Tuesday, March 17th

Jesus redefines greatness through humility and shows us that at the cross. Serving pushes against pride. But I think serving can be sneaky and should push against those of us who are over responsible. Because there are some of you thinking, I’m already serving people a ton. I hardly have time to take care of myself and now I feel guilty that I’m not doing enough.

Hold that thought. Let’s look at Luke 10:38-42- Before we read it. Notice the story just before this passage?

Good Samaritan. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Luke put it here. Because in all actuality Luke uses a transition statement at the start of vs. 38 that wasn’t about travel proximity. I believe he used it to bridge from one thought/challenge to another.
What’s the purpose of the Good Samaritan story?

“Don’t be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.” Remember, there was a man who was injured, lying half dead on the road and two religious leaders walked past because they didn’t have the time or they didn’t want to be ceremonially unclean. There was only one, in humility that chose to serve the man beaten, the Good Samaritan. Jesus elevates what it means to serve at the expense of time and religious expectation.

Then Luke shares this interaction. The only place it is found in scripture.

Luke 10:38-42- 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

This passage has always kicked my butt, in part because we’ve had ministry folks in the past that would call me Martha. I was always buzzing around, doing, doing, doing. I would tease that I’m recovering from being over-responsible.

But I think there is more to this passage. I don’t think Jesus is just calling out Martha’s busyness. I think he is calling out the posture of her heart.

Martha is really worked up. We don’t know if it is because of her dinner guest, if she has this compulsion to have everything just right, in its place, the perfect meal. To the point that her identity is wrapped up in what she can do for others?

We don’t know if she is taking the customary role of a woman and is actually irritated that Mary isn’t where she belongs, in the kitchen helping. Which sidebar. This is another reason this passage is so revolutionary. Women were not allowed to sit at the feet a teacher, much less a great teacher, one who was to be Son of God. Jesus is redefining cultural norms.

Which I think is another reason why Jesus is correcting Martha, redefining cultural and positional norms.

Back to the irritation that Martha had. What does Jesus speak to? In gentleness, he says, “Martha, Martha, you are unsettled about much, you are worried about much.” It wasn’t that she was serving, it was that her heart was out of alignment, her identity was about other things and Mary was aligning her heart, by sitting with Jesus, seeking his identity for her.
How many times is your “serving” others done out of a frustration, a sense of busyness, maybe out of your over-responsibleness and if you are honest, your serving isn’t coming from a good heart posture. It is actually coming from a place of religion, if I do these things then I will a “good Christian.” Our serving or scurrying around could be coming from a misplaced identity, that my value, my worth is in what I do and how I help.

I came across this article in my studying, and it hit me between the eyes and I think it is a wake-up call for many in the church today. Teresa McBean, director of the National Association for Christian Recovery (NACR), calls codependency "overfunctioning, the seemingly inevitable response of other family members picking up the slack when members are underfunctioning." She acknowledges that codependency can seem like good Christian behavior, but she asks, "Where is our capacity for discernment, if we don't have spiritual practices, boundaries, rest, time for spiritual seeking? It is in this way that God fills us, so that we can actually be helpful, rather than merely do what we think is helpful, or someone else tells us they need." Being truly helpful requires inner strength and care for ourselves and is often counterintuitive. It requires boundaries and a strong sense of what is our work and what is really God's work.

That’s why I believe Jesus was celebrating Mary. She was taking the time to be with Jesus, which I would argue, fueled Mary to do things for Jesus. This isn’t just about sitting at the feet of Jesus and not doing anything. It is about being at the feet of Jesus to fuel what you do for others.

According to Jesus, serving redefines our posture, under Christ for others. Jesus is saying I want your serving to be from a heart posture that is aligned with me first and then for others.

Or let me put it this way. When we are more consumed with the “how” of serving over the “why” of serving it distorts our faith journey and turns it into religious elitism versus disciple of Jesus, people of love. When the how > then the why, we miss what Jesus intended. Like the two religious leaders and Martha, we are so heavenly minded we are no earthly good. It’s taking the time to come under Jesus, and allow our heart posture to molded and challenged by Jesus, so that we are serving from his posture, versus scurrying around in codependent, over responsible, misplaced identity ways and calling it serving.

There are some of you today that really need to wrestle with this passage and the position of your heart when it comes to serving. I think, myself included, that need the heart check of why I do what I do? Not just how do I. Wrestle with God around your posture, spend some time with him and see how he needs to fuel you before you run out of gas with others.