Luke 10:38-42 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. (39) And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. (40) But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. (41) And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: (42) But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Life is full of choices. For that matter, each day is virtually one choice after another. Many choices we make and never really comprehend that we have made a choice. We simply make them instinctively. First thing in the morning, when our alarm rings, we have the choice of hitting the snooze, jumping out of bed, or turing off the alarm and going back to sleep. We then have the choice of taking a shower first, getting a cup of coffee, eating our breakfast, taking the dog out, waking the kids, and the list goes on and on. Each of those things may need to be done, but the order we do them is a choice that we make. And that is just the first 10 minutes of our day. The rest of our day is really no different.
Most choices that we make are inconsequential. What do I want to wear? The blue suit or the gray suit? In the big scheme of things, choices like that are not going to effect our lives. What we have for lunch may effect our waist lines differently, but 20 years from now, one particular mea, on one particular day won’t make any difference. We make so many of those choices each day that I wonder if we minimize all decisions as being inconsequential.
In our text this morning, we find Jesus having a very human moment. He is having dinner with very close friends; Mary and Martha. The two sisters apparently were quite different, largely because of the choices that they make. Martha (vrs 40), as Jesus arrives, does what comes natural to her, she goes about preparing for the meal. She had choices. That was the one that she made for herself. On the other hand, Mary (vrs 39) decided to sit and to listen to Jesus teach. After a while of seeing the results of their choices, Martha decides to complain to Jesus that Mary isn’t helping with the service of the evening. Jesus’ response was, I am sure surprising, because he tells her that the choice that the sister made was the BETTER choice!
This event in Jesus’ life is a great lesson for us. Martha probably thought that the decision that she made to fix dinner was a good choice. But the choice was based upon the physical. Mary however made a better choice because her’s was based upon the spiritual. All too often, we are confronted with decisions where we can choose to focus on the physical things of this world or to focus on the spiritual. Clearly, Jesus wants us to be more mindful of the spiritual.
Several years ago, the company I worked for had a golf tournament on a Sunday morning. I had a co-worker question me for missing the tournament for going to worship. This is the principle. We must focus on the spiritual rather than what I might want for personal enjoyment or entertainment.
Choices, like one lunch, one day may be, in and of itself consequential, but they create a pattern in our lives that govern the direction that we take. That can be be VERY consequential!
Reflecting the SON,
Dennis Hogan
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