And she wasn’t happy about it. "This just isn’t right!" she thought. "I’m out here in the kitchen working as hard as I can, and that lazy sister of mine is sitting in there at the preacher’s feet. She ought to be helping me."
Finally, Martha couldn’t stand it anymore. Convinced Jesus should correct the situation, she marched in and interrupted His sermon. “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?” she asked. “Bid her therefore that she help me” (verse 40).
All Messed Up With Too Many Things to Do
Imagine this! Not only did Martha make a scene right in the middle of Jesus’ meeting, she as much as accused Him of not caring about her. Then she actually told Him what to do.
Most of us can’t remember the last time we ordered Jesus around. We know better. But Martha was all messed up. “Overly occupied and too busy...distracted with much serving” (verse 40, The Amplified Bible), she had too many things on her to-do list.
How did Jesus help her? He answered and said to her: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (verses 41-42).
To Martha’s credit, she didn’t argue with what Jesus told her. She didn’t say, “Be practical, LORD! What am I supposed to do? Just let everyone go hungry?”
That’s how most Christians these days would have responded. But the fact is, Jesus didn’t say anything about people going hungry. What He said was that only one thing is needed: to hear and obey His WORD.
When we make that one thing our priority, everything else falls in line.
Martha should have known. After all, she’d heard about the multitudes who’d spent days listening to Jesus preach out on the Galilean hillside. They didn’t have anyone cooking meals for them. But they got fed—Jesus made sure of it. He multiplied a little boy’s lunch until it was more than enough to feed 20,000 people.
DEC '13 : BVOV : 5
