One Thing Is Necessary

January 29, 2023 · Luke

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Series · Luke · Week 10 of 34

Scripture referenced 4 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

Luke 10:38-42 the main passage for the sermon, the story of Mary and Martha

38 As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
41 Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
42 but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

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John 11

identified as the source for Bethany and the sisters of Lazarus

1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.

2 It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick.

3 The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”

4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.”

5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

6 When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.

7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.”

8 The disciples told him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”

9 Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

10 But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”

11 He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”

12 The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”

13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.

14 So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead.

15 I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”

16 Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go also, that we may die with him.”

17 So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.

18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away.

19 Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.

20 Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house.

21 Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.

22 Even now I know that, whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.

26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”

28 When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and is calling you.”

29 When she heard this, she arose quickly, and went to him.

30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him.

31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”

32 Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”

33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Jesus wept.

36 The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!”

37 Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”

38 Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”

41 So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me.

42 I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44 He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews, who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him.

46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done.

47 The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs.

48 If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

49 But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,

50 nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”

51 Now he didn’t say this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,

52 and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

53 So from that day forward they took counsel that they might put him to death.

54 Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but departed from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim. He stayed there with his disciples.

55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves.

56 Then they sought for Jesus and spoke one with another, as they stood in the temple, “What do you…

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Acts 22

Paul describing being educated at the feet of Gamaliel

1 “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”

2 When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,

3 “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today.

4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

5 As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.

6 As I made my journey, and came close to Damascus, about noon, suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky.

7 I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

8 I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’

9 “Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me.

10 I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’

11 When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.

12 One Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well reported of by all the Jews who lived in Damascus,

13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ In that very hour I looked up at him.

14 He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

15 For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard.

16 Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance,

18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not receive testimony concerning me from you.’

19 I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you.

20 When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’

21 “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”

22 They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted up their voice, and said, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!”

23 As they cried out, and threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air,

24 the commanding officer commanded him to be brought into the barracks, ordering him to be examined by scourging, that he might know for what crime they shouted against him like that.

25 When they had tied him up with thongs, Paul asked the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and not found guilty?”

26 When the centurion heard it, he went to the commanding officer and told him, “Watch what you are about to do, for this man is a Roman!”

27 The commanding officer came and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” He said, “Yes.”

28 The commanding officer answered, “I bought my citizenship for a great price.” Paul said, “But I was born a Roman.”

29 Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him.

30 But on the next day, desiring to know the truth about why he was accused by the Jews, he freed him from the bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come together, and brought Paul down and set him before them.

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Colossians 3:1-2

used as the benediction, setting hearts and minds on things above

1 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.

2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

Pastor Ray opened this message in Luke 10:38-42, the story of Mary and Martha, with a confession: he had always considered himself a Mary in a Martha world, and this passage caught him off guard. Working through the text over several weeks, he found it landed closer to home than he expected.

What was said

The previous week had ended at Luke 10:37, the close of the Good Samaritan story. Pastor Ray had asked the congregation to write down which group they saw as most opposed to the gospel's advance. The answers ranged across the political spectrum, but the ones that stood out most were simply "hypocritical Christians" and "Christians who don't act like it." He connected that to G.K. Chesterton's two-word answer to a newspaper that asked what was wrong with the world: "I am." Self-reflection, he said, is where this passage begins.

Luke places the story without much geographic detail, just that Jesus entered a village. John fills in that it was Bethany, the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Martha welcomed Jesus in, which Pastor Ray noted was genuinely gracious. But Mary sat at His feet and listened. He pointed out that for a first-century audience, "at the feet of" was not fan behavior; it was the language of discipleship. When Paul described his education under Gamaliel in Acts 22, he used the same expression. Mary was positioning herself as a learner.

Martha, meanwhile, was described in the Greek by the word "perispato," an imperfect verb, meaning this was not a one-time thing but a habitual pattern. Pastor Ray noted the verb can be read as either passive or middle voice: she was being distracted by outside forces, or she was distracting herself. He suggested both can be true at once. When Martha finally spoke to Jesus, her words, "Lord, do you not care?", carried the same urgency as the disciples in the boat during the storm. She was not being rude; she was genuinely overwhelmed. And she did what many people do with a book or a sermon: she decided someone else needed to hear it. "Tell her to help me."

