September 5, 2021
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42 NIV)
I cannot remember how long ago it was, but before the start of the last presidential election campaigning cycle began, the Lord impressed upon me “to not get distracted”. Any thought or word from God our Father is good even if we do not fully understand what he means. Such was the case with “do not get distracted”. I was very familiar with the consequences from being distracted even from an early age in addition to all of the safety procedures that I learned in my 41-year career in the electric utility industry, but I realized that I still needed to be on guard about being distracted.
One of those distraction lessons was from my early teenage years when I was driving a tractor on the farm to run a cultivator plow across a cotton field. I became distracted by looking behind me too long and soon discovered that the tractor was no longer following in the furrows. The sad result was my plowing up a short section of six rows of otherwise healthy cotton.
An even worse event happened before I was old enough to have a driver’s license. Growing up in a small farming community it was very common for people to be driving a vehicle well before they were old enough to have a license. I was driving my brother’s old Willys jeep when I spotted some young people in their front yard. Among them was a young lady whom I wanted to impress, but yet show disdain for the young men with her. I was staring at them as I drove by, i.e. my eyes were not on the road. When I finally looked up it was too late! The vehicle had drifted towards a parked pickup truck. I quickly pulled the steering wheel towards the curb to miss hitting the pickup. However, I was already too close to the pickup and the driver’s side door of the jeep hit the left rear corner of the pickup as the jeep bounced over the curb into the yard. I steered the vehicle back into the street and in a panic drove quickly home as I concocted a story to tell my parents as to how the jeep came to be damaged. As I got out of the jeep, I then realized that my knee was bleeding from a wound that occurred during the wreck. My parents took me to the local hospital in a nearby town to seek medical help with my injured knee. While I was in the emergency room two Department of Public Safety officers walked in looking for me! It was time to “come clean Maybelline and tell the truth Baby Ruth”, to quote someone in my hometown when he described his own scrape with the law.
So, back to the Lord impressing upon me to not get distracted. This leads to the logical question of “distracted from what”, what is it I was to keep my attention focused upon? Since that time there has certainly been many events that could become distractions in our country and our world as a whole. The “Sunday School” answer, as a friend often says, is always Jesus. But what does that mean? What does it look like in everyday life to keep my attention focused on Jesus? There is much I could say about this and how I have failed many times since then to do so. However, I will limit this to a more recent impression the Lord gave me recently as to what this means practically.
I was praying after reading some scriptures and listening for anything Jesus wanted to show me. I saw a brief image that I then pondered to see what he was showing me. In this case I saw a woman asleep in a bed. I had the impression that she was in a very satisfying sleep that was directly related to a true intimate experience with her husband. An intimacy of deeply knowing her husband’s heart and being known by him in the same way. As I pondered this further, I thought about two stories from the Gospels. One is the story of Jesus in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Luke 10: 38-42. The other story is from Matthew 11:25-30 where Jesus says, “Come to me, all you 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.”
In the first story, “Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made”, to show hospitality to Jesus and his disciples who had come to her home for a visit. Note that the scriptures state the preparations “had to be made”. Jesus perfectly shared in our humanity which included the need to eat, drink and rest. These preparations likely required quite a lot of work to obtain the proper supplies and then to prepare a meal to set before her guests. This may have taken several hours. In the meantime, her sister Mary, “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said” rather than helping her sister with all the preparations that had to be made. At some point Martha came to 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!” Jesus responded by saying, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” This seems like a rebuke of Martha and this scripture has been used too many times to accuse women who have the gift of hospitality of being busy rather than sitting at Jesus’ feet. However, I disagree with this simple assessment of what Jesus was saying to Martha, everyone else in the house and to us.
Remember, the preparations had to be made just like when Jesus sent two of his disciples to prepare the traditional Passover meal for he and the rest of his closest disciples to eat. Somebody had to make the preparations! I think the problem was that Martha “was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made”. Distracted from what? I think the answer is found in the other story mentioned above where Jesus invites us to come to him in the weariness of daily necessary activities and to “take his yoke upon us and learn from him”. In Matthew 11:27, which is the verse just before his invitation to come to him, Jesus said, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” I believe that Jesus is inviting us to come to him and learn from him how to have fellowship and intimacy with him and his Father in the activities of everyday life. This will result in us having the very satisfying rest that I saw in the image of the sleeping woman that I mentioned above. Jesus said he only did and said what he saw his Father doing and saying. I firmly believe that Jesus was inviting Martha to invite him into teaching her about the Father even as she worked on “all the preparations that had to be made”. Building a deep relationship and sharing intimacy was more important that accomplishing the work, but it occurs as the work is done in dependance upon Jesus. His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
There is so much more I could say about this subject, but this article is already rather long. I will sum it up with John 14:20 where Jesus said, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” This is my refuge in this stage of my life and during these troubling times because Jesus is not limited in any way, therefore I am not lacking in anything that is needed because he desires to share his life with me in everything that I encounter. Therefore, come what may, all is well with my soul when I believe him and rest in fellowship with him.
Will you join me in praying, “Abba Father, please show me the many things that I am worried and troubled about that I may repent and come to you, Jesus, and take up your yoke and learn from you how to walk in fellowship with you in the very troubling times that we live in.”
Blessings,
Kevin