Sixth Sunday after
Pentecost (Proper 11C)
July 17, 2022
Text: Luke 10:38-42
There
are the many things, and there is the one thing. Martha is anxious and troubled about the many
things. But the one thing is
necessary. “One thing’s needful; Lord,
this treasure Teach me highly to regard” (LSB 536:1). That one thing is the Word of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.
This
is not to say that the many things are unimportant, or bad. They can be bad, of course. But they can also be good. The many things can be anything. There is no end to the many things. In the case of Martha, the many things with
which she is concerned are, in fact, very good.
After all, she is the hostess, and she is concerned with showing hospitality. She has received Jesus into her home, and
that is already a more profound statement than simply that she let Him through
the front door. She has received Him,
welcomed Him, and that is to say, she has faith. And now she wants to serve Him. She is preparing a meal. She is seeing to His every comfort. Someone has to do these things, and Martha
does them precisely because she loves her Lord and believes in Him. Jesus is not chiding Martha for her
serving. Serving is not sinful. Serving is good. And it is a mark of faith. It is faith’s fruit.
But
He is calling her away from three things in particular: 1. Distraction. Martha is distracted by her much serving. She loses focus on the one thing needful. 2. Anxiety.
Because Martha has made her service the most important thing, in fact,
the one thing, as far as she is concerned, cramming the many things into one,
and because she believes her serving depends entirely upon her, she is anxious
and troubled. And 3. Resentment. Here Martha is, anxious, and troubling
herself about these many things, and where is her sister? Sitting on her keister in the living
room! “Lord, don’t You care that I’m
doing all the work while Mary relaxes with you men? Don’t you want to enjoy this delicious meal
I’ve prepared? Well, it’ll get to the
table faster if Mary would get up off her duff!
Tell her to help me!”
“Martha,
Martha…” (Luke 10:41; ESV). Jesus is
calling her away from all of that. Not
from serving. That is not the
issue. But from distraction, from
anxiety and trouble, and from resentment.
And He is calling you away from all of that, too. I mean, we can really sympathize with Martha,
can’t we? There is so much to be done,
and so little time to do it. So many
things. Bad things, of course. We should repent of those things, and no
longer do them. Sins. Those bad things are sins. Repent.
But also, so many good things.
Family life. Running a household. Jobs.
Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know.
And loving Jesus, we want to do our jobs well, because
loving Jesus means loving our neighbor, and serving our neighbor, as though
serving Jesus Himself. We know
that. We want to be good at what we do. We work all day. We come home at night, exhausted. But there is more to do. The family needs us. Meals to prepare. Cleaning.
Laundry. Helping the kids with
homework, or from another perspective, helping parents understand why their
helping isn’t all that helpful. Projects
piling up. The to-do list is
ever-growing. Never mind time for
play. Never mind time for joy, for
avocation. To be honest, if you want to
have fun, you have to work at that, too.
So many things. They cause so
much anxiety. So much trouble.
And
then there is Church, and we can even begin to resent the Church. You know, if Sunday morning was free, we
could get so much more done. And what if
we just skipped devotions tonight? We’re
all tired, and we could use the extra few minutes to watch Netflix or check
Facebook. But I guess Church and God’s
Word are also on the old check-list.
Another thing to do. Better do
them. And, speaking of Church, I have so
many responsibilities there. Why did I
join that committee, anyway? Why did I
volunteer to help with all these activities?
And why can’t someone else help out for once?! Look at them there, sitting on their
keisters! Don’t they care? Doesn’t the Lord care that all of this
depends on me? “Lord… or, at least,
Pastor… tell them to help me!”
Jesus
is calling you away from all of that.
Oh, not the serving. The
distraction. The anxiety and
trouble. And the resentment. He is calling you away from all of
that, and to something else. The
one thing. The only thing needful. Sabbath.
Rest at His feet. Ears open to
His Word. Comforted by Him. Cared for by Him. Feasting at the Table He has set. The many things can wait. Here is the one thing, the good portion, and
it shall not be taken away from you.
Mary
sits at the feet of Jesus, those beautiful feet that would be pierced for her
redemption, and yours, and for the redemption of the whole world, and she hangs
on every Word that proceeds from the incarnate mouth of God. This is a Third Commandment thing, isn’t
it? Mary is remembering the Sabbath,
which is not just a day, but a Person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it is concerned with His
Word… the Word of His salvation. “We
should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but
hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”[1]
The
Third Commandment is a Commandment, or in other words, Law. You should go to Church. You should read the Bible. But behind the Third Commandment is a gift,
and it is actually justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ
alone, apart from works, delivered to us by God in His means of grace, the Word
and the Sacraments. In other words, the
Gospel. The Commandment keeps the one
thing the one thing, and doesn’t allow the many things to
creep in and take the one thing’s place.
See, we are not justified by our doing, by our much serving,
by our family life, or job, or even responsibilities at Church. We are justified by Christ’s speaking our
sins forgiven, and by His speaking His righteousness our own, His
life, death, and resurrection as our new reality. He speaks us from death to life, from
distraction, anxiety, and resentment, to eager hearers of His gracious Words,
who believe those words, rest in those words, and so live in them. The Sabbath is all about resting in Jesus,
resting from the endless torment of self-justification, or measuring up, or
getting it all just right… resting in the atonement and justification that are
given as a free gift, by grace, in Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen
Lord. When Mary is sitting at our Lord’s
feet, she is resting in that. The
one thing needful. The good
portion that shall not be taken away from her.
And
when that one thing is in its proper place, all the many things
fall into their proper places. There is
still serving to do. Of course there is. Our families, our employers and patrons, our
communities, and our fellow saints at Church, need our service. And I’ll bet, by the way, when the sermon was
over, Mary got up and got to work, helping Martha to serve the meal. Because, receiving from Jesus, she was now
enabled to give. And faith is always
active in love. We are saved by faith
alone, it is true. But faith is never
alone. It always overflows in love,
which is, concretely, the doing of good works.
And this doesn’t come from you.
It is the love of Christ Himself flowing through you, doing the things
your neighbor needs you to do. So you
see, it doesn’t depend on you. It
depends on Christ, who is in you, even as you are in Him. The one thing is what gives meaning
and worth to the many things. And
it is the one thing from which the doing of the many things is
now sanctified, so that these many things flow forth and accomplish what the
Lord desires.
You
are here this morning, not because Church is one more thing of the many
things to check off of your to-do list, one more responsibility to
fulfill. If you think of it that
way, it will only make you anxious and troubled, and give birth to
resentment. The devil wants to distract
you with that type of thinking. But
Jesus calls you away from that thinking.
You are not here out of a moralistic duty. You are here to sit at Jesus’ feet and receive
all the gifts that flow forth out of Him.
You are here for the forgiveness of sins. You are here for His life and Spirit to envelop
you and take possession of you. You are
here to rest! And that is why
then, after sitting at the feet of Jesus, like Mary, you can arise and serve
with Martha. For then it is God
working in you to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). Receiving the one thing, the many
things come from the right place, and you see now that it is all His work. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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