of her
desire to provide for them and He was appreciative of her desire
to provide the best.  But He would have also appreciated it more
if she had spent a lot less time preparing food and had spent a
lot more time with Him.
    The third thing that His words were designed to do was to
rebuke her for neglecting to come in and hear the things He was
teaching.  Jesus said, "The one thing that is more important than
anything else, you have neglected to do."  He was talking about
hearing His teachings.  Jesus did not blast away at Martha.  He
did not strongly rebuke her.  But He did rebuke her in a mild sort
of way.  In effect, He said, "What you ought to do is to leave off
about ninety percent of what you are doing and to get yourself in
here and listen to me."  Martha could see that this was her big
chance to fix a nice meal for Jesus, but what she did not see was
that this was also her big chance to sit at the feet of Jesus and
learn.
    (V. 42), "...and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall
not be taken away from her."  Jesus said, "Mary wanted to learn.
She wanted to hear what I was saying to these disciples.  She was
anxious to know the truth of God.  She chose to ignore all those
unnecessary things that you were doing in order to learn the
precious truths of God.  That privilege is not going to be taken
from her.  I am not going to stop her from doing the one thing
that is most necessary in every Christian's life and send her off
to do the things that are unnecessary."

V.  The Martha Christians of today

    But now listen.  There are a lot of Martha Christians still
around today.  I don't mean, of course, that they are named
"Martha." I mean that they are like Martha.  In fact, I think that
all us who are Christians--men and women alike--can see some of
Martha's traits in our own lives.  We are all inclined somewhat to
major on the things that God would consider unnecessary and
neglect the number one thing that is necessary.
    Now what Martha was doing was not immoral or wicked.  It was
not that she was engaged in worldliness and sin.  She was just
doing things that were unnecessary and neglecting the thing that
is necessary and that is what we often do.  Now I am not saying
that Christians do not engage in worldly conduct.  I am sure that
many do.  But the point that I am making is that we do not have to
be involved in worldliness and sin to be out of the will of God.
If we are so busy doing things that do not have top spiritual
priority that we neglect the one thing that should have top
priority then we are out of the will of God.
    Brethren, the number one thing in our lives after we are saved
ought to be to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn the truths of
God.  Then after we know His truth we ought to mold our lives to
the will of God.  First we need to know His will and then we ought
to do His will.
    Mary learned some very precious things by sitting at the feet
of Jesus.  She learned many truths of God and the will of God for
her life.  Jesus, of course, is not here today in body so that we
can literally sit at His feet.  Never-the-less, there are two ways
that we can sit at the feet of Jesus today and learn.  We can sit
at the feet of Jesus by coming to the house of God and listening
to the word of God.  We should listen carefully like Mary did to
Jesus.  We should listen to every word.  The difference is that
Mary could believe absolutely everything that Jesus said.  When we
listen to the man of God, we need to recognize that it is not the
word of the man of God that is important.  Rather it is the word
of God that is important.  We have to make a distinction between
the two so that if there is a contradiction between what the
preacher says and what the word of God says then we are obligated
to believe what God says rather than man.  Never-the-less, God
uses His God-called preachers to preach and teach His word to His
people and we would do well to take advantage of the opportunity
to learn.  Likewise God uses Sunday school teachers to teach His
word and God's people need to take advantage of the opportunity to
learn.
    Secondly, we may sit at the feet of Jesus by studying God's
word, the Bible in our own personal lives.  It is not enough to go
to church and listen to the word of God.  Each and every child of
God should open the word of God right in his own home and
carefully study the word of God.  He should pray to God as he
studies and ask God to give him a proper understanding of God's
word.
    We need to study God's word so that we will know the truths of
God.  This world that we live in is filled with a lot of religious
heresy.  It is filled with religious teachings that are not at all
in keeping with the word of God.  You can go out into the world to
the many different kind of churches and you can hear every kind of
heretical devilish teaching under the sun.  You don't even have to
go to a church of any kind to hear heresy.  You can turn on your
radio or your television and hear everything under the sun being
proclaimed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The only way for
the Christian to be fortified against those hellish teachings is
to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn.
    We also need to know the word of God so that we can do the
will of God in our own lives.  It is not enough to be saved and on
our way to heaven.  We need to live our lives in a manner that
will please God and honor God.  We may go to heaven without
conforming our daily lives to God's will, but we cannot please God
without doing His will.  Knowing and doing the will of God should
be the number one purpose of our lives.

Conclusion:

    In closing let me ask you a few questions.  I am not trying to
put anybody on the spot and so I am not asking you to raise your
hand.  But I do want you to seriously consider what I am going to
ask.
    First, are you saved?  If you are not saved then the number
one purpose of you life ought to be go get saved.  You need to
turn to God in repentance of your sins and call upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and ask Him to save your soul.  I am going to ask you
to repent now.  Won't you come and trust Jesus.
    Now if you are saved, let me ask you this question?  Are you a
Martha Christian or a Mary Christian?  Do you put other things
first in your life or do you put sitting at the feet of Jesus
first in your life?
    Do you come to Sunday school on a regular basis?  Sunday
school is the most important school in this world.  It has been
used mightily to teach the word of God to many people of God.  Do
you take advantage of the opportunity that God has given you for
good sound Biblical teaching every Sunday morning?  Or, perhaps,
have you, like Martha, been too busy with things of lesser
importance?  You ought to come every Sunday.
    But let me go on to another question.  Do you study your
Sunday school lesson before coming to Sunday school?  If not, why
now?  Is it because you are too busy?  If so, then what you need
to do is to cut out some of your activities of lesser importance
and study your Sunday school lesson on a regular basis.
    Do you listen to the teacher as he or she teaches the lesson?
Or is your mind on the pot roast, the uncut grass, the hot weather
or a thousand and one other lesser important things?  When the
word of God is being taught or preached you should listen just as
though you were sitting at the feet of Jesus.  You may not believe
everything the teacher says, but you should believe everything the
Lord says in His Book. If, while you are at the house of God, you
are not listening to the word of God because you have your mind on
a lot of other things, then you are out of the will of God and you
need to start paying attention.
    One more question:  When you read or hear God's word, do you
then attempt to put the word of God into practice in your life?
Do you seek to change your life to comply with the will of God as
revealed in His word?  If not, then you still have a ways to go in
find the will of God for your life.  We ought to seek to live in
obedience to the word of God.