There’s Martha – the doer – tending to the Lord, wanting to make this a special visit for him. This was, no doubt, a big moment for her; and everything needed to be perfect! And yet, Luke tells us that her service for Jesus was actually a distraction from Jesus. One popular Greek lexicon defines this word, distraction: to be pulled or dragged away or to have one’s attention directed from one thing to another, to be distracted, quite busy, overburdened. 

I’ve always been intrigued by the scene in Luke’s Gospel where Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, while Martha busied herself serving him. Martha showed Jesus hospitality, and welcomed him into her home. She focused on serving the Lord, even to the point of frustration because her sister wasn’t busying herself as Martha had been. But the story reveals to us that there’s a busyness for Jesus that Jesus himself objects to. The text tells us that,

Mary… sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone. Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’ (Lk. 10:39-42)

Can you believe that? There’s Martha – the doer – tending to the Lord, wanting to make this a special visit for him. This was, no doubt, a big moment for her; and everything needed to be perfect! And yet, Luke tells us that her service for Jesus was actually a distraction from Jesus. One popular Greek lexicon defines this word, distraction: to be pulled or dragged away or to have one’s attention directed from one thing to another, to be distracted, quite busy, overburdened(BDAG). Burdened with the heavy lifting, Martha begins to wonder whether or not Jesus is at all concerned with her sister’s lack of assistance. After all, she’s just sitting there! Jesus’ gentle response to Martha comes as somewhat of a shock. He recognized that Martha had a lot on her plate. He was intimately aware of her anxieties, but he knew that her focus was misdirected. What the troubled Martha needed wasn’t to keep busying herself for Jesus, but to sit and spend time receiving from Jesus.

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