Luke 10:38–39: “Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.”

February 21st, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

In Luke 10, we see Jesus discussing the 2 great commandments of Scripture with a Jewish religious leader: that we are to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul and love our neighbor as ourselves. Then Jesus told the story of “The Good Samaritan” to illustrate just how inclusive this love for our neighbor was supposed to be. And then, through Jesus’ interaction with 2 sisters, Martha and Mary, we see just how we should love God.

Some of us are naturally more active, even to the point of not being able to sit still. While others are naturally more contemplative, thoughtful, more willing to sit back and think things through. Martha had a very activity-centered personality, while her sister Mary was more thoughtful. Mary is found 3 times in the gospels, and all 3 times she is at Jesus’ feet. Because Martha complained to Jesus about her sister not helping, and Jesus in turn confronted Martha’s lack of devotion, we assume that in all circumstances Mary is right and Martha is wrong. And we have heard many sermons contrasting Martha and Mary, as though each believer should make a choice to be either a worker like Martha or a worshiper like Mary, but in so doing we miss an important lesson from the Master. God wants each of us to imitate Mary in our worship and Martha in our work. Duty and devotion are both necessary ingredients in our walk, but they must be balanced.

We sometimes accept the idea in our society that all busy people are important people. But if our service to God causes us to be critical of others and pity ourselves because we feel overworked, we had better take time off to examine our lives. Martha came to Jesus because she wanted Him to lighten her load. Jesus did exactly what she wanted but in a way she did not expect. He did not lighten her workload by having Mary help her, but by giving her a new perspective on her own life: “Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things” (vs. 41). Someone once told me that sitting without serving is the sin of laziness, but serving without sitting only leads to fruitlessness.

“LORD, we want to be both useful and a worshiper this day. Help us stay balanced.”