Jesus answered her not with a rebuke but with tenderness. "Martha, Martha" was compassionate, not scolding. He said she was worried and pulled apart by many things, using the word "merimnas," which pictures a person being divided in opposite directions, going to pieces. Then He said that one thing was necessary, and Mary had chosen the good part, a word, "merida," that Pastor Ray noted was related to "merimnas," almost a pun. A portion, an assigned share. Mary had understood the assignment.

Pastor Ray then turned it on himself. He described his years doing safety training, driving hours a day, filling the time with talk radio, and realizing only later how much that input shaped his thinking. He talked about buying a copy of "Martha to the Max," leaving it out for Tanya to find, and eventually reading it aloud to her because he was sure she needed it, then reading it to her mother over the phone, and never once thinking it applied to him. His brother asks "what are you doing?" instead of "how are you?" His father told him he was becoming a human doing instead of a human being.

He pulled the passage back to its place in Luke's larger structure, drawing on Darrell Bock's commentary. The Good Samaritan shows what it looks like to love your neighbor. This story shows what has to come first. The lawyer's question, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?", was answered with two commands: love God and love your neighbor. The lawyer immediately asked about the neighbor. Luke, by placing this story right after, answers the part the lawyer skipped. You cannot love your neighbor well if you are not paying attention to God first. The Lord's Prayer follows next in the text, completing the picture: love of neighbor, attention to Jesus, and dependence on God through prayer belong together.

The benediction came from Colossians 3: "Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." The invitation of the whole message, as Pastor Ray put it, was not to stop serving but to make sure the serving grows out of actually listening.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

Pastor Ray asked the congregation who they thought was the biggest obstacle to the gospel's advance, and the answers that hit hardest were 'hypocritical Christians' and 'Christians who don't act like it.' G.K. Chesterton's two-word answer to 'What is wrong with the world?' was 'I am.' How do you respond to that kind of self-reflection, and where does it take you personally?
Pastor Ray said he had always considered himself a Mary in a Martha world, and only recently realized he might be more of a Martha than he thought. Has a Bible passage ever surprised you by landing on you in a way you did not expect? What happened?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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Speaker 1Amen. Yeah. Oh, we've been having a congregational meeting if you didn't recognize that fact. So we had budget approval and new elder approval and a few other, things going on, but we're about to start the second service here. So that's why everybody's filing out if you're wondering.

A lot of folks came for the early service and hung around for the business meeting. And we're getting our act together here. So here we go. I do know a pretty good reliable source that the sermon went short in the first service anyway. So...

Alright. Here we are leaning on the everlasting arms. Would you stand with me and we're gonna sing some folks in and sing some folks out. Judy is going to take her mittens off and then we're going to get going. What

Speaker 2a fellowship. What a joy divine leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness. What a peace is mine. Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all our lords leaning leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, beaming on the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet the brats pose from day to day, beaming on the everlasting arms, leaning, leaning, leaning leaning on the everlasting arms on the last. What have I to dread? What have I to feel leaning on the everlasting arms?

Amen.

Speaker 1Amen. But it is well with my soul. And number 705.

Speaker 2It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glory aston. My Praise the Lord. Praise the the Lord.

Oh, my soul. It is well. With my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day It is well with my soul. It is well with

Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. Have a few announcements. A lot of them have to do with having, retreats. There are retreats that are going on, these days. It's a good time for them.

Monday Nights at first b is in a way kind of a retreat. It's good to get separated along with folks that are looking to Jesus and to God's word. And so Carl is gonna be preaching tomorrow night. There's meal, music, and a message. And so meal first, and then we gather around music, and then he's got a message from God.

He had kind of a teaser for it, a trailer this morning that I I cannot replicate, and he's not in the room. But it's going to be good. And he says, come and see, I guess it's the best way to put it. If you'd like to prepare a meal for the connect hour or breakfast, finger foods kind of stuff, it was really, really thorough this morning, so good. Or if you'd like to prepare a meal for a Monday night, we're offering you that opportunity.

