Weekly Sermons

Martha, Why do you Worry?

Luke 10: 38-42

Grace mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Our sermon text today comes from our gospel reading in Luke.

Luke 10:38-42 (English Standard Version)

Martha and Mary

 38Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." 41But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

This is a great story that I have heard about for many years but the real meaning of the story became clearer to me as I studied this text. The ESV version of this has Martha anxious and troubled. The NIV version has Martha worried and upset about many things.

Do you ever worry about things? What do you worry about? Well let’s look at some of the things I know can cause worry in our lives. How about work? Do you ever worry about your job? Are you doing a good job? Do you have security in your job? Do you pray dear God help me get a job? These are all troubling thoughts for us. And if the job was not enough on it’s own it is necessary because we have bills to pay. And oh yes there are the children that will be starting school soon that will need new clothes and supplies. Maybe you worry because this is the first year your child is going to school. Or the first time he or she is off to college and will not be home at night. And what about loved ones that are having health issues? That is a worry all on its own and it might cause money issues too and on and on and on. There are way too many things to worry about. Just like Martha was worried and anxious about what she had to get done.

Why? Why do we worry so much about so many things? Is it that the world tells us this is what we need to do? We have to have the latest and greatest toys? New cars, new cell phones, new direct TV packages and you might as well wrap your internet into it too to get a better deal. And you worry about the latest and greatest medication that you just have to ask your doctor about but then we worry more that the cure may be the thing causing us harm. What do you mean I need to go for tests? Now we need to worry about test results too. And so we worry.

We worry because we have not put our trust in Jesus and what he has told us. Is it our sin that stands in the way of hearing what Jesus has said? The sin that comes through the distractions of the secular life that we become so wrapped up in. Do you realize that worry itself is a sinful nature that we have in us? It is the distractions, the sins that stand in the way of hearing God’s Word. And what good does it do to worry?

Luke 12:25 (NIV) says,

25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And what did Jesus say to Martha? He said Martha, Martha why are you anxious (worried) about so many things?

So what was Martha’s problem here? She didn’t seem worried to me as I read the text. She just seemed a little overwhelmed with the work she had in front of her and her sister Mary stopped helping her.

She is doing good work. She is serving her guests and Jesus is one of them. Wouldn’t that be a great honor? I know it would be for me. It is for Martha too but she has been left behind by her sister. Martha feels abandoned by Mary. And Martha is a little distraught by this and asks Jesus for his help. She says to Him,” Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” Now she even puts some of this on Jesus by asking” do you not care?” Wow now that is turning things around a little. She not only is doing all the serving here while her sister Mary sits at the feet of Jesus but now she tells Jesus that he doesn’t even care if Martha is doing all the work.

Have you ever felt like that when life is pulling you in so many directions? We take these feelings and turn them around. We take life at its most hectic times and then when we have put everything out in front of us we say, Lord Jesus help me get through this. Help me deal with these situations. We have put everything first except Jesus.

Now in the scripture reading it seems like Mary was helping but she has left Martha to sit at the feet of Jesus. What is so strange about this? It seems like Mary was taking a very humble posture in the situation but there is more to it than that. Leave it to our Lord and Savior to be right at the center of some type of stirring the pot as it were. Now Jesus in the past has caroused with sinners. Some of the people he was with were tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes and the like.

Luke 5:30-32 (NIV)

³⁰But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

 ³¹Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

And what do we see Him doing now?  He is teaching but not just teaching for the sake of teaching but teaching a woman!

Who would sit at the feet of Jesus?  The Disciples, the forgiven and the humbled would sit at the feet of Jesus.  It was a position of learning from the teacher and it was a position of humility.

 But in these days the women were not usually taught the Torah. Jesus was just shaking things up a little more by teaching Mary. And Mary was earnestly listening to the Word of God. She was putting the Word before the work.

Why should we be like Mary and listen to Christ? Do you remember what God said? On top of the mountain when Christ was transfigured in the presence of Moses and Elijah they were enveloped by a cloud…

Luke 9:34-35 (English Standard Version)

³⁴As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!"

That is why we listen. We have been told to.

