Priorities: Listening, then Labor

To the holy and faithful in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. (Colossians 1:2).

Martha is busy. Jesus, the Messiah, the great Healer and Teacher everyone is talking about is coming for a visit. Plus, he’s bringing twelve of his closest friends with him. So, Martha is busy. She has to roast the lamb, cook the vegetables, bake the bread, and make a special pie for dessert.

Her sister Mary is busy helping her in the kitchen. Then there’s a knock on the door. Jesus has arrived at their Bethany home. Martha and Mary put down their knives and bowls, brush off their hands on their aprons, and rush to the front door. They give Jesus a big hug and show him and his disciples into the living room.

Martha excuses herself to go back into the kitchen. After a few minutes she notices that Mary isn’t in the kitchen with her. She peaks into the living room and becomes upset because Mary is just sitting there at Jesus’ feet, listening to him tell stories.

Martha goes back into the kitchen. Now there’s a little more oomph in her cutting and chopping. She’s ticked! And she’s become more ticked as the minutes tick by!

Martha jabs the fork into the lamb, jams the spoon into the vegetables, and bangs the cupboards closed. The temperature in the kitchen is rising … and so is Martha’s temper! She finally snaps. She slams her spoon down on the counter and storms out of the kitchen. And who does she lash out at? Not her sister! No. Her guest! The reason for all her preparations. She lashes out at Jesus!

“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me” (Luke 10:40). “Lord, don’t you care that I’m in the kitchen slaving away over a steaming stove while she sits here all doe-eyed at your feet doing nothing? How about cutting the chit chat and telling her to get her lazy rear end in the kitchen to help me?!”

Martha has gotten her priorities all mixed up. She wants to serve Jesus. But Jesus has come to Martha’s house to serve her. It was good that she stressed family and friends and a clean house and good food. But stressing all those good things only made her stressed out. But Jesus has come to her home to give her rest. It was good that she wanted to labor for her Lord, but it would have been better if she had first joined Mary in listening to her Lord.

Jesus calmly replies to Martha’s temper tantrum, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is needed. In fact, Mary has chosen that better part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42). I hear Jesus paraphrasing the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “You have chosen poorly.”

Strong words. Stinging words. But words that reveal much about Martha’s – and our relationship – with the Savior.

It’s easy for us to get our priorities out of order, isn’t it? We place the urgent over the important. We put the fun over the mundane. We do the easy over the difficult. That happens at home, in the workplace, in school. It especially happens within the church.

We become hyper-focused on our vocations as parents, employees, citizens, retirees, students, athletes, etc. Those are good and godly pursuits. God wants us to focus on those things. Those are Second Table of the Law commands from God. Those are labors of love that we give to God and to those whom God has placed into our lives. They become issues, though, when those labors for the Lord come before or in the place of listening to our Lord. They become problems when the Second Table of the Law of loving our neighbor consumes more time and energy than the First Table of the Law of loving the Lord.

Martha chose a good thing in wanting to labor for her Lord. Mary chose the better thing of first listening to her Lord. This isn’t an issue of be Mary and don’t be Martha. It’s more an issue of first be Mary so you have the spiritual strength to be Martha. It’s all about priorities.

Martha’s problem was not her service, but her lack of priorities. She wanted to please Jesus. She wanted to impress him with her house and a nice dinner. She wanted to serve him with her very best. And yet, it all failed. She wound up yelling at Jesus and being angry at her sister. She was occupied with many things, when one thing was needful. She was busy preparing a seven-course dinner, but Jesus would have been content with grilled goat cheese and tomato soup.

It was not Martha’s labor that Jesus wanted. It was Martha. Jesus came not to be served but to serve. He came to give, not to get. He came to be where two or three are gathered in his name – even if those two are two sisters. He came not to be the guest, but to be the Host, to lay down his life as a sacrifice for sinful humanity, to offer himself up for the life of the world, to be the Bread of Life and wine from heaven to bring refreshment, forgiveness, life, and salvation to all. As far as Jesus was concerned, Martha’s house could have been a wreck, she could have laid out cold cuts and sandwich bread, she could have simply offered a loaf of bread and a dried fish. What mattered most to Jesus was that she make him and his words her priority.

Jesus desires our service. He calls us to labor for the Lord. The Holy Spirit through his Gospel writer Luke places the story of Mary and Martha right after the story of the Good Samaritan. That parable of the Good Samaritan was all about serving the Lord by serving our neighbor. So, the Holy Spirit is teaching us that service and labor to our Lord and his people is certainly important. But that labor for the Lord must follow listening to the Lord.

