THEME: MARTHA, MARTHA

In the gospel of Luke, we read a story of Martha and Mary the two sisters of Lazarus. In the story, it is said that Jesus visited them and when He was with them, Martha’s kind heart led her into the house preparing. She went to the kitchen to prepare something for Christ to satisfy His hunger because of the long journey He had travelled. The text says: But Martha was the jittery type and was worrying over the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Sir, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” 41 But the Lord said to her, “Martha, dear friend, you are so upset over all these details! 42 There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it-and I won’t take it away from her!” Luke 10:40-42TLB

We can see that she was preparing food for Christ which in itself was not bad. Martha was worried that it was her alone that was working and toiling whiles Mary was at Jesus’ feet hearing the Lord’s words. Martha needed some assistance in the kitchen so that things would move on faster a bit but Mary was under the master’s feet. When Martha complained to Jesus, it was there that she was made to understand that she had a wrong priority. She had neglected the most important thing for trivialities which are less needful. She was doing something that could be taken away from her whiles her sister, Mary was doing something that no one could be able to take away from her.

In applying this to our lives, brothers and sisters, how many of us are ‘Marthas’ in our lives because of having a wrong priority? Martha concentrated on serving and serving but she did not have a heart of worship. The heart of worship was what Mary heard and it led her to the Master’s feet to listen to the words of eternal life. The words of eternal life are on the lips of Christ Jesus. This, Mary knew and she went to listen. Though our services we are rendering to God is important but we should not neglect the reading, studying and meditation of scripture. We should not trade the scripture reading and hearing of the gospel for other things. In doing so, we would become like Martha and we will worry about many things and the one thing needful, we will neglect it. It is only the authoritative word of God in our hearts that would make us firm and well grounded in the faith. Would you be Martha or Mary?