Luke 10:38-42 – Martha
The first thing these verses teach us is how different in personality Christians can be. Both Mary and Martha are faithful believers, both honour Christ at a time when few people do, both love Jesus, and Jesus loves both of them. But Martha is active, impulsive, speaking everything she feels, and Mary is quiet and thoughtful. When Jesus comes to her house, Martha rejoices and gets busy doing things for Him; Mary rejoices as well, but she sits at Jesus’ feet to listen to Him. We must not expect all believers in Christ to be exactly like each other. They all recognise their sin, they all trust in Christ, but in minor things they can often be quite different.
Martha’s preparations and service of Christ is not wrong. What’s wrong is the priority she gives it in her life. She begins to care more about what she is doing for Christ than about Christ Himself. Her worry and anxiety over what she is doing cause her to forget the reason why she is so busy. When she sees her sister, her conscience is pricked with the realisation that she should be spending more time with Christ. Burdened with worry and guilt, she speaks sharply to the very One she is trying to honour. It’s so easy for us to fall into this same trap. Caught up in the various ministries of our church, eager to serve Christ in all we do, we get so busy doing God’s work that we forget to actually spend time with God. Our focus shifts from Christ to ourselves, and we worry and get upset over all we feel we are called on to do and angry at those who seem to be doing very little. We, like Martha, forget whom we serve. Christ’s warning to her is a warning to us. Our relationship with Him should have the priority in our lives; our time spent with Him must come first. We must have that time at our Lord’s feet in order to remember why we serve Him.
Questions
1. How are Martha and Mary different?
2. What was Martha doing wrong?
3. How can we guard against making Martha’s mistake?
Prayer Points
1. Pray that we would keep Christ first in our lives.
2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
3. Pray for family matters.