Martha and Mary: Wisdom for Your Overloaded Schedule

Introduction

This message was brought by John, pastor of the Church Like Home, as part of a series on wisdom. After wisdom in our priorities, in marriage, in raising children, and in our influence, this new message tackles wisdom in the face of our worries.

Before even opening the Bible, the congregation was invited to discuss three questions in small groups: what kind of situation creates worry in you? What underlying needs go unmet? And why aren't those worries always reasonable?

The pastor then shared some figures from his research: only 11% of French people say they are "not stressed at all." In other words, barely one person in ten. The rest fall into "very stressed" (10%), "fairly stressed" (40%), and "a little stressed" (38%). The causes roughly break down into three thirds: work life, financial problems, and personal life. And often, when you look closely, our worries aren't entirely reasonable: it's as if an anxiety mechanism keeps turning inside us without really being connected to reality.

What does the Bible say about all this? How can faith in God help us? To answer, John opened Luke 10:38-42: Jesus' encounter with Martha and Mary. Luke, a physician by trade, wrote a kind of biography of Jesus, and this short story is going to teach us a form of wisdom.

Outline of the Message

1. Mary: stopping to listen to Jesus, even when it isn't reasonable

• Martha and Mary are two sisters who probably live in the same house. It's Martha who invited Jesus and welcomes him into her home. Mary was probably helping her sister at first, then she stops and sits at Jesus' feet to listen to him.
• In verse 39, Mary sits down "the way a student would." Jesus had the reputation of a rabbi, a teacher who instructs and has disciples. At that time, however, disciples were men; women may have listened from a distance. Mary goes beyond social convention: she leaves her tasks, and even her responsibilities, to draw close to Jesus.
• She acts as though there's an emergency. John told the story of a general meeting of Magestar, an association he founded with friends: in the middle of the meeting, he hears his son crying in an unusual way. The child had grabbed the coffee pot and burned himself. Everything stopped instantly, and they put him under cold water. When something really matters, everything else stops. That's what Mary does: Jesus' presence matters so much that she leaves everything behind.
• Mary is hungry and thirsty for Jesus' words. She senses there's more here than mere words: there's nourishment. Jesus will later say that he is the bread of life, that his word feeds the soul at its depths. The question comes to you too: do you see the Bible as mere writing, or as the place where God is actually speaking to you?
• The pastor used the image of the stomach: the less you feed it, the more it shrinks, as during a fast. The same may be true of our spiritual appetite. Mary understood that her soul needed to be fed, and she set aside what others might think, along with religious assumptions like "I'm not good enough to draw near to God."

2. Martha: working alone, criticizing her sister, giving Jesus orders

• Martha is just as interesting a character. She's concerned about hosting Jesus well, which is legitimate. But she wants to do it so perfectly that you have to wonder whether it's for Jesus or for her own pride. She set the bar impossibly high for herself, even though Jesus will tell her right after that she didn't need any of it.
• Love isn't about doing the most, it's often about doing what the other person actually needs. Martha could have asked herself: what matters most here? If Jesus tells me it isn't necessary, do I really need to do it all?
• When Martha sees her sister sitting down, she complains, but she directs it at Jesus: "Lord, don't you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me." She's working alone, criticizing Mary, and giving Jesus orders.
• This is a picture of our own lives. In trials, facing illness or situations beyond us, we sometimes complain to God: "What are you doing? You should be doing this." Weighed down by everything we feel we must do, we grow bitter toward those who do nothing and bitter toward God who doesn't do what we want.
• What if the solution to our worries were simply to spend a little more time at Jesus' feet? This passage invites us to exactly that. Sometimes our greatest worry is wanting to have no more worries. But the real problem may lie elsewhere: there's something inside that needs to be filled.

3. "You are worried and troubled": worry linked to being overworked

• Jesus says "Martha, Martha," twice, with a kind of compassion: "you are worried and troubled about many things." Jesus links worry to being overworked. We don't always realize how full our lives are: notifications, messages, emails. John said this was true for him too. We don't like empty space, so we fill our evenings and weekends.
• Jesus tells Martha: you're loading yourself down, but who asked you to carry all that? Behind it there is often a high degree of perfectionism. The pastor admits he's very much a perfectionist himself. No one asked us to be perfect, but we want to be.
• The result: there's no more quiet time in our schedule, no more time to pause. It's a fear of empty space. We don't know how to say no to demands on our time, we don't protect ourselves from the flood of notifications and requests. Yet we know very well how to say no to God when he wants to help us. Is it normal for a Christian to say no to God when it comes to time in prayer and in his Word, when that may be exactly what we need?
• John meets people who are frustrated with their lives, and he admits he has his own frustrations too. Sometimes there are deeply buried things that poison our lives: unforgiveness, a conflict swept under the rug, wounds never dealt with. Are you taking good care of your inner life? Near Jesus, you might better understand what your true inner need is.
• The pastor quoted a theologian he read in a book on leadership: although serving God can bear fruit, the major work is the one God does in the leader. Most emerging leaders measure productivity, activity, and efficiency, while God is quietly trying to show them that their service flows out of who they are. God cares about who we are and seeks to form Christ in us. Are you willing to let God transform your heart?

