Martha, Martha, Martha!

As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.  She came to Him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?  Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” - Luke 10:41-42

I get the idea in this event that there is some similarities to the Prodigal Son parable.  Martha is much like the older brother and resents the sibling who has done little in the way of responsible work.  Martha has opened her home to Jesus and is doing the work to care and feed for Him, His disciples, and likely others.  Yet her sister saw the Lord Jesus as who He is and properly sat at His feet. 

Martha surely felt good about herself for her generosity but once the work was great she quickly needed help and her sister was doing nothing but worshipping.  Crazy Mary!  How can she worship when so much is to be done!  She is so upset she charges the Creator of the universe to do something!  Wow.  But Jesus answers with care and says "only one [thing] is needed ... Mary has chosen [it]".  That is, she has chosen to worship at My feet and there is nothing more needed for life. 

I am often concerned for those that do God's work a certain way because that's the way it has always been done.  Where is the call in that?  Maybe God is calling for it to be done exactly in that manner, but I think we should be so very sensitive to looking and listening for that call.  How many of us do God's work but don't worship at His feet first?  Then we charge our Lord and Savior to prosper that work!  Wow.  We don't have the courage to ask a single person if they know Christ but somehow have the courage to charge the Lord of the universe to prosper our work?  Hypocrites we all are!

May we pray and worship our eternal Hope first and always.  God will bless His work, so may we listen to be careful to join that work and not our own.  May our attitude always be that everything is dependent upon Him and nothing else.  It is either Christ the Lord or nothing!