Now Jesus said something to Martha that made me think twice. He said in the scripture reading in verse 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

Mary had chosen the good portion. So Mary was the better sister here? She chose better than Martha? At face value it may sound like that but we have to look a little deeper here. Now Mary was hearing the Word of God right from God Himself through Jesus and was being taught the Word that women would not normally be taught at that time. And no one can take away knowledge from you. This was true knowledge. The meal that Martha was preparing I bet was spectacular but after it was consumed and digested you would be left hungry and thirsty again. Not so with the word of God. Not only is it something that could not be taken away from you but as it says in

John 4:13-14 (ESV) in Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well

13Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

When I was in Kenya last year at the Capstone Transition Center the teacher was giving the children a lesson and she was speaking mostly in English but I think that she was doing that for my benefit and not the children’s. Either way children are children, and they were acting like they didn’t want to be in class on the beautiful day it was that day. When the teacher was done I asked if I could say something to the children. I wanted to told them that no matter what knowledge they gain that it was something that could not be taken away from them. People can take away any material possession you have but they can never take away what you know.

They can not take away your knowledge.

And right now as we are here in this place worshiping the Lord, we are senders of people that have gone to Kenya to serve. They are right now in a huge slum that houses about 30% of the population of Nairobi Kenya while it takes up only one tenth of the physical area. 54% of the people are HIV positive or have AIDS.

It is the biggest and the poorest African slum with a population of around one million.

The Kenyan Government has done nothing for Kibera. There are no title deeds, no sewage, no water, no roads, no government schools and hospitals and no services of any kind. The people we sent are serving with Martha and Mary hearts. They are serving to spread the love of Jesus to others because of what Jesus has done for us.

They are spreading hope and love and knowledge to these people.

And the knowledge as stated in Proverbs 9:9-11 (ESV)

9Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;

   teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,

   and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

11For by me your days will be multiplied,

   and years will be added to your life.

So do we conclude that there was something wrong with what Martha was doing by serving the Lord? Is the situation like the old Smothers Brothers show where the two sons, Tom and Dick, argued and Tom would always say “Mom liked you best”.

Is Jesus saying here that he liked Mary best and that Martha was doing the wrong thing? No. Jesus is not like that. Did he rebuke Martha? Yes he did. Martha was not rebuked for what she was doing; she was rebuked for what she was not doing. Was it because her preparations were not thought of as useful? Was He not thankful for all she had done even though her sister left her to do all the work? No. It was because Martha at that time was acting just like a lot of us do. Martha was too busy with what needed to get done to stop and listen to what the Lord had to say.  She was serving with all her heart but she had lost sight of Jesus in that serving. Serving the Lord is a wonderful act but is has to be done through Christ and not at the expense of Christ.

There are many good qualities in both Martha and in Mary. We need to be some of both. God’s church needs to have a mixture of both.

We, like Martha should serve or Lord and Savior but it should be done in gratitude and thankfulness in what he has done for us. The only way we can truly know what he has done is through His Word.

As Christ draws us near to Him we need to welcome Him into our hearts. We need to listen to His Word and we need to serve Him that has given us eternal life from the sin that separates us from God.

We should never be consumed with our own world to the point that we don’t have time for God.

If in the hectic world of worries and cares and troubles let us call to the one that draws us to Him and ask for His help to put Him first in our lives. Let us not be like Martha to serve only, and let us not be like Mary and just sit at His feet, but let us give our hearts the time and desire to sit and listen to God to know what he has done for us and then serve willingly because of that.

Our world has many things in it that causes us to sin and take our eyes off of Jesus. We can have peace through His Word. In John 16:33 (NIV) we hear,

 ³³"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

And if you think that, yeah, maybe I have been putting God on the back burner for a while maybe it’s time to move Him to the front position. And even when it’s hard to remember to put God first, know that you are first to Him.

No matter what the world is throwing at you, no matter how much you may tell yourself that there is no way I can not worry about all these things

1 John 5:5 (NIV) tells us, ⁵Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Through God’s Word we do know that Jesus is the Son of God. It is through this knowledge that we humbly serve Him with our lives. In wisdom we put Christ first before all other things.

He will never forget us and He will serve us and nothing will keep Him from loving us. And with that we know that we don’t have to be anxious and worried because we have the love of Jesus and the cross that He went to, to give each and every one of us His peace in life everlasting as He took our sins and worries away.

Amen.

In service to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Kevin Mongeau – Lay Minister, St’ Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

7-18-10