What Am I Doing?
“That Lazarus! He’s done it again! He’s invited his friend, Jesus, to come to the house. Did he give me any warning? No. You would have thought that he could have sent someone ahead to let me know, but no, not today! Not any time that I can think of! Was he concerned that the house might not be clean? No. The beds might not be made? No. Did he think to stop at the grocery store and pick up anything for dinner? No. He just invited them… and they are all here! You know, when they were younger and it was just the two of them, it was one thing. But now that Jesus has been preaching all over the place and healing people to boot, why there’s crowd that follows him. Not just his twelve disciples, oh, no. There’s a boatload… well, more than a boatload. At least, we don’t have any boat that would hold this many people!
And I’m supposed to be the great hostess. I can hear my mother’s voice in my ear now. “You’re supposed to have water for everyone to wash their hands and face… and, maybe, their feet, too. You’re supposed to have something cool for them to drink… to quench their thirst.” Well, it’s not like we have running water in the house. I went to the well today and brought back enough water for the three of us, but I never dreamed I’d be responsible for an army!! Look at them all! Oh, gosh, there goes my mother again. “Martha, I am so ashamed of you. How will we hold our head up in the village once news gets out that you didn’t take care of them? What kind of a hostess are you?” Water… for all of them? And a place for them to sit out of the sun? We don’t have that many trees! And food for them to eat? What was Lazarus thinking? Does he think that I can work miracles? We just have the leftovers from last night’s dinner. I suppose I can add some water… some coconut milk… and make it stretch farther… but not for this many people!
Bread. Bread. Maybe I can bake some bread. We have plenty of flour and leavening and water… if they don’t use it all washing the dust of the road off of their hands and faces. Somebody’s got to go to the well again, but can I get my sister to do it? Oh, no. She’s just sitting on floor, listening to Jesus, like she always does when he visits. Can’t she see that I need help? That I can’t do it all myself. Jesus, make her help me!
Is Martha wrong? No, she’s not wrong. She is doing what is expected in her culture. Hospitality was highly prized… is still highly prized… in Mediterranean cultures of the Middle East. Martha is caring for the alien… the stranger… as her culture and her religion dictate. But she is overwhelmed by what needs to be done… distracted, the text says. She wants to do her best, but it is just too much. And Mary is not helping. What is Mary doing? She is sitting at the feet of Jesus… intensely sitting, the text says… listening to every word. And, when Martha protests, Jesus gently chides her. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
But wait a minute. Are we saying that all we need to do is to sit at the feet of Jesus and study God’s Word? Wouldn’t that be a contradiction to the story of the “Good Samaritan” that we just heard last week? What if he had chosen to study God’s Word instead of helping the man in the ditch? Wasn’t the primary reason that the Pharisee and the Levite passed on the opposite side of the road because if they had touched this man, they would have violated some religious cleanliness laws? How can we say one week that we need to jump into the story and get our hands dirty and the next week it’s OK to sit on the sidelines just listen? What’s the difference? What is it that Martha is missing?
Paul Borgman, a specialist in biblical narrative, suggests that we see this story as part of a larger unit in the Gospel of Luke. The theme that drives this section begins when the lawyer asks his question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The story of the “Good Samaritan,” which speaks to God’s call for us to love God and our neighbor, is only part of the answer. The story of Mary and Martha is the next illustration. According to Borgman, Martha’s worry and distraction as a hostess are completely “normal.” The problem that Jesus is addressing rests in her motivations and her “psychic clutter.” Martha was “distracted with much serving.” The verb is periespato, “to be anxious, to be unduly concerned.” It expresses a worldly attitude that diverts a person’s attention away from a proper concern for the things of God. Borgman draws a parallel between Martha and the lawyer in the earlier story: in their preoccupation and anxious justification of themselves. How much of their action comes from wanting to “look good” in the eyes of others? In fact, if you will notice, both of these individuals assume a superior position relative to Jesus… the lawyer in presuming he has the prerogative to test him and Martha in presuming that she can tell him what he needs to do.
Instead, Borgman says, it is the Samaritan and Mary who embody the positive response to the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The Samaritan exemplifies love of neighbor and a focus on serving others, and Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet in childlike trust and openness to learning, exemplifies love of God and a focus on hearing God’s Word. So often, we feel we are asked to choose between the study of God’s Word and active ministry and mission. In reality, we are called to do both… to hear the Word of God and to live a life of service… but in both, the focus of our work is God, and not ourselves.
