3/4/13 - "CHOOSE THE GOOD PART"

Luke 10:38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
Luke 10:39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.
Luke 10:40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
Luke 10:41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.Luke 10:42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

When you take time to think about all that Jesus did for us on the cross and the primary reason why He bore our sins, and the punishment we deserved for our sins, sometimes we may forget what it really was all about. The central reason Jesus did all this for us was to restore our relationship with God, a relationship that had been shattered by sin, which brought a separation between man and God. All God desired was to have a relationship with us. I know this is not new revelation to anyone, but it seems that we tend to forget and drift away from one of the key things we have available to us.

When I think about relationship with God, one of the people in the Word I think of is Enoch. It is quite interesting that he in fact was not of course born again, and yet he walked so close with God that God decided to take him on to heaven. I believe Enoch got a passion to walk close with God from his great, great, great, great, grandfather Adam. Adam lived to be 930 years old so he was still alive when Enoch came about. If Enoch could have such a close walk with God how about us who are now born of God’s Spirit?

The account of this encounter in Luke’s gospel that Jesus had with these two sisters Martha and Mary I believe can teach us a lot about why we may not be experiencing the type of relationship that is available to us; but yet seems to be somewhat out of our grasp. Through this encounter with Jesus we can learn from these two women what I believe is some very important truths about our walk with the Lord. We must always remember Christ’s purpose in coming was to restore us back to the Father so we could in fact walk with Him, and know Him intimately. We need to realize that anyone can walk closely with Him. In fact we are as close to God today as we want to be. But before I get to far ahead of myself let’s take a closer look at Martha and Mary.

Martha welcomes Jesus into her house, which is a great start to begin a relationship with God. We all need to receive Christ into our individual home (our spirit man) acknowledging the payment He made for our sins and receiving new life. It is believed that Martha, sister of Lazarus and Mary, may have been a widow, and that her brother and sister were living with her. This would explain why she felt compelled to wait upon the people in her home, as any good hostess would do.

Now take note of verse 39 because it is quite important to what happened here to Martha. It tells us that Martha’s sister Mary also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His Word. So Jesus is in their home fellowshipping with them and their guests. Jesus was taking time to share the Word with them and giving them an opportunity to build relationship with God, for God and His Word are one as John’s gospel tells us. The fact that it says Mary also sat at the feet of Jesus reveals that both Martha and Mary were both sitting there enjoying His company and what He had to say to them. But then something happened to Martha.

Luke 10:40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

Martha begins to allow something to distract her attention away from listening to Jesus, and this distraction pulls her away from fellowship with the Lord. The word for distracted here in the Greek language means to be pulled away by something. In this case what pulled her away was something she allowed to become more important at the time then spending time with the Lord and further developing her relationship with Him. What this one incident revealed was something far more than just a concern for the guests that were in her home.

We don’t see any indication as to her guests demanding something to eat or drink. We don’t see Jesus making such a demand on her as well. But there was something going on in Martha’s life that resulted in her being concerned about taking care of the physical needs of her guests. It could have been a genuine concern about them being hungry or thirsty, but because of what Jesus said in the next verse it is more likely that her concern was about what these people might be thinking about her. She could have been thinking to herself, “What are these guests going to think of me if I don’t properly take care of them? They may think I am a bad hostess not providing food and drink for them while in my home.”

This even lead to Martha thinking that the Lord did not care about her because He said nothing to her sister about helping her provide for these guests. I can assure you if what happened to Martha happens to us, we will eventually come to the place that we don’t think God cares about us because we are not seeing results that we were expecting God to do. All the while we don’t realize that the reason for this is usually because we are not tuned into God, and then we wonder why He doesn’t respond to our prayers or problems.

Luke 10:41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.

As always Jesus brings us great insight to the real problem with Martha. He tells her she is worried and troubled about many things, not just the immediate issue of the guests in her home. She was someone who was filled with the cares of this life for this is where worry comes in. The word troubled here means to be disturbed in mind, or in other words a mind that is not at peace, which would be a clear result of allowing the cares of this life to come upon you. What is it that causes us to become like Martha? One of the primary reasons that we get caught up with cares in life and then disturbed in our mind Jesus answers in verse 42 of this story.

Luke 10:42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

As simple as it may sound Jesus here in verse 42 gives the all-important answer to what is causing Martha to be worried and troubled about many things. Jesus declares, “But one thing is needed…” He didn’t say there were many things that were needed, just one thing. This is so simple but yet it seems to elude many people. That one thing that is needed to keep from being worried and troubled is to simply keep the main thing the main thing. Stop allowing things to distract you in your relationship with the Lord. Mary had chosen the “good part”, which was making the priority sitting at the feet of Jesus and just enjoying a time of fellowship with Him as Mary was building her relationship with Christ.

What is powerful is that when we choose to prioritize our life around our relationship with Jesus, what we receive in and through Him cannot be taken from us. Notice Jesus said, “Mary has chosen…” for you see it is simply that, a choice we make. We can choose to be earthly minded and allow things everyday in our life to keep us from coming and enjoying what Jesus died and paid for, a relationship with God. Or we can choose to come to the Word of God, open that Word, and then allow Jesus to speak to us and help us in becoming closer to God, instead of becoming distracted like Martha by choosing to do other things. The choice is simply up to us.

James 4:8 Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.

We are, as I stated earlier, as close to God as we want to be. It really is all about our choices. What is so awesome is that we can choose  to draw close to God anytime we want. The closer we draw to Him, He then responds and draws closer to us. If we make the choice that Mary made and simply make our relationship with God a priority, then we will choose that good thing, fellowship with Him, sitting at His feet as we look into the Word of God and pray. But as life happens we often, not even intentionally, begin to get more and more distracted. Television, computers, games, books, magazines, etc., can begin to take us away from what Jesus said is the “One thing” that is needed for us to stay free from getting caught up in the cares of life.

The more we become like Mary and “choose” what Jesus said was the “good part”, the “one thing that is needed”, the stronger our relationship with Jesus and the Father becomes. That is what Jesus coming and dying in our place was all about. It gave us the ability to be once again close to God and have Him close to us. If Enoch could do so and not be born again, how much more a New Testament Christian? Choose the “good part”. You will be glad you did.

See You Again Next Week For More “Weekly Wisdom”

May God’s Best Be Yours!

Pastor Darryl Baker