4. One thing is necessary: the portion that cannot be taken from you

• At the end of the passage, Jesus simply encourages us to feed on his Word: one thing is necessary, Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.
• What lasts over the long run is what becomes important. Many things in our lives are fleeting. But when we let ourselves be transformed by the word of Jesus, the effects last into eternity.
• What is your relationship to the Word of God like? Do you stop to reflect and meditate on what the Bible says? The pastor encouraged everyone to pick up a Bible (the ones made available were free) or to use a mobile Bible meditation app: it has made a difference in his life, and it will in yours too.
• He also quoted Ecclesiastes: "Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind." Sometimes we load ourselves down too much. Think about your priorities: how can you balance your schedule, how can you ease off certain activities in order to prioritize what is good?
• Mary has a strong relationship with God, and it shows in how she manages her priorities. She's willing to defy social expectations and set perfectionism aside. Maybe she should have given her sister a heads-up, but Jesus says she made the right choice: he didn't need all that. And what about you: are you setting your priorities well?
• John closed with his own testimony: he wasn't born a believer, but at 18, while reading the Word, something struck his heart, like a fire lighting up, like falling in love. He discovered a God who gave everything by coming to earth and dying on the cross to wipe out our sin. But love has to be tended. Imagine parents who have their first baby but change nothing in their schedule to care for it: that would be terrible. If you have a relationship with God, or if you want to discover one, take a look at your schedule and make room for him.

Key Takeaways

• Mary stops and listens to Jesus, even at the cost of defying convention: Jesus' presence is, for her, an urgent matter, food for the soul.
• Martha wants so badly to do things well that she ends up working alone, criticizing her sister, and giving Jesus orders. Love isn't doing the most, it's doing what the other person needs.
• Jesus links worry to being overworked: "you are worried and troubled about many things." No one asked us to be perfect or to fill every slot in our schedule.
• We know how to say no to God more easily than to the demands on our time, even though time with him is what we need most.
• One thing is necessary: the Word received at Jesus' feet has effects that last into eternity, and no one can take it from you.

Personal Application

1. What situations create worry in you? What unmet needs are hiding behind them? Are those worries always reasonable?
2. Are you more like Mary or more like Martha right now? How much actual room do you give Jesus' word in your week?
3. Look at your schedule: where is the quiet time, the time to pause? What demands could you say no to, so you can stop saying no to God?
4. Is there something buried inside you (unforgiveness, a conflict swept under the rug, a wound) that you could lay down at Jesus' feet this week?
5. What small brake can you put on one activity to make room for God, the way parents reorganize their schedule for their first baby?

Scriptures Referenced

• Luke 10:38-42: Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary.
• Luke 10:39: Mary sitting at the Lord's feet, listening to his word.
• Luke 10:41-42: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. One thing is needed."
• John 6:35: "I am the bread of life."
• Ecclesiastes 4:6: "Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind."

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't Jesus side with Martha, when she's working to host him well?

Hosting Jesus is legitimate, but Martha set the bar so high for herself that she ends up working alone, criticizing her sister, and giving Jesus orders. Jesus responds with compassion, telling her she is worried and troubled about many things when only one thing is necessary. Love isn't about doing the most, it's about doing what the other person truly needs, and Jesus didn't need all of it.

What's the connection between worry and my schedule?

In this passage, Jesus links worry to being overworked: "you are worried and troubled." When your schedule is packed with notifications, demands, and perfectionism, there's no quiet time left, no room to listen to God. The pastor invites us to review our priorities, ease off certain activities, and make room for the Word and for prayer.

How do I actually start feeding on the Word of God?

The pastor encourages picking up a Bible and stopping regularly to read and meditate, like Mary sitting at Jesus' feet. Free mobile apps for Bible meditation can help. What matters is seeing the Bible not as mere writing but as the place where God speaks, and building that time into your schedule the way you would for any important relationship.