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Luke 10:38-42 · At the Home of Martha and Mary
All Stirred Up
Luke 10:38-42
Sermon
by Richard Patt
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All stirred up -- that's the way you sometimes feel. Agitated, nervous, worked up, wound up -- for whatever reason. One feature in the story before us is that Jesus appeared to be responsible for bringing one of his dearest friends to such a point of agitation.

If you read the Bible carefully, you shouldn't be completely surprised about this. Jesus often left people stirred up. The religious leaders were frequently angered by his words and actions. His miracles left onlookers stirred to the point of awe and wonder. Some of his words left his own disciples nervous and on edge.

Jesus always had a salutary goal in stirring up people. His aims were never vicious. In their agitated state, Jesus wanted people to think more seriously about what he was saying or doing. He often wanted people to reorder their priorities. In the final analysis, his motives were good. After all he came to bring good news, a more abundant life, and a greater sense of personal serenity. Christ came not to destroy, but to save. Let's see how his noble purpose works out in your life and mine.

In a way, it's surprising that Saint Luke included this incident in his gospel at all. It doesn't serve to advance the greater drama of Luke's gospel story. At this time Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, where those climactic events that spelled his condemnation and crucifixion would soon unfold. Next to all of that, this visit with Mary and Martha appears incidental.

This is part of the story's charm. Here is Jesus, about to undergo as heavy a human agenda as one could imagine, stopping in for a visit with friends! Even when the major challenge of his ministry and life looms before him, Christ is found in the center of humble human activity. He is dropping in on friends. God's "got the whole world in his hands," as the old folk song puts it, yet God never loses interest in each one of us. God's willing to spend time with us. You and I are part of God's continuing concern.

Now I suspect, however, that it was Martha who initiated this encounter. The Bible writer leaves the fact open by saying "a woman named Martha received him into her house." No doubt the news traveled that Jesus was in the area. Martha enjoyed entertaining in her house, it seems. When the prospect of hosting the popular rabbi from Nazareth arose, we can imagine that she jumped at the chance. She was probably the proactive initiator of the invitation. To her initial delight, Jesus accepted.

At this point must we not say a word of commendation about what Martha did? She was a front porch person -- willing to open her porch and her home for the sake of extending hospitality when it was needed. Jesus was on the road, and his agenda was consuming. Since he accepted the invitation, he must have felt a need for rest and restoration. Martha provided him that.

We live in an age when just about all human contact has to be scheduled. Why? Because more and more we force ourselves into situations where we are encapsuled and, therefore, unavailable. Our homes are electronically gated. In apartments and condominiums our entrances are unapproachable. Our air-controlled cars mean windows up; even our telephones are equipped with screening that implies, "You may call me if you want, but I'll have to get back to you." There are few front porches left. We allow limited access into most parts of our lives. Is it allowable to pop in on anyone any more? Hurray for Martha! She was accessible; she thereby provided for the Lord's human need.

Sad to say, her best intentions turned into a sour situation. It was not too long before she felt all stirred up. This blessed, felicitous woman had set out to do a noble deed. But soon the air was full of tension. How did all this develop?

It developed when the task involved in the venture overwhelmed her. Martha invited Jesus to stop by her home and he accepted. "He did? He accepted? You mean he is really coming?" It's like the little schoolboy who comes home from school on Monday afternoon, the day when Sunday leftovers usually are served for supper, and announces that he invited the school principal for supper, and she's coming! We all have the best of intentions in our moments of cordiality, but then it dawns on us that being cordial sometimes involves a little work and preparation. Maybe that's why the story in the Bible here doesn't refer to Mary and Martha's home. It simply says "her house," referring to Martha alone. She was well-known for supplying a delicious impromptu spread on the table. Everybody enjoyed going to "her house."

But that's what got her in trouble. Her heart led her head, and now she would have to do something about it. An awesome menial task stared her in the face. She had a table to spread. Company was coming, and she had invited them.

So this potentially beautiful occasion quickly grew ugly. While she was busy in the kitchen, Mary, her sister, chose to remain with Jesus in the living room, listening to his words of wisdom. Martha wanted everything in the kitchen to turn out just right. Sometimes striving for perfection spells pressure. The resulting tension can drive us to search for an explanation -- even for blame. That's exactly what Martha did. She wondered whether her sister appreciated the tension she was under in the kitchen. In fact, she surmised, if her sister had the sense to come and help, most of the burden could be eased. Then, in her mind, Jesus also becomes part of the problem, as she bursts into the living room with her accusatory question, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?" Without waiting for an answer, she orders Jesus, "Tell her then to help me."

Martha and her reactions would make a good laboratory case for a beginner's course in psychology. This is a story about stress and its anatomy. We can dissect it. Stress is a neutral factor. It can lead us to heights of creativity, or it can drag us down to a point where we become an ugly, accusatory, blaming sort of person headed for defeat. Stress can lead us one way or another.

