“”Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”” (Luke 10:41-42NIV)
Those were Jesus’ words to Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, when He once visited her house. But why would Jesus say such words to her? It was because she had complained to Him about her sister, Mary.
Now what was her complaint about her? Well, it was simply that Mary had left her to handle all the preparations that had to be made in the house alone. What preparations were they to make? From the context, those preparations, for the most part, had to do with the meal that Jesus and those with Him would eat.
In any case, whether they had to do with what Jesus and those with Him would eat or something else, what was clear was that Martha was upset that Mary, her sister, left her all alone to deal with all that had to be done. And she probably would not have voiced out her annoyance and frustration, if Jesus had rebuked Mary for being irresponsible on the occasion. But Jesus did not rebuke her at all. Instead, He just kept on teaching her and others who were there with Him.
Now when Martha could not take it anymore, she confronted Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (Luke 10:40NIV) Think about that. This woman accused Jesus of not caring at all about her frustration. And she did that because she thought that would wake Him up to do the needful.
How often we too do that! We accuse God of not caring at all or enough about our challenges, trials or frustration. And we think that if we accuse Him or nag Him long enough in that manner, He would wake up from His slumber and attend to us.
But God never sleeps nor slumbers, as we are told in the bible (Ps 121:3-4). Instead, He is always awake and alive to whatever is happening in our lives. Why, then, won’t He act on our behalf and make things go in our favour, as we often expect Him to do? Well, the reason may just be the same or similar to the reason Jesus did not attend to Martha on that occasion.
As we further see in the account, Jesus’ response to Martha’s complaint was both shocking and revealing. In other words, first, His response was contrary to the woman’s expectation. Second, His response showed that she was the one that missing it and not Mary, her sister. She was the one that had misplaced her priorities, not Mary. So, she was actually the one that needed rebuking, not Mary.
But how was that so? Well, the answer is in the part of the account that reads, “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made… ” (Luke 10:40NIV) Did you see that? Martha was distracted. When do you say that someone is distracted? It is when the person is paying attention to the wrong thing. That thing my not be bad in itself or at all. But it is not something that should get the person’s attention at the time. And if he should continue to pay attention to that thing, he may end up totally losing out on what should really be getting his attention.
What this means, then, is that Martha too was supposed to sit down and be listening to Jesus at the time, as Mary and others who were there were doing. But she would not settle down to listen to Him because her mind was unduly occupied with other things that she needed to do. However, the only thing that she was supposed to give her attention and devotion to at the time was the word of God that Jesus was sharing. Sadly, she allowed distraction to make her miss her word for the hour. And that was because she did not get her priorities right.
Mary, on the contrary, got her priorities right. And she was so convinced about what was right for her at the time that she did not join her sister, Martha, in whatever she was doing or look her way at all. Therefore, the Lord said that what she had gained from that day’s teaching would remain with her forever, working in her life for her good.
What, then, is the point of all this? It is that we need to get our priorities right all the time and make the main thing the main thing in our lives. See, there may be all kinds of good things that we can give ourselves to in life and that others around us are busy doing. But if they are out of line with what God wants us to be doing at any given moment, we should not give ourselves to them, whether out of fear, greed, jealousy, indecisiveness, loneliness or desire for the praise of men. Otherwise, we may end up being frustrated in life and also missing out on what should really be ours.
Not only that, if we don’t get our priorities right, God may just be watching us in our frustration and not do anything about it, as Jesus’ did in Martha’s case. And if we won’t open our mouths to talk to Him in such situations, He may still not say anything to us about what we are missing. Then we may just go on and waste our lives on irrelevancies or non-essentials.
Now my prayer is that you will not waste your life on irrelevancies or anything inconsistent with God’s purpose for your life. But you too must learn to pray and to give yourself to the word of God, so that your heart may be loaded all the time with revelations of the things that you need to prioritise with in life. Then you will be able to gain those eternal things that God wants you to gain in life instead of living in frustration.
Cheers!
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