If you want that blessing, you could take it. You can sign up in the fellowship hall. There are a few retreats. One of them is called the Word Retreat. It's coming up February twenty third to twenty sixth.

I'm planning on going on this one, men's retreat. It's $200. But if... Excuse me. If you would like to go, don't let the cost of it stop you.

There are scholarships available. The info and registration for that is online. I just told everybody I was going, but I have not registered yet, so I'm going to do that later on this afternoon. But if you want to contact somebody about it, Matt Litzelman is the guy. We know a little about it in the office.

You can call here, and we'll put you in touch with him. There's also a ladies fellowship that meets Thursday nights down the hall. Sisters Saved by Grace is kinda one of the names they go by, but it's a ladies fellowship on Thursday evening, 6PM in the fellowship hall. They eat together and pray together and study God's word together. It's a fun group.

There's a women's retreat coming up. It's actually at the same place, but not at the same time as men's retreat, March 16 through the nineteenth. And you can come for any portion of that if you'd like. The Moss Avery Lodge over in Idaho, it's 150, and you can bring a dish to share. Says, If you'd like to know more about that, talk to Nancy Terraziano, and there's a sign up in the back for that.

The youth group, the high school youth group is meeting again on Thursday evening starting this Thursday at Tribes Ministry Center. We... If you were here for the business meeting, you heard Mike after the business meeting talking about youth ministry. And this is one of the most exciting things that's going on in the Valley right now for youth ministry, high school age. It's about four or five churches gathering together for student ascent.

It'll be Thursday night starting at 06:30PM. There's a young adult Bible study that happens on Sunday evenings. This one changes location, but it's, usually housed at some church, church member or attenders house, And the young folks go and gather for a meal and study the word together. Usually, they're studying books together. But that's Erin Anderson's number if you're a young person and would like to get involved in a study, (208) 200-3746 is how to going to And doing of work.

Lot doing of to And the new the budget new and all of the new offices for elders and board of trustees. And I think that's the last one. Am I missing anything in this group? Y'all are making supper tomorrow night. That's one of the things.

Okay. And it's gumbo? Is that right? That was one of the things. I was like, ah, saw your faces and remembered.

That's good. Would you stand with us, and we're gonna continue praising the Lord together. What a song. Rather have Jesus.

Speaker 2I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be his than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather be led by his nail pierced hand than to be the king of the vast domain and be held in sins dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world I'd rather be faithful to his dear cause.

I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I'd rather be true to his holy name than to be the king of the vast

Speaker 1What a beautiful song that is. There is a redeemer. Is a redeemer. Keith Green. We're going to sing verses and chorus.

You might only know the chorus to this one. Last verse, would you like to play one more verse and I'll sing it? Y'all can have a seat.

Speaker 2I will see his face. There I'll serve my king forever in that holy place. The work is done.

Speaker 1Lord God almighty, we thank you and we come to you now at this operatory time. Lord, just to say thank you for one thing. Thank you for all that you have done. Thank you, oh my father, for giving us your son. But, Lord, also to to let you know we are open to do whatever it is that you would lead us to do.

We come before you humbly and submit, Lord, our will to yours collectively and ask you that you would use us to do your will, Lord, and your way, and bless those around us and to the very uttermost parts. Would you do, Lord, what only you can with us laying this down before you, lord. Do what you will with it. Multiply it. Bless it.

Do your work. In Jesus name, amen.

Speaker 2In him complete. Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat.

Speaker 1Amen. Thank you. Beautiful. Wow. Purity of that voice and that piano.

Thank you. We're up to Luke ten thirty eight through 42. If you remember last week, we got to verse 37, which is, what we call the story of the good Samaritan. Right? And I had given you all a bunch of cards during the announcement time, and I asked you to list a trustworthy person in our office and then a wider group of trustworthy folks.

