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January 10/11, 2015
Jason Meyer | Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But 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.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”—Luke 10:38–42
Introduction
Bethlehem has a tradition of talking about prayer and the Word in the first two sermons of the year. Last week we looked at Luke 11 and Jesus’ teaching on prayer, while this week we will look at Luke 10 and what Jesus taught about the importance of the Word. It is breathtaking to see the things that Jesus says about the Scriptures. Perhaps his clearest statement on the matter appears in just five words: “the Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
We could set the stage for this discussion with a frank admission that our culture by and large adopts a different approach to the Scriptures with vastly different assumptions than our Lord. For example, the magazine Newsweek is back in print under new ownership. They decided to open the New Year by telling everyone what they think about the Bible. Kurt Eichenwald wrote one of the most scathing attacks on the Bible under the guise of journalism I have ever read for Newsweek magazine. It reminds me of a drive-by shooting, honestly. His first two paragraphs give you a feel for the rest:
They wave their Bibles at passersby, screaming their condemnations of homosexuals. They fall on their knees, worshipping at the base of granite monuments to the Ten Commandments while demanding prayer in school. They appeal to God to save America from their political opponents, mostly Democrats. They gather in football stadiums by the thousands to pray for the country’s salvation.
They are God’s frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch. They are joined by religious rationalizers—fundamentalists who, unable to find Scripture supporting their biases and beliefs, twist phrases and modify translations to prove they are honoring the Bible’s words.
It is really an awful article, but my question is more personal: what happens in your heart when you hear that someone regards you that way? I want us all to resist feeling smugly superior to Kurt Eichenwald. I believe with all my heart that we are right about the Bible. We would win the debate. I feel really safe siding with Jesus. But does being right make you better and give you the right to squash someone like Kurt Eichenwald like a bug? That very attitude is the very thing that will destroy your Bible reading. Do we read the Bible because we are better or because we realize we are just as bad as other sinners? Do you read the Bible as a messy, needy sinner in need of hearing from the Savior? And how will you reach people to tell them about the love of Christ after they feel smashed under your self-righteous shoe?
Last week, we saw that real prayer is prompted by seeing how great our need is and how much greater our God is. I am making the same point this week about our proper approach to the word of God. We come to God’s word because we are very messy and he is very mighty and merciful.
That starting point makes all the difference in producing a prayerful dependence on the Word. In other words, we come to the point of no pretending. If you fail to see that you are needy and messy, you are in a state of denial. That state of denial is dangerous because it will mess you up even more. Do you see the irony? Denying how messed up we are actually makes our Bible reading mess us up more. Pretending that we are better than we are turns Bible reading into a dry duty. This messed-up mindset is like a closed lid on our souls that prevents the Word from soaking into the dry and dusty parched ground of our souls.
But it is worse. It doesn’t just leave you parched—it also leaves you polluted. Bible reading done as a dry duty can puff you up with a sense of religious accomplishment. Let me lay down an absolute principle: Bible reading that puffs us up is Bible reading that is messed up. Receiving the Word rightly requires honesty. To read rightly, we must first see rightly how needy and messy we truly are.
Let me say it a different way. It should not feel like an achievement to read the Bible. It should feel like survival. When you are starving and someone sets a good meal before you, you do not view your eating as an accomplishment. You do not boast about how well you ate it. You boast about how good it tasted and how much you needed it.
Sometimes our messed-up mindset is subtle and sophisticated. To my shame, I have asked my wife before how her Bible reading is going. That may not sound shameful, but our self-righteousness is too subtle to be obvious. The context of my example reveals the subtlety of self-righteousness. I veiled that question in the robe of religious performance. I find it so much easier to ask her that question when I am feeling good about how well my Bible reading was going. I don’t want to ask her how her Bible reading is going if mine is going poorly because it might expose the poverty of my own experience. I ask her because I am not afraid of her asking me in return. I should be just as eager to ask the question even if I have been falling short in my Bible reading.
Are we pursuing prayer and support for our mutual need or are we playing a comparison game? I share that story in part because it is good to begin 2015 with a reminder that your pastor is also a sinner. You all know that, right? Pastors are messed up, too. We need the Bible just as much as you do.
Going to the Word is not a moment for pride that puffs up. It is a moment for humility that honestly takes stock of our spiritual poverty. I come to the Word feeling like my spiritual pantry is bare and my spiritual well has run dry. A bare pantry makes the well-stocked shelves of the Word even more appealing. When my own shallow well runs dry, it makes me want to run and get water from the deep well of the Word that never runs dry.
This week, we learn of a woman who put that awareness into action. The story has four scenes: Martha’s response to Jesus (v. 38), Mary’s response to Jesus (v. 39), Martha’s request (v. 40), and Jesus’ reply (v. 41). The main point comes in verse 41 in Jesus’ reply. It will make much more sense if I state it at the end after we hear Jesus’ reply together, so listen for it after the fourth point.
