Saturday, August 9, 2008

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The Key to Life

"You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed" (Luke 10:41-42).

At one point in their ministry, Jesus and his disciples were passing through the town of Bethany and a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She also had a sister named Mary and a brother named Lazarus although he isn't mentioned in this particular story.  We are told that Mary simply, "sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said" (Luke 10:39).  Martha on the other hand, "was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made" (Luke 10:40), and came to Jesus after working on her own for a while and asked him to encourage her sister not to leave her to do all the work alone.  I guess she thought that Mary might listen to Jesus if he told her to help out.

I don't want to rag on Martha too much for she is a wonderful person.  She has the gift of hospitality and she is using it to the best of her ability.  She did after all invite Jesus and his disciples in — she literally "opened her home" to them for whatever they might need.  We need more people in the world who are willing to do that.  And at the same time, she missed it.

There are several things that we can learn from Martha.  First, and I have no way of knowing for sure that this was an issue since it is not recorded that she asked, we need to find out what people need before we try to care for them.  Did Martha do what so many of us do and just assume we know what people need?  Jesus obviously wanted to teach.  Was the meal and everything else important at that moment?  Maybe they could have all worked on it together later.  Second, when Jesus is teaching, Martha is trying to listen but, we are told, she was "distracted by all the preparations."  Multi-tasking is good if you can do it, but when we are trying to learn things from the Lord, we are probably much better off if we focus on him.  Don't try and go deep with God and do other things at the same time.  It simply does not work.  Third, Martha is all about preparations and I think that it is entirely possible that we can spend lots of our time and energy preparing rather than actually doing.  Do you ever get the feeling that you spend a lot of time getting ready and very little time "getting"?  And finally, Jesus comments on the fact that she is "worried and upset about many things."  Probably most of us just have too many things on our plates at once.  And while it maybe true that some of those many things are inescapable, can we lay some of them down?  If we just took the time that we should each day to focus on Jesus, even if we might have just as many things on the go, we wouldn't need to be worried and upset about them.

About Mary, Jesus says, she "has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:42).  There are lots of things that we can do, but only one thing is needed.  It is the one thing that will truly transform anything else that we do.  We need to listen to Jesus and listen to the Spirit of God before we do anything.  That is the place that we will find out what we actually need to do and how best to go about doing it.  Jesus said that he did only what he saw the Father doing (John 5:19).  If we want to follow him and be obedient, we must first do as Jesus did and spend time with the Father to find out what it is that he is doing.  We must do like Mary did here and "sit at the Lord's feet listening to what he is saying."

In the 1991 movie "City Slickers" the character, mid-life plagued Mitch Robbins played by Billy Crystal, is on a cattle drive vacation to find renewal and purpose.  At the crucial point in the movie, the rugged cowboy, Curly Washburn played by Jack Palance, asks him if he knows the meaning to life.  "No," Mitch says, "what is it?"  "One thing," says Curly.  "What's that?" asks Mitch.  "The key to life is one thing," Curly says again.  It all comes down to focus and if we are to find our way in this world, we need to have something that centers and grounds everything else.

Jesus had said that 2000 years earlier.  We all need a key to life.  It is one thing.  And we find it in a real and living relationship with God and with his son, Jesus.  Jesus wants to teach all of us how to really live — it is why he came (John 10:10).  He said that he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) and when we get to really know him, "Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).  Free to really live.  Free to embrace and do all the things that are a part of life.  Free to live a life that is better than we ever imagined it could be.

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