Sometimes we hear a woman say, "You know I enjoy having all the family over and cooking a big meal." Or we hear a young man say, "I enjoy my job; every day I walk into work, it's a challenge." What both of these persons are saying is something we rarely say outright, that we actually welcome a degree of stress in our lives. Right! Let's not make the six-letter word "stress" a four-letter word. Stress needn't be all negative. A lot of it can be positive, producing the good kind of adrenaline that opens the road to abundant creativity and achievement. And who doesn't enjoy achieving? For most of us it's a need we love to fulfill.

That's the way it could have been for Martha. But she forgot who it was she had invited! The honored guest was not some cold, egotistical citizen who needed to be impressed. This was Jesus, whose life's motto was known to everyone: "I have come, not to be served, but to serve." By this time Jesus had established a pattern in his ministry which let everyone know he was approachable. He liked nothing more than simply to sit down and share a good story. He was a people person who valued the delights of human interchange and genuine hospitality. In such a fertile context he knew that people could let their guards down, share their burdens, exchange their joys, announce their dreams, and be open to healing. If a little food and drink could be mixed in -- fine. Spread the tablecloth. Martha forgot that Jesus was not a very demanding guest.

It's in this connection that Jesus makes his comment about Mary, the other sister. "Martha, Martha," he says, "you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her" (vv. 41-42).

"One thing is needful." What is needful is that human beings regularly find themselves in a productive atmosphere that brings nurture and encouragement to their lives. We do not live "by bread alone." We live -- and thrive and soar to the heights -- when we come to greater insights and understanding about life and how to live it abundantly. Here was Jesus, the bread of life, present and available. Martha had her mind on other bread. "Martha was distracted," the story says, "with much serving" (v. 40).

So Martha missed out hearing the stimulating words that fell from the Master's lips. Did you ever wonder what Mary and Jesus were discussing in the living room? The story doesn't say exactly. Considering the context in which Jesus was traveling, making his way to Jerusalem and the Passover, he may have been giving Mary a preview of his coming struggle and passion. In that regard he may have been further interpreting these events for her -- how the cross and his death were part of God's plan for the world's salvation, and how the Father in heaven would bring all of this to a salutary ending in the resurrection on the third day. What food, what bread -- the Master himself giving a personal, unerring interpretation about all the ambiguous events that were about to happen! Who would have wanted to miss out on that?

Whenever we sit with the Lord, he brings us insight and understanding, not only about his own suffering and struggle, but about our own as well. When you and I feel nervous and agitated, worked up and wound up because of what's going on in our lives, we need an understanding partner with whom to sit down, so that we can sort things out, gain an understanding of our situation, and receive encouraging words from the person listening.

But it can be tough to come by such agreeable, healing situations for two reasons: first, the people we could sit down with are not always accessible, not available; or second, we are pressed and stressed to the point where we are consumed by our own activities, and therefore we are unavailable to sit down and put ourselves in an atmosphere of encouragement and healing. Martha had an accessible porch, and she even succeeded in getting the right guest into the living room, but then she herself insisted on being unavailable for the potential blessing that might have been hers.

By the way, don't you think Luke also included this incident in his gospel account because he found it irresistible -- or perhaps more accurately -- because he found a touch of humor in it? There is humor here, isn't there? We smile at the story because we see ourselves in it, or we detect someone we know who is similar to Martha. Sometimes our priorities, or frustrations, are so far off the beam that they are laughable. And along with this was Martha's own lack of humor, which might have finally saved her. "The Lord's coming to my house? You mean he did accept my reckless invitation?" Martha might have asked. "Well, then, he's going to have to settle for potluck!" Such an attitude could have made Martha a relaxed, delightful hostess.

A friend of mine likes to tell stories about how his teenage children would call him at home on the telephone on Friday nights after the high school basketball games. It was usually about 10 o'clock and they wanted to know whether they could bring a few friends over for a little get-together. When the parents asked how many friends were coming, they were usually told, "Oh, about seventeen." Instead of slamming down the phone, the guy said he always smiled at his wife, and the two of them hightailed it over to the supermarket to get enough supplies to feed and water down the two dozen teenagers who showed up. The slight ridiculousness of the situation and the parents' humorous response to it preserved a loving relationship between them and their children.

Finally, this story seems to suggest that Martha, at bottom line, was in a frazzle, because, after all, the Lord Jesus Christ himself was present in her living room. Despite all her mixed priorities, despite the way she fell victim to stress and its wiles, she probably never would have totally avoided the tenseness of the situation, for (think of it) none other than the Savior himself was a guest at her table!

There is an allowable kind of awe that any of us ought to feel in the Lord's presence. If such awe results in feeling overwhelmed and on edge, that is all right. After all, we are creatures, and God is creator. The Lord is holy and we are sinners. God is eternal, and we are dust. There are times when we ought to be "still and know that God is God."

In a worship service we can feel both. We can take off our shoes, for we stand on holy ground. And we can kick off our shoes and sit back, and we can revel in his healing presence. Christ has paid the price for our sins. He has died on the cross for us. He is the risen Savior of Easter who has won us a place in heaven. The work of salvation is finished. In Christ, God is now our friend. We can sit down with him, because he deigns to tarry with us. Welcome him into your home; welcome him into your heart. Do not miss the chance of dwelling in the Lord's healing presence! "

CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, All Stirred Up, by Richard Patt