It is easy to picture the person who drifts from God by chasing the wrong things. It is harder to admit that we can drift while doing good things, even things done for God himself. That is the uncomfortable corner Martha finds herself in. She is not neglecting the Lord. She is working herself ragged to serve him, and Jesus still has to stop her and point out that something has slipped out of place. Her story sits in the middle of a series on seeking first the kingdom of God, and it asks a question most of us would rather not face: can I be busy for the Lord and still miss him?
Good service, out of order
Luke tells the story right after the parable of the good Samaritan, where service is exactly what Jesus praises. The Samaritan stops, cares for a half-dead stranger, and Jesus says, go and do likewise (). Then the very next scene shows service painted in a different light. As they traveled, Jesus came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house, while her sister Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching (). This is worth remembering before we are too hard on Martha. She is the one who opens her home to the Son of God. She is a faithful, godly woman, the same Martha who later makes the great confession that Jesus is the Christ (John 11). The problem is not her service. Service is good.
The problem is that a good thing has quietly taken first place. Even good things can become disordered. Most of us understand this without much explanation. Work is good, and providing for a family is good, yet we all know the word workaholic, because a good thing can swallow a better one. Martha is not doing something worldly or wicked. She is trying to help Jesus, and for a moment she loses sight of what matters most, and she is not only being pulled away from him herself, she is trying to pull her sister away too.
When feelings take the wheel
Notice how Martha speaks. Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me (). That is not a calm request. It questions Jesus’ concern, accuses Mary, and tries to hand Jesus his orders, all in one sentence. That is what it looks like when emotion runs the show: a feeling becomes an interpretation, then an accusation, then an attempt to control everyone around us. Jesus answers with an honest, tender diagnosis: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things (). The anxiety, not the dishes, is the real trouble.
The striking thing is that Martha is completely certain she is right, and she is completely wrong. You would have to be sure of yourself to correct the Son of God like that. Our emotions are real and God-given, but they are not reliable authorities, and the intensity of a feeling does not make it true. When we start from how we feel instead of what is actually so, we tell ourselves a story and bend the facts to fit it. That is why we need people who love us enough to say what Jesus said, and why it is worth stopping to ask an honest question of ourselves: are my conclusions based on the facts, or only on my feelings?
The one thing
Then comes the heart of it. One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her (). Jesus is drawing a sharp contrast: Martha is worried about many things, while Mary has chosen the one that lasts, simply sitting at his feet and listening. And it is a choice. We are not stuck being whoever we have always been. Scripture calls us to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (), so we do not get to excuse ourselves with, that is just how I am. The question each of us has to answer is whether we are choosing the good portion or letting good but lesser things crowd it out.
Sitting at Jesus’ feet means going to his own words and letting him, not our own certainty, set us straight. In the end it was Martha, not Mary, who needed to sit down and listen long enough to be changed. It is always easier to see the speck in someone else’s eye than the log in our own (Matthew 7). As long as we can blame someone else, we never have to ask whether we are the one out of step. This is where the whole series lands: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else finds its place (). The one who hears Jesus’ words and does them is building on rock, and when the storms come, that house stands (). So it is worth considering honestly what good things may be crowding out the one thing that is necessary, and choosing, like Mary, the portion that cannot be taken away.