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
Luke begins with the mention of Martha. We learn that the house belongs to her: “a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house” (v. 38). The fact that Luke mentions her first and states that she welcomed Jesus into her house probably means she is the older sister. The most important point to notice at this early stage is that the whole scene centers on the theme of hospitality. We will return to that crucial observation later on. Next, we are introduced to the other sister, Mary, and we see her response to Jesus in the second scene.
And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.
Mary’s response to Jesus would be a little startling to some people. Let’s recover the shock effect here. This verse takes aim at what I regard as a sinister and patronizing attitude that rears its ugly head throughout history. This attitude assumes that a woman’s proper place is serving in the kitchen, not sitting as a student of the Word. Verse 39 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible because it so decisively obliterates the callous, chauvinistic view held by some Jews that said the Bible should not be taught to women.
There are a couple of infamous quotes capturing this attitude. For example, when a woman came to Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus with a question about interpreting the Scriptures, he gave a sharp and biting response: “A woman’s wisdom is at the spindle” (B. Yoma 66b). Rabbi Eliezer also has another statement preserved in the Palestinian Talmud: “Better the Torah be burned than to be studied by a woman” (P. Sotah, 3:4).
We will see that the Bible does not support this attitude through the way Jesus responds to Mary’s choice. However, let us look at Martha’s request first. If you read closely, this request really amounts to a thinly veiled rebuke of both Mary and Jesus.
But 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.”
Notice the word distracted here. It reveals much. Martha is not necessarily wrong for serving and preparing and doing—she is wrong for letting the serving and doing distract her so that she is consumed with it and oblivious to her real need. Her felt needs have crowded out her forever needs. But Martha doesn’t see it. She is convinced that she is doing the right thing. Sadly, it is so common for us to take that one step further. If we are right, then we often feel morally justified in standing in judgment over those we regard as wrong. Martha believes she has the moral high ground, and from that elevated spot, she looks down on Mary. Now for the clincher: Martha even stands in judgment over Jesus. Martha does not wonder whether or not Jesus sees the wrong that Mary is doing. She has come to the even more condemning conclusion that he does see it, but he just doesn’t care.
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”—Luke 10:40
She tells the Lord what to say to her sister. The whole thing feels a little off, doesn’t it? Is Martha’s thinking broken, or is Mary’s? Someone’s thinking has to be changed. Either way, there will be a moment, like when a doctor has to set the bone back into place—it is a little painful, but it is very merciful. Let’s listen to Jesus’ reply as he realigns our thinking rightly.
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Look first at the tone of Jesus’ response. The repetition of her name tells us much about the tone. He is not harsh, hasty, or short with his reply. “Martha, Martha.” It has the ring of tenderness and directness all rolled into one.
Now look at the substance of Jesus’ reply. Too many people try to make this a story about the superiority of Mary’s contemplative life over Martha’s active life. I have even heard some say that this story means that women should not be quiet and passive, not active. That idea is too ridiculous to even dignify with a response.
The issue is simple, and I can put it into one word: hospitality. What kind of welcome is Jesus looking for?
Here is the main point of the passage: A disciple of Jesus is first and foremost a person who welcomes Jesus’ words. Are his words eagerly received? Are his words welcomed? Martha was not wrong to welcome him by serving him, but serving him cannot become a substitute for hearing him. We must not become so distracted with serving that it drowns out his voice.
Martha’s response makes it look like the higher priority should be doing things for Jesus. Mary’s response testifies that the first priority is hearing from Jesus. Martha’s many tasks distracted her and pulled her away from what verse 42 calls the “one thing” that is “necessary” (v. 42) or the better portion. The ready reception of the words of Jesus paints a picture of discipleship. We must attend to his words first and foremost. Listening to Jesus’ words is central to discipleship in Luke. The order is essential also in Luke. Hearing and doing are both necessary, but hearing is the priority because doing is downstream from hearing. Jesus spoke of hearing and doing the word as our very family defining dynamic as Christians in the family of God.
And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”—Luke 8:20–21
As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”—Luke 11:27–28
Wouldn’t it be great to be physically related to Jesus? Wouldn’t it be great to imagine the blessing of being his earthly mother? Jesus says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” How about you? Have you noticed that the hustle and bustle of many things can take away our time that should be devoted to sitting at Jesus’ feet? Do you have a cloud of busyness around you that blinds you from seeing your biggest need to sit at his feet and hear him?
This tendency to focus on doing and not hearing can even apply to ministry and serving in the church. What we do for Jesus can crowd out our more fundamental need to hear from Jesus. Hear me carefully and clearly: Do not make doing into an identity. What we do is an overflow of our identity. It is this sense of personal relationship that is our identity. I belong to my beloved (Jesus), and he belongs to me. He speaks to me. It is real, not just religious routine. I do not even know who I am without him because he defines me. It is not fundamentally who I am. It is about whose I am. Jesus himself said the same thing.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”—John 10:27–28.
Here is another way to say it. We all know that we need to eat. We learned last week that we need to pray “give us this day our daily bread.” This week’s story is a narrative that displays the principle Jesus that stated in earlier.
“Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”—Matthew 4:4
Think about some of the things that try to be heard above Jesus. First, consider the concerns of daily life. If things like food or entertainment or busyness in general are drowning out your ability to hear Jesus’ voice, I would commend some form of fasting. Identify the things that keep you from the Word and turn the tables on those things by devoting yourself less to them and more to the Word. Fasting from food or TV or Candy Crush or whatever allows more time for feasting on the Word.
Fasting is not a spiritual feat. You don’t try to draw attention to superior willpower. It is not about saying, “Look at how well I can go without this.” Instead, it is about saying, “Look at how much I need to hear from you, God. Look at how much my soul is starving to hear from you and to live by the words that come from your mouth. Fill up my starving soul!”
Second, suffering and sorrow can also drown out the Word. Listen to the way that Martin Luther sets an example for us in hearing the Word when sorrows threaten to drown us.Luther was staying at Coburg Castle during the Diet of Augsburg. During these meetings Luther received word that his father had died. Suffering began to shout at him like a barking dog. He lost all of his rest and peace. Sorrow was so loud that it threatened to drown out the Word. So he wrote out Bible texts and thoughts about them on the wall of his room so that they were always before his eyes. Suffering and sorrow shouted at him so loudly that he did whatever it would take to hear the Word. Twenty years later, Luther’s physician visited the room where Luther stayed and discovered what Luther’s starving soul had fed upon:
Our cause rests in the hand of him who distinctly tells us, “No one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10).
It is true that God gave up his own Son for us all, Romans 8:32. If that be true, why do we falter, or worry, or hang our heads?
What do we do when suffering or busyness shouts at us? We do whatever it takes. I have heard of some mothers of small children who put Bibles around their house—in the kitchen, at the diaper-changing table. All they could manage was reading a verse at a time, but it made a big difference. I read about Susannah Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, putting a blanket over her head as a sign to her children that she was reading the Bible and was not to be bothered unless it was an absolute emergency.
Conclusion
What enters into your mind when you think about great confessions of faith in the Gospels? Many people rightly make a big deal of Peter’s confession that Christ is the Messiah and the Son of the living God. But don’t forget that Peter got rebuked only moments later for objecting to Jesus talking about the cross.
I would like people to remember Martha as a model of faith. Let us listen to her great confession. In John 11, Martha’s brother, Lazarus, has died. Let us join the conversation.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”—John 11:21-27
Take note, everyone. Martha was a disciple. She heard Jesus’ words and welcomed them into her heart. She believed and confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the One who would rescue his people from eternal death. We will worship with Martha in the new heavens and new earth in resurrected bodies.
So I ask you the same question that Jesus asked Martha. Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do you know that if you believe in him you will never die? That is the real question—the one thing necessary for all of eternity. As you look at all that you could pursue in 2015, ask yourself one question: Is it great enough to defeat the grave? That question puts everything else into perspective.
Some people may object at this point because it sounds like Jesus is the only way to be saved, and they believe that is bigoted or arrogant. That Jesus is the only way to be saved is exactly what I am saying, but it is actually a very humble claim. Often, people who believe that all religions are equal ways to God use the metaphor of blind men trying to describe an elephant. Each blind man is touching a different part of the elephant, so one says that it is like a hose because he is grabbing the elephant’s trunk. Another one disagrees and says that it is like a tree trunk because he is holding the elephant’s leg.
However, the person using this metaphor actually has an arrogant view. That person claims to have ascended over everyone else (who can only see part of the elephant) and to alone see the big picture (that it is an elephant). Everyone else is blind except that person.
It may seem like that—ascending over everyone else—is what I am doing. It may seem like I am also claiming that my perspective sees what others don’t, but I am something very different. I am not sharing my own claim. I am submitting to God’s claim and sharing it with you.
Let’s go back to the elephant analogy again. We would all be blind in that story because no one would be able to ascend on high and see the big picture. But as author Kevin DeYoung points out, everything changes if the elephant could speak. It would all change if the elephant could communicate in words and tell everyone in clear language, “I am an elephant.”
Dear friends, Jesus’ coming has changed everything. It is like the elephant has spoken. In these last days, God’s word came and took on flesh, and he has spoken clearly. He has spoken, and we must respond. Martha heard him speak to her, and she believed and received eternal life.
The great evangelist of the Great Awakening, George Whitefield, spoke continually about how Jesus alone could save. Faith in Jesus alone was needed for salvation. On his last trip to America, in the year 1765, Whitefield lodged at the house of Mr. Thomas Fanning. Whitefield saw that Mr. Fanning possessed an abundance of the good things of this life, but he lacked the one thing he really needed: Christ. Before Whitefield left the room in the morning, he wrote with a diamond on a pane of glass. When the person came up to clean the room Whitefield had stayed in, he found the final message that Whitefield left him. It came from our passage: “One thing is needful.” My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would carve this message into your hearts and minds so that you would have no rest until you see your urgent need to rest fully in the salvation Christ purchased by coming to him.
Closing Song:“We Come O Christ to You”
Sermon Discussion Questions
Outline
The story in Luke 10:38–42 has four scenes:
Main Point: A disciple is first and foremost a person who welcomes Jesus’ words (see verse 41).
Discussion Questions
Application Questions