And then the one that was the big question was, who do you think is the group that is the most antithetical to the gospel's advance? And y'all answered those, and I told you I'd look through them, and I would see what they said. I read some of them sort of selectively last week because what I was looking for is the other, right? We tend to find ourselves, us and them. And so as we're looking at that, some of you all said the woke agenda, this, that, and the other thing from the left.

Others of you said Christian nationalist and other things towards the right. There was antifa and fascism both in there. But as I looked and I counted the numbers, some of the ones that I skipped some of last week were probably the strongest. It was hypocritical Christians or Christians in name only was one of them. Christians that don't act like it.

That's the hardest thing for the gospel's advances, Christians that don't act like it. And I think that's actually a good... It it to me was helpful because I knew that we'd get right and left stuff. I knew we would get that. And government or politicians on both sides, we got a lot of that too.

But... And media, social media, we got a lot of that. But I think that way back when, when GK Chesterton was still alive, I think it was a Chicago Tribune. It was a big major newspaper. And they put out, what is wrong with the world?

They asked for submissions from authors, and he sent back a two word response and just said, I am. Reflection, self reflection is really important. I say that because of this passage. I have always considered myself a Mary in a Martha world. I'm not a type a.

I'm a motivated type b. That's what I've always considered myself. I was listening years ago to the radio. I used to have a job doing safety training. Some of y'all, you've been here before, you've heard me talk about the job a little bit.

In the ninth grade, I passed out in an English class standing in front of people because I'm more mortified of standing up and speaking in front of people than anything else. And now I do this for a job. And so I used to ride along, when I had this job teaching safety meetings. I'd go to, say drive three hours, and I'd go to a sawmill or a factory or a nursing home, and I would look over their facility and do the safety inspection, and I would write down any notes, turn that over to the boss, need to fix these things, And then I'd consult with them about what they saw as being necessary, accident rates and that sort of thing. And then I would teach the employees safety classes that minimal stuff that OSHA says you have to have.

So as I was doing that job, I really enjoyed it. I'm sort of a workaholic. And I didn't take a vacation for four years. I didn't I mean, we'd go somewhere for the weekend, but we would not miss time off work. And so I'm working hard.

Tanya is a workaholic too. She's working hard at a vet clinic as a tech. And I was riding along. I liked to listen to the radio. I drove three or four hours a day almost every day.

And so baseball games are the best. They pass the time like nothing else. It's not, you know, right wing radio was really popular at the time in the mid nineties. And so I'd listen to that. And I tell you what, when you listen to that, it makes a difference.

It makes a difference in how you think. I'd listen to that. I'd listen to NPRs for a little while. That makes a difference too. And all of the stuff that I'm listening to, occasionally I'd flip it over to Christian radio and something sorta like K Love had an interview with the lady Debbie Stack, this lady.

She wrote a book called Martha to the Max. And the interview was hilarious. She was really funny. And it's Martha to the Max. And I thought, Tanya really needs to hear this.

Oh my goodness. Martha to the max, balanced living for a perfectionist. I've never considered myself a perfectionist. You know, never considered that I was probably just because I was looking at other people, but Martha to the max. She was...

So I stopped at a Christian bookstore. You can do that in the South. I just stopped by, picked a cup... Picked up a copy, laid it out in a prominent position in the home, took... Mentioned it to Tanya.

I said, is really funny. I heard her interview. I'm... It's gonna be good. You ought to read this.

And so she passed by and didn't read it and didn't read it and didn't read it. And one day while she was cleaning up the house, I just decided I'm going to read it out loud. I read this book out loud to my wife because she needed to hear it, doggone it. And I read it out loud to her and she did like it. And she did say even the first test and it was like a 50 question test to see whether you needed this book.

I read all 50 of those and did not think I needed this book. Get through the whole thing and she said, my mama needs to hear that. And so I called her mama and said, Tanya says you need to hear this. I read it out loud over the phone to her. The whole book.

Yeah. I am afraid that I am a Martha, and I had no idea. For the last three weeks, I've been looking at this passage, and I've been thinking about it. And it starts off like this. Now as they were traveling along, that's nonspecific.

That's about as nonspecific as Luke gets. He doesn't mention where they were. They entered into a village. John tells us the village is Bethany where these people live. Later on in the story, we'll hear from John in John 11.

