Mary and Martha

In the story of Martha and Mary, we read that Martha was encumbered with much serving.  But nowhere does it say that she was serving in the kitchen.  Indeed, she was from a well-to-do family and probably had servants out in the kitchen.  Our own prejudices and assumptions about women put her there.  In order to get a better view about where Martha was, and what she was actually doing, let’s look at that word “serving”. 

In Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, we see that the original New Testament, written in Greek, uses the Greek word diakonia for “serving”.  Diakonia means service as a teacher or minister, and its root word, diakonos, is where we get the word “deacon”.  Diakonos means deacon, minister, servant.  Martha was very likely serving as a deacon or church leader in those early days of the Christian church, and it is easy to see, when starting a new church, how easy it would be to be encumbered.  No doubt the reason this story was in the Bible is the early church wanted to stress the importance of following the word of Christ rather than to get too wrapped up in church business.  Martha might have been too concerned over what color to paint the Sunday School! 

How is this applicable to us?  Does it really matter if Martha was serving in the kitchen or the church?  

Probably not, but her feeling encumbered does, for stress is an issue we find all too often pervading our lives.

Are we racecar types?  Going really fast but just round and round in circles?  Our culture fuels this, and there is little incentive to slow down.  How many people zip through intersections on the yellow light, or impatiently scan other lines at the grocery store to see if their line is “winning”? 

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Matt 11:28 says, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus came so we could have abundant life.  John 10:10 says: I have come that they might have life and have it to the full (or a rich and satisfying life, or abundant life, depending on your translation). The focus is on fullness. What it doesn’t say is, “I have come so that you can have a stressed out life.”

There is a connection between the abundance promised in John 10:10, and rest for our stressed out lives.  They go together.  We must join with the Christ, be yoked together so that we can work side by side.  We can look over and see him is beside us, and learn.  Check with Jesus as often as you check Facebook, or your email, or Pinterest!

Hurry is the enemy of rest.  Jesus was never in a hurry.  Are we racing ahead of Jesus, who walks?  Your spiritual growth cannot be rushed.  Love cannot be hurried.  What we long for, and what we need, and what Jesus promises, is not available in the rat race.

Dallas Willard, who wrote Renovation of the Heart, asks, if you were to describe Jesus in one word, what would it be?  Savior?  Love?  Compassionate?  Teacher?  How about RELAXED?  That probably wouldn’t be the first word many of us would use, but think about it.

In the classic book, Your God is Too Small, J.B. Phillips wrote, “…God is never in a hurry.  Long preparation, careful planning, and slow growth would seem to be leading characteristics of a spiritual life…It is refreshing to study the poise and quietness of Christ.  His task and responsibility might well have driven a man out of his mind.  But He was never in a hurry, never impressed by numbers, never a slave of the clock.  He was acting, He said, as he observed God to act—never in a hurry.”

Consider that Jesus waited 30 years to begin his ministry.  He moved slowly and stopped for people.  When the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, asked him to come heal his daughter, who was at the point of death, Jesus stopped to heal the woman with the issue of blood.  If you were the dad and your daughter was dying, wouldn’t you be frustrated?  Yet Jesus modeled a love that stops and treats people like they are the only ones that matter.

When Lazarus was dying, Jesus tarried two more days, and Lazarus dies.  But his resurrection was an even greater event than his death.

Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be done.  HAD TO BE DONE?  Martha has chosen to be distracted.  Mary has chosen the better part.  Chosen!  Let us be focused on the better part too.  Let us choose to sit and listen.

We might rationalize the push to go faster by equating an unhurried life to laziness or one without productivity.  If Jesus were here today would he care about the things we think are important?  The greatest commandment is not “Get more things done.”

John Ortberg wrote in The Life You’ve Always Wanted that hurrying is a disordered heart.  What happens to the heart as it gets and receives love, how does it grow and change? 

No matter what Martha’s job was, she might have thought Mary was wasting time.  But don’t think that efficiency equates solutions.  Real love is willing to “waste” time.  So this week, slow down.  Experience the rhythms of Jesus.  He owns your burdens.  Your life will become less about your pace, and more about His.  Hear that still, small voice of His unhurried, abundant nature.