The Noble Distraction and The Neglected Priority
Luke 10:38-42
38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
In my freshman year attending Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, CA, I was in English class, and I remember the teacher pulling out a mason jar. He filled it entirely with large rocks, then he asked if it was full, and we all said yes. Then he poured in medium-sized pebbles, and these pebbles found their way into the areas between the rocks, again, he asked if it was full, and we all said yes. Finally, he poured in sand, and he shook a little into the crevices: he asked again if it was full, and we said yes. After that, he had another mason jar, and he tried to reverse the process. First, he poured in the sand, which filled the bottom layer of the jar, then the pebbles, which covered about 3/4 of the jar, finally, the large rocks, which could no longer fit. I have no idea what that had to do with English, but the point was we needed a correct order of priorities. We needed to focus first on what mattered most: the large rocks of life.
This has everything to do with the Christian life because Augustine rightly explained that the essence of sin is disordered love. This issue is not necessarily the objects of love but how you prioritize those objects. Having a love for your career and passion for your work isn’t wrong. But if you poured the pebbles of career before the large rocks of family, you have a disordered love. You’ll sacrifice your family for the success of your career. The question, then, is: what should be the large rocks in the Christian life? And here in Luke, we see two good things but a prioritization of one over the other. We see at least one of the large rocks of the Christian life; one thing that is necessary.
THE NOBLE DISTRACTION
First, notice that Martha was “distracted” in v. 40. The verb “distracted” literally means pulled or dragged away. There was a center of gravity that she was drawn to, but something more important dragged her away. So, what was that center she was pulled away from? Luke tells us in v. 39. She was pulled away from joining her sister Mary, who was doing two things. First, Mary “was seated at the Lord’s feet.” This was the exact phrase Paul used to describe his formal education in Acts 22:3: “I [was] educated at the feet of Gamaliel.” Meaning, this posture was one of receptive eagerness to learn, a humble submission to the teacher’s authority. Second, Mary was “listening to His word.” She was intently focused on the teaching of Jesus Christ. We don’t ever hear Mary interrupting. In fact, there’s not a single word from Mary in this entire narrative. Martha, then, was distracted from being with Christ and listening to his words in a humble and receptive posture
And in v. 42, Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the good part.” Jesus is saying, Mary is not wrong for sitting at my feet and listening to me. In fact, this is actually good. And by “part” (or “portion” in other translations), Jesus means a meal. Rather than serving and preparing a meal for me, Mary has chosen a better meal. As Jesus said in John 6:27, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” Physical food is temporary, but the food that Jesus gives will not perish. His meal or portion endures to eternal life. Similarly in v. 42, this good part “will not be taken away from her.” Mary chose a meal that will endure forever and will never be taken away from her. So then, more important than serving Jesus food that only sustains the body temporarily is letting Jesus serve you life-giving, eternal food by sitting at his feet and listening.
So then, what was Martha distracted by? Was she distracted watching the Jerusalem Cubs at home against the Samaritan Sox? Was she plotting to sell off Jesus to the Pharisees? What spectacle or sinister evil could drag her away from listening to Christ’s words? V. 40 reads Martha was distracted with... “all her preparations.” The noun here is διακονία, where we get the term deacon, it means literally, service. The NKJV and ESV translate it, “she was distracted with much serving.” This aligns to v. 40 where Martha complains, “My sister has left me to do all the serving alone.” So her preparations meant she was distracted with serving.
But wait a minute, isn’t this a good thing? Jesus, isn’t this what you want us to do? Luke 22:26, “The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant?” Didn’t you just tell a parable about the Good Samaritan, in Ch. 10, who served his neighbor? Who showed the beaten man hospitality? Didn’t you just say, right before this passage in v. 37, “You go, and do likewise?” And more than that, who was Martha trying to serve? She’s not trying to serve herself.
She was serving none other than you Jesus! Isn’t that what you want?
THE NEGLECTED PRIORITY
Yes... but the problem isn’t the fact that she’s serving. Jesus is not setting up a dichotomy, an either/or. Either choose a life of service or a life of contemplation, as if being monks and nuns on an isolated mountaintop is the superior life. The problem was not her service. Serving is good, and without it, you are not really living out the Christian life. The problem was the fact that her service came at the expense of something greater. Tt is not a question of either/or, but of what’s first and second. Jesus is concerned with establishing the right priorities, that even above this well-intentioned service to him, she is missing one thing, “one thing that is necessary.” And that one thing is sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to Jesus’ words. It’s fellowshipping and communing with our Lord.
Before serving, you must sit. Before labor, you must listen. Before focusing on the work, you must focus on the Word. Nothing is more important than humbly communing with Christ in his word, in corporate worship and in private devotion. Why? Because even above serving God, nothing is more important than knowing God. As J. I. Packer once wrote in his book Knowing God, “What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the ‘eternal life’ that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God.” Indeed, this is what Jesus says in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God.”
And without the priority of sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to his teaching, our service is actually spoiled, isn’t it? Our work becomes one of self-pitied service to God. Notice how often Martha refers to herself in v. 40, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” When we get burnt out with service, when we feel overworked and annoyed at others for not doing enough, when we ask the Lord, “Do you not care?”—could it be because we have disordered our priorities? Could it be that we no longer simply sit at the Lord’s feet and listen? Could it be we no longer have sweet fellowship with the risen Lord?
The main priority in our lives is not firstly service to Christ but deepening our personal knowledge and fellowship with Christ through his word. And, then—not out of a self-righteous heart seeking a good standing with God, not out of an emptiness that tries to impress others with how sacrificial you are, not out of a savior complex that thinks apart from you, nothing will get done—but out of the overflow of our love for Christ, because we have been with him, we’ve communed with him, out of this deep personal knowledge of Christ, then... let us serve.