It says, now as they were traveling along, he entered into a village, that's pretty nonspecific for Luke, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Now they're mentioned here and they're mentioned in John and both places Martha's personality comes out and Mary's personality comes out in both places. And I've always considered myself a Mary just sitting at Jesus' feet. And I, confessional preaching here, have been really challenged by this this week, in the past few weeks. Now as they were traveling along, he entered into a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him in.

What a gracious hostess she is. Welcomed him him into her home, and she had a sister called Mary. It's only, like, five verses we're covering today. Right? It's short, but, man, it hit me hard.

She had a sister called Mary. Okay. Mary. John eleven, again, if you're remembering that, they are the sisters of Lazarus who Jesus raises from the dead in Bethany two miles from the temple. We hear about that at Easter, most Easters.

But if you wanna know where that is, it's in John 11. You can read that. We'll get to it eventually. We're about four and a half months out from the cross right now in our chronological study. She had a sister called Mary.

Mary, who was also seated at the Lord's feet and was listening to his word. The seated at the Lord's feet. Now for us, something that Judy said during... Between services, she talked about a country that was really oppressive to women. For us, we hear that.

We go, that's just horrible. For them to hear that there was Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet, they would have gotten a probably a different message than we do. I think that we probably read this as Mary's cup... Sort of a fangirl for Jesus, and she just wants to be there like Beatlemania or something. She just wants to be close to him.

But it's the same as when Paul in Acts 22 is talking about his religious heritage, his upbringing. I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus Of Cilicia, but I was brought up in this very city, and I was educated under Gamaliel. When he says that, what he literally says is, I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. It's the same verbiage because that's what it means.

At the feet of is putting yourself in a position of humility, but also of study strictly according to the law of our forefathers. Being zealous for God just as you all are here today, Paul says. Mary, who was also... She was seated at the Lord's feet. First of all, I mean, Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman and having just told the story in Luke of the good Samaritan.

Those things are like, wow, that's countercultural. That's really not what we're expecting. This really is not what we're expecting either. The placement of this story right here could be strategic for a couple of reasons, but I'll I'll get to that more at the end. Mary, who is also seated at the Lord's feet, who is learning from as a disciple, listening to his word.

But Martha was distracted with all of her preparations. We're gonna have Jesus in the house. Gotta get out. Everything's gotta get ready. We've gotta be completely clean, absolutely clean.

But we also have to have everything just so. She was distracted with all of her preparations. The word that is used right there is perispato. Perispato is the imperfect indicative middle or passive third person singular form You grammar nerds, if you know or care what that means, I mention it because imperfect means... It's an imperfect past tense, meaning it's something that just happens over and over and over again.

This is the way that this person is. That's one thing. But also indicative, it happened. It's not theoretical. It really happened.

Middle or passive. Now, perispao in that form means either or. If it's passive, she was being distracted. There were outside forces that were working on her, and she was being distracted by many things. Or she was being troubled greatly.

That's within the range of what this verb means. If you are distracted, it's greatly troubling. Right? She was being distracted or she was being troubled greatly. That's one way of looking at it.

That's passive. But I think that you can also look at it as this. She was middle voice. She was distracting herself with many things. Or she was troubling herself greatly.

And I think that you can be doing both at the same time. There are outside influences that you can distract yourself with. And the major thrust of this passage is there are some things that are more important than other things. There's actually one thing that's way more important than everything else. That's where the text goes next.

Martha was distracted, pulled with all of her preparations, and she came up to him, to Jesus, and said, Lord... She was a believer. She believed him. She was honored, I'm sure, to have him in the home. Lord, do you not care that my sisters left me to do the serving by myself?

Y'all are not laughing at this. Jesus is in the home there. Mary's at his feet. Martha's running around doing everything, and she's like, Lord, do you not care? The last time we heard this verbiage was in the boat.

Remember in the boat when the... When Jesus is asleep and and they're bailing water and they're scared to death of the lightning and the thunder and the waves. And they said, do you not care that we're dying? It's the same urgency. Right?