We want to obey God’s first three commandments of loving the Lord above all things, keeping his name holy by worshiping and praying to him, and then spending time in God’s house on the Sabbath Day. When we are loving the Lord with those first three commandments, then we are prepared to love our neighbor with the last seven commandments. After we listen to the Lord, we are prepared to labor for our Lord.

Jesus doesn’t criticize Martha for serving. He does not discipline her for failing to sit beside Mary at his feet. In fact, he doesn’t scold Martha at all. When Jesus responds to her complaint, he states the obvious - she was anxious and worried about a lot of things. His only word to her is about the goodness of what Mary is doing. He seems to be saying to Martha that, while her serving is good, Mary is doing something even better.

The better option is listening to Jesus. If we back up just a little farther in Luke’s Gospel, we see the importance of Jesus’ words. After the seventy-two returned from their successful mission, Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21) and then described the gracious will of the Father. God wills that no one knows him “except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him” (Luke 10:22). In listening to Jesus, Mary was getting to know the Father through the Son. Such things the prophets and kings of old longed to see and hear. In the end, the first great commandment must be the starting point for the second great commandment.

But the second flows from the first, which is why Martha should be commended. She welcomed Jesus into her home (Luke 10:38). She followed the example of Jesus as loving service to her neighbor. She got a little cranky at Mary, which is where things started to go slightly awry, but not enough to get her in trouble. Mary’s portion, listening to Jesus, was not better than something bad, but better than something good. And because it is better, it will not be taken away from Mary.

The good news for you is that the better will not be taken away from you, either. As good as it is to labor for our Lord, it isn’t even better to listen to the Lord first. For in the words of Jesus we hear the gracious promises of the Father. These promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation enliven us, transform us, and empower our good works of loving service.

Priorities: Focus on God’s business. Then focus on your busyness.

Study the Bible. Then serve your neighbor.

Worship the Lord. Then work for the Lord.

Come to Jesus’ Table. Then invite others to your table.

Fill up with the one thing needful. Then fill your time with the other necessities.

Let God fulfill his promises to you. Then fulfill your godly vocations in the world.

Priorities: Sit at Jesus’ feet like Mary. Come to worship every week to have a conversation with God. Stand in our Lutheran worship as you talk to God in your confession of sins, your prayers, your songs of praises, and in your confessions of faith. Sit as you listen to God speak to you in his Scripture lessons from the Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, and Gospel. Then have these Scriptures explained and applied to your life in the children’s devotion, hymn of the day, and sermon.

Attend the Sunday morning Bible study. I’m so impressed and excited to have so many of you here early on a Sunday to dig deeply into God’s teachings. I plan to start another weekly Bible study in the fall.

Make use of the devotional materials in the church entryway - Grace Moments, Meditations, and Forward in Christ. Listen to our Thirsty podcasts and other Lutheran podcasts. Read your Bible and have personal and family devotions daily. When I email you the written and recorded sermon this week, I’ll also send along several devotions and podcasts you might find edifying. I’ll also send you a daily Bible reading plan. In these ways you are sitting at the feet of Jesus. Then you are Mary – receiving the forgiveness of sins, strengthening your faith, and being comforted. You are finding rest from your work, and comfort from your anxiousness. You are coming to worship and Bible study where Jesus promises to be where two or three or fifty or sixty are gathered.

There is nothing more needful in this life than the words and promises of Jesus. Nothing! Listen to the Lord. Surrender to his voice. Find peace in his presence. Through Jesus’ Word and Sacraments – here in God’s house and in your house, the Lord change our hearts. He rebukes so we repent. He warns so we slow down. He chastises so we cherish the rest we find only in him.

Learn a lesson from Mary. But also learn a lesson from Martha. After you have listened to the Lord, then labor for the Lord. One of the reasons I accepted your call was when talking to you and the pastors who were serving you during the vacancy, I learned you were ready to get to work. We’ll have open forums soon to talk about some of that work like outreach, fellowship, and worship.

After worship today, some of us will be meeting to discuss outreach to the students at Casper College. I would love to invite them to fellowship events at Lord of Lords. All of us will be talking together soon about some things we might want to do to enjoy each other’s company. I’d love to hear your ideas. We’ll think of things that might appeal to children, teens, college students and young adults, as well as more seasoned adults. Perhaps showing a Wyoming football game or showing the Packers beating the Vikings. Perhaps an outdoor worship service or a picnic at the park. Perhaps an egg hunt or Bingo – everyone loves Bingo!

Whatever we decide to do, we’ll have fun laboring together for our Lord. That labor follows the fun of listening to our Lord. Because those are our priorities. Amen.

The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:11, 12).