The Important Thing

THE IMPORTANT THING notes

The important thing is to know what is the most important thing. 
The Bible speaks about Jesus being close friends of a man called Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary. Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead and Mary would soon anoint feet of Jesus before his betrayal and his death on the cross. But prior to those events there is a story about Jesus being invited to have a meal in the home of Martha in Luke Chapter 10.
Luke 10:38  Jesus was welcomed to go and enjoy a meal in the house of Martha. But Martha was left to to do all the preparation on her own while her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet taking in every word that he said. 
Martha became stressed and upset with her sister Mary, and so she approached Jesus and said, “ Lord, don’t you care (melo – to realize it matters!) that my sister has left me to tend to all this work on my own? So tell her to help me.”
And Jesus answered and said to her, “ Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed (chreia – most important – a must), and Mary has chosen that (most) important thing, and that can never be taken away from her.

There are a number of important things happening here.
Martha thought that what she was doing, in preparing and serving up a meal was an important thing.
Martha also thought that having someone to help her prepare was an important thing.
Jesus would have appreciated the care that Martha had put into the preparation of the dinner and been blessed by that, but he was concerned about Martha’s attitude of resentment and judgment towards her sister Mary and himself that they were not being considerate of her.
Martha thought that Jesus did not think that what she was doing was important, that he didn’t care – that it didn’t really matter. Imagine telling God that he should get his priorities right about what really matters.

Jesus had to address Martha, but not to scold her; He loved her and Mary as sisters, as he loved their brother Lazarus as a brother (John 11:5). He wanted Martha to be healed from anxiety and stress and to enjoy the caring good work she was doing. He was not telling Martha that she should have ordered a takeaway meal and sat on the floor with Jesus and her sister, but to do the good thing she did with grace.
He also knew that Mary needed to choose that time at his feet for the inner healing of her own soul and spirit. The Bible tells us that Mary who anointed the feet of Jesus before his betrayal was a woman whom Jesus healed from deep inner torment (John 12 and Luke 7). 

The point of what I’m wanting to say today is this; We all have some Martha in us and some Mary in us. There is the doing self and the being self, and each one has its time and place. Many of the stories that Jesus told were preparing us for the understanding of the New Testament truth of having both the natural and the spiritual natures within us and how spiritual transformation is from the natural self from Adam into the Spiritual self through Jesus. The Bible doesn’t  tell us that there was anyone else in the room that day a Martha’s house – Lazarus isn’t mentioned and neither is anybody else - There were just three people in the room – and as far as this story goes there are always three people in the room – Jesus and the Martha and the Mary within us.
That busy Martha living in me attacks my soul peace and tells me that I’m not doing enough even when I’m busy doing things that I think are worth doing. 
My inner Mary self allows my soul peace to be restored but still has to learn to not get under condemnation or guilt and to enjoy sitting with Jesus, knowing that it is the best choice at that time and that it is always available.

I felt God saying to me in one of my ‘Mary sitting with Jesus’ times recently to resist the urge to get up and try to do some worthwhile thing, but to wait for something that he would bring before me to respond to - rather than for me to initiate anything. I found it was a challenge but it was a real blessing to be waiting and ready to respond and to come from that place of stillness rather than the place of being ‘distracted with many things’. Then the work that really matters comes from Jesus and not my busy self-effort self.

It is hard for us in our humanity to always strike the right balance but we need to hear the words of love that Jesus was saying to Martha and to Mary as his beloved sisters.
I was reading again how Jesus thought of us as his brothers and sisters and how he also said ‘I now call you friends and not servants’ (John 15).
So I asked Jesus the other day how I should worship him and I felt that he said to me ‘just be my brother and my friend; don’t get too religious. I am here for you and you can be here for me and we can worship the Father together in our spirit, and do the things that please him, the things that really matter’. The BiBle says that he worships his Father along with us and together we will sing his praises (Hebrews 2:12)

So it means that whether busy or quiet, we do it all unto the Lord. Jesus went to that house with healing in his heart. On his journey to his death he was always bringing to us his resurrection power and his healing. I have felt in these Covid times we have been afforded more opportunity to sit quietly with The Lord and to wait for him to arise with healing in his wings. Amen