Same verbiage. Lord, do you not care that my sisters left me to do the serpent all by myself? Jesus, tell her to help me. Oh my goodness. Have you ever listened to a sermon or listened to the radio or read a book and thought so and so needs to hear this?

Jesus, tell them. That's what she just said. Jesus, tell her what she ought to be doing. All the things that are distracting me ought to be distracting her too. Oh, Lord, do you not care that my sisters left me to do all this serving by myself?

Tell her to help me. But... Oh, but the Lord answered, and how did he answer? The Lord answered and he said to her... This reply is actually very sweet.

Martha, Martha. It's Martha, Martha, not Martha, Martha. It's not that. It's an endearing, loving, compassionate way of saying, Martha, Martha, you're worried and you're distracted by many things. You've got a lot on your mind.

You got a lot going. You're doing a lot of things. You're worried, and you're distracted by many things. Actually, Jesus uses a different word for worry or being distracted, anxiety. It's mirimnos.

I think he uses a different one because he's setting up a punch line just a minute with some wordplay. He's very careful with his words. Properly, means to be drawn in opposite direction, to be divided up into parts. A. T.

Robertson, great theologian, says, it's being going to pieces. I fall to pieces. It's going to pieces because one is being pulled apart in different directions. It's an old, old verb for worry or for anxiety. Your mind is so occupied, you can't stop thinking about things, And it's just one thing builds on another.

Literally, it's pulling you apart, dividing you, or distracting you. It's closely related to James' idea of a double minded person is unstable in all of their ways. So Jesus, marimna says that word. Martha, Martha, I love you Martha. You're worried and you're pulled apart by a lot of different things.

But only one thing is necessary. Actually, this is a new American standard. If you see an italics in the new American standard, that's added in English. It's not representative of something in the Greek, but it helps the flow in English. Really it says, But one thing is necessary.

One thing is necessary. For Mary, in this case, has chosen the good part. That word is merida, which is related to that merimnas earlier that I mentioned. It's kind of a pun almost. Merida means a portion or a share.

I like to think of it that first term. It's an assigned portion. It's something that we have been, as believers, assigned. And Mary has chosen to concentrate her effort on this assignment. She understood the assignment.

An assigned part. But one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. That's really, really good. It's not ever going to be taken away from her. There are a lot of things that can pull us in different directions.

I know that working in the office and listening to what Nick just had to say about the benevolence fund, there are a lot of good things that this church endeavors to do and we work at doing that can pull us in a lot of different direction. And if I'm being completely honest, I'll say I'm an orgaholic. And I've been hearing a lot of people say, you ought to take a break. You ought to take a sabbatical. You ought to take some time off.

You ought not be busy as you are. I know you're busy so I didn't call. Oh, that stabs me in the heart so hard. When I know you're busy so I didn't call. I'm not that busy is what my first answer is.

Call, please. I want the call. I want the call. And I do. I've had a couple of conversations recently though that have been telling.

So my brother calls regularly. I call him regularly. And he says, Hey, Ray. What you doing? And I say, Well, I'm fixing a such and such for so and so.

I'm fixing a car, working on an alternator for this car. Finishing an art project for the school. I'm hanging something in the downstairs at the church. I'm moving. I'm helping somebody move.

I'm loading the truck. And he goes, I knew you're going to be doing something. He doesn't say how are you? He says, what you doing? So then I talked to

Speaker 2my

Speaker 1dad. And daddy, we'll talk and I'll talk to him until time to go into the hospital or after I've gotten out when I'm on the way to somewhere else. He'll say, Ray, you know that you're pretty close to being a human doing instead of a human being. Oh, that was a stab to the heart too. And I have to step back and not think about how Martha Tanya is or how Martha other people are.

I actually did Martha Humphrey's funeral this year. And when I first arrived, the very first day I came in, I went down to the kitchen, and I looked... Nobody else was in the building. I looked around, I saw that Martha Humphrey was in charge of the kitchen, and it cracked me up. Martha.

