CHOOSE THE GOOD PART
Choose the good part.
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” – Luke 10:38-42
The two sisters here could be described as the distracted and the undistracted sisters. One saw Jesus and got busy in the kitchen, serving her guests and making sure all of the normal socially accepted protocols were met. The other chose to simply drop everything and concentrate on the one thing she could only do when Jesus came to visit, sit and listen to the messiahs teaching.
Mary made a choice to do one thing.
Martha felt she had no choice.
Mary was being built up by Christ’s teaching.
Martha was being worn out by the serving.
I’ve preached on this in the past and asked what character type you are, a Mary or a Martha. The truth is we’ve all been both. You might want to concentrate on one good thing, but you’ve been left with the preparation or cleaning up because somebody has to do it.
It might have been Martha’s character which put her in the kitchen, but she clearly expected Mary to be with her. An organised person can see what’s needed, but the plans of the organised, often miss what’s most important.
Martha could have been more like Mary, but she got so busy serving Jesus that she wasn’t listening to Jesus. Her focus had gone off the most important thing and onto the many things.
Have you ever done that?
Without Jesus as the focus for the work we are simply left with work. Then we begin to manage the work ourselves and it becomes about our needs. Self-pity soon follows which leads to self-righteousness and anger. As the tension builds, so do the accusations. You can’t contain that kind of emotion and an explosion is inevitable.
Martha could have dropped everything and joined Mary at any point. Instead, she walked in to see this beautiful time of ministry, but only saw things from her perspective. Driven by self-righteous anger and with accusation in her voice, she asked Jesus if he even cared for her and her situation.
When you take your focus off Jesus, it will quickly come to rest on something else and our vision gets skewed. This is the time to drop everything and refocus.
Jesus points out the problem in his answer. ”Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed…”
Are you worried and troubled about the many things? Are you missing what’s important and missing out on Jesus?
Trade the many things for the one thing that matters.
Refocus on Jesus and know that He is always good and cares for you.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7