In an old movie that came out almost twenty years ago now entitled “City Slickers,” Billy Crystal plays the role of Mitch, a man in the middle of a mid-life crisis who has lost focus on what is important in his life. To celebrate his birthday, two friends give him a gift: the chance to participate in a two-week cattle drive in the Southwest. All three men join the cattle drive and learn the ropes from Curly, a tough-as-nails cowboy. Mitch instantly dislikes Curly and the feeling is mutual. Their animosity grows until they are forced to work together to round up some stray cattle. In that adventure, they come to respect each other. Mitch then asks Curly how he makes sense of his life and Curly responds by saying, “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean nothing.” “That’s great,” says Mitch, “But what’s the one thing?” “That’s what you’ve got to figure out,” says Curly.
Jesus is saying the same thing to Martha: “Figure out what the most important thing is and focus on that.” Perhaps, the answer for Martha was to simplify her hospitality… to offer simple refreshments to her guests, allowing her time to also digest the teachings of Jesus… rather than running around trying to impress others with her graciousness. How often do we get twisted up in the nonessentials and lose sight of what is really important? It might have been possible for Martha to do both… to listen and to serve… if she had not been trying to reach some invisible standard set by herself… her mother… her culture.
Each week, I send out the “FPC News & Notes” and, at the end of that email, there is always a list of those who need our prayers. There are those who are ill… those who are dying… those who are struggling financially… those who are battling depression… those who are caregivers to others… and those who are facing a significant challenge in their life. I am often asked by those who read this list: “What can I do?” Sometimes, the answer is not “to do”, but “to be.” It is amazing to see the resilience of the human spirit when an individual believes someone cares. Just being there is more important than bringing something, or contributing something, or doing something. A smile… a phone call… a silent, supportive presence… fills a room… a life… with love. There were only a handful of people who stood at the foot of Jesus’ cross when he died. They could not do anything to change the course of events… but their presence was a witness to the love and loyalty that they had for their Savior in his hour of need.
Sometimes, we forget what is truly important. With the schedules we keep, there is a danger of getting so caught up in the busy-ness of life that, like Martha, we miss the essence of life. There is a story that is told of a man who went on vacation with his family. It had been a long year, and he was looking forward to this brief pause in the normal routine of things. He was ready to put away his calendar and get away from his email and telephone and do something different for a little while. But, somehow, without his noticing it, the to-do list for his vacation grew to be as long as his to-do list back at the office. Read these novels… go to this museum… take this hike… eat at this restaurant… get these things done… and so on. He worked hard at his vacation chores until one night, his little four-year-old said, "Daddy, will you read me my stories tonight?" He stretched out on the bed next to her, and they read. And, because she was tired, he knew that when the last story was finished, he could get back to his novels… newspapers… or planning the events of his next vacation day.
Instead, when the last story is finished, she asked, "Daddy, will you just sit here until I fall asleep?" And so he did. And with the lights out, she sang a lullaby to herself… her tiny voice fading quietly away as she drifted off to sleep. He listened to her song… and the gentle sound of her breathing… and then to the curtain rustling quietly as a soft breeze ushers the cool night air into the room, and then to the holy sounds of silence and wonder. And he is conscious of the fullness of time… of a heart overflowing with love… as time itself slips away in the night. (By the way, this point was also made in the movie, “Despicable Me,” that is currently showing here in Stephenville, but I don’t want to spoil the show by telling too much about the plot.
How many of us have missed the presence of God in our lives because we were too busy… too distracted to notice that God was there? How many of us have missed the opportunity to learn something of God because we did not… would not take the time to stop and see what love… what miracles… what wonder God has put into our lives that we cannot see… cannot hear because we are too busy… too distracted to experience them? "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." What is that one thing? Have we missed it? Can we find it… or are we still too busy… too distracted… or care too much what others will think of us… to see how our Savior is sitting right in front of us… trying to teach us what is good?
One final note: All of these things happened to Jesus as he was making his way to Jerusalem. Yes, he had somewhere to go… somewhere he needed to be… and yet, on his journey, he encountered all these people. Isn’t that the way life unfolds for us, too? Things happen while we are on the way to somewhere else… and the things that happen… well, that’s life. And we can choose what we do with it. Jesus chose to stop along the way to talk to the lawyer… to teach Mary and Martha… to heal the sick… to comfort the widow… to pray. We have those choices before us each day… choices that shape our life and the lives of those around us. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." Have you discovered that one thing yet? Amen.
Luke 10:38-42