Martha. Of course, Martha is in charge of the kitchen. I didn't know anybody in this church. I've never really considered that I am that. I'm working through that, and I'm asking for you all to help me to be praying, not just for me, but to be praying for you too to see what is it that's distracting you.

And there may be many things that are distracting us, but I think that we together ought to be considering this. Now I hope to be always faithful to sharing the word of God with you here on Sunday morning, and I wanna be faithful in that task. And I do think that I'm studying it in there. That's sitting at the feet of Jesus. If I'm bringing it in here, maybe it's my job, but it's also giving you an opportunity to hear the words of Jesus.

I love what I do. I'm not saying that I don't, but at the same time, I I have to take every passage seriously and go, lord, help me to understand. And this week, he did. This week, he really did. And so it snuck up on me.

Would you pray with me? And then I'm gonna ask you if you'll just come forward. We're gonna sing, wherever he leads, I'll go. But I think it's important the order of that song, wherever he leads, I'll go. If you're not paying attention to what he's saying, you're not gonna know where to go.

Okay? Wherever he leads, I'll go. God almighty, through Christ, we ask you, lord, to help us, to help us to see where it is that we are to be going, what it is that we are to be doing. But, Lord, may we savor each moment with you in your word and in prayer. In Jesus' name, we pray.

Amen. I've got one more thing to say. So I think that's the last slide. It'll go black when I hit it. Yeah.

But the Lord's prayer is next. The Lord's Prayer is next in this passage. There are three pericopes, and I wanna read something to close. This is Darrell Bock's great commentary on Luke nine fifty one all the way to the end. And it says, this pericope, this little short story, is part of a three unit section that deals with each disciple's responsibilities before God.

So the previous passage, is what we did last week, is the Good Samaritan. It gives the first point. Disciples are to be loving their neighbor, which involves service to the one that is in need. Loving one's neighbor means being a neighbor. That's a great point.

This account, the one today, shows that attention to Jesus is a key element in the disciple's life. In fact, this account also develops the lawyer's response. Last week, the lawyer said to Jesus, what is it that I must do to inherit... What what do I need to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, you're reading of it.

What is it? He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. His question immediately went to who is my neighbor? But Jesus... Well, Luke, through this...

Putting this passage next is saying that in order to love your neighbor well, you have to be paying attention to what God is saying first. So loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength is paying attention to him. So wholehearted, it develops the lawyer's response about wholehearted devotion to God. While love of neighbor is illustrated by the Samaritan, Mary pictures devotion to God and his teaching through faithful attention to Jesus. The next passage is the Lord's Prayer, and it will stress being dependent on a good and gracious God through an active prayer life.

To serve others like the Samaritan does not mean that we should be so distracted by service to them that we ignore God. Our service to others is best set in the context of being in contact with God. It might be a good time to advertise those retreats again. Because if you haven't taken time lately to just step back from whatever it is that you're doing and check-in with God to see what he's saying, I read that book myself, and then I read it out loud to Tanya, and then I read it out loud to her mother. I read it out loud to one other person too.

And I never thought it was for me. We can miss that. God Almighty, help us to go wherever it is that you lead, but help us pay attention to where you're leading. Would you stand with me, We're going to sing wherever he leads, I'll go.

Speaker 2I can hear my savior savior calling. I can hear my savior calling. I can hear my savior calling. Take thy cross and follow. Follow me.

Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him, with him all the way. I'll go with him through the judgment.

I'll go with him through the judgment. I'll go with him through the judgment. I'll go with him with him all the way. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he he leads me, I will follow.

Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him, with him all the way. He will give me grace and glory. He will give me grace and glory. He will give me grace and glory.

And go with me with me all the way. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads I follow.

Speaker 1Amen. And for the benediction today, we're gonna go to Colossians three, the first couple of verses. It says, since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on the things above. Where Christ is, where you're seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

Don't be so distracted and concerned with those things that you can't set your mind on the things that are above that. In Jesus' name, Lord, we pray that you would bless us to be a blessing, but that we would hear your words, take them to heart individually so that we might be a blessing. Amen.

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Busyness Mary And Martha Priorities Sitting At Jesus Feet Worry And Distraction

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