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As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
Luke 10:38-41 sits inside this longer paragraph.
As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”
Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
It fortuned as they wet that he entred in to a certayne toune. And a certayne woman named Martha receaved him into her housse.
And this woman had a sister called Mary which sate at Iesus fete and hearde his preachinge.
And Martha was combred about moche servinge and stode and sayde: Master doest thou not care that my sister hath leeft me to minister alone? Byd her therfore that she helpe me.
And Iesus answered and sayde vnto her: Martha Martha thou carest and arte troubled about many thinges:
Nowe it came to passe, as they went, that he entred into a certaine towne, and a certaine woman named Martha, receiued him into her house.
And she had a sister called Marie, which also sate at Iesus feete, and heard his preaching.
But Martha was combred about much seruing, and came to him, and saide, Master, doest thou not care that my sister hath left me to serue alone? bid her therefore, that she helpe me.
And Iesus answered, and said vnto her, Martha, Martha, thou carest, and art troubled about many things:
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v38 Christ careth not to be entertained delicately, but to…
Christ careth not to be entertained delicately, but to be heard diligently, that is it which he especially requireth.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv38–41 38 Now it came to pass, as they went,…
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
Ver. 38. A certain village] viz. Bethany, Joh 11:1. {See Trapp on "Joh 11:1"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv38, 40, 41 Interpreters think this village was Bethany, and that this…
Interpreters think this village was Bethany, and that this Martha and Mary were the same which are mentioned Joh 11:2. Inns probably were not so frequent then, and in those places, as they are now, so as strangers were often received in private houses. Christ loseth no opportunity of preaching the gospel; while they were preparing supper, he was entertaining the family with the glad tidings of the gospel, the feast of fat things made upon the mountain, Isa 25:6. The lips of the righteous feed many, Pro 10:21. It was their fashion to have disciples sit at their doctors’ feet, to hear their word; there Mary fixes herself.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv38–41 Observe here,
Observe here,
1. The great work and business of our Saviour’s life: it was to go about preaching he gospel.
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2. The nature of the place which Christ at this time preached in: it was a poor village; Bethany, as some think. Christ did not only take care of populous cities, and great towns, but private villages and obscure places enjoyed also the blessing of his ministry.
Our Saviour’s example herein is instructive to his ministers, not to affect great auditories, and to preach only in populous cities, but to scatter the seed of the word in country villages, where are like precious souls to be taken care of, and provided for; as Christ was sent himself, so he sends his ministers to preach the gospel to the poor.
Observe 3. The party that entertained him in the village: Martha received him into her house. Martha is named, because she was probably the owner of the house. Though Christ had not a house of his own, yet he had as many as he pleased at his command; for wherever he had an heart he was sure to have an house: Martha received him into her house.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v38 We may observe in this story,
We may observe in this story,
I. The entertainment which Martha gave to Christ and his disciples at her house, Luk 10:38. Observe,
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1. Christ's coming to the village where Martha lived: As they went (Christ and his disciples together), he and they with him entered into a certain village. This village was Bethany, nigh to Jerusalem, whither Christ was now going up, and he took this in his way. Note (1.) Our Lord Jesus went about doing good (Act 10:38), scattering his benign beams and influences as the true light of the world. (2.) Wherever Christ went his disciples went along with him. (3.) Christ honoured the country-villages with his presence and favour, and not the great and populous cities only; for, as he chose privacy, so he countenanced poverty.
2. His reception at Martha's house: A certain woman, named Martha, received him into her house, and made him welcome, for she was the housekeeper. Note, (1.) Our Lord Jesus, when he was here upon earth, was so poor that he was necessitated to be beholden to his friends for a subsistence. Though he was Zion's King, he had no house of his own either in Jerusalem or near it. (2.) There were some who were Christ's particular friends, whom he loved more than his other friends, and them he visited most frequently. He loved this family (Joh 11:5), and often invited himself to them. Christ's visits are the tokens of his love, Joh 14:23. (3.) There were those who kindly received Christ into their houses when he was here upon earth. It is called Martha's house, for, probably, she was a widow, and was the housekeeper. Though it was expensive to entertain Christ for he did not come alone, but brought his disciples with him, yet she would not regard the cost of it. (How can we spend what we have better than in Christ's service!) Nay, though at this time it was grown dangerous to entertain him especially so near Jerusalem, yet she cared not what hazard she ran for his name's sake. Though there were many that rejected him, and would not entertain him, yet there was one that would bid him welcome. Though Christ is every where spoken against, yet there is a remnant to whom he is dear, and who are dear to him.
II. The attendance which Mary, the sister of Martha, gave upon the word of Christ, Luk 10:20. 1. She heard his word. It seems, our Lord Jesus, as soon as he came into Martha's house, even before entertainment was made for him, addressed himself to his great work of preaching the gospel. He presently took the chair with solemnity; for Mary sat to hear him, which intimates that it was a continued discourse. Note, A good sermon is never the worse for being preached in a house; and the visits of our friends should be so managed as to make them turn to a spiritual advantage. Mary, having this price put into her hands, sat herself to improve it, not knowing when she should have such another. Since Christ is forward to speak, we should be swift to hear. 2. She sat to hear, which denotes a close attention. Her mind was composed, and she resolved to abide by it: not to catch a word now and then, but to receive all that Christ delivered. She sat at his feet, as scholars at the feet of their tutors when they read their lectures; hence Paul is said to be brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. Our sitting at Christ's feet, when we hear his word, signifies a readiness to receive it, and a submission and entire resignation of ourselves to the guidance of it. We must either sit at Christ's feet or be made his footstool; but, if we sit with him at his feet now, we shall sit with him on his throne shortly.
III. The care of Martha about her domestic affairs: But Martha was cumbered about much serving (Luk 10:40), and that was the reason why she was not where Mary was - sitting at Christ's feet, to hear his word. She was providing for the entertainment of Christ and those that came with him. Perhaps she had no notice before of his coming, and she was unprovided, but was in care to have every thing handsome upon this occasion; she had not such guests every day. Housekeepers know what care and bustle there must be when a great entertainment is to be made. Observe here,
1. Something commendable, which must not be overlooked. (1.) Here was a commendable respect to our Lord Jesus; for we have reason to think it was not for ostentation, but purely to testify her good-will to him, that she made this entertainment. Note, Those who truly love Christ will think that well bestowed that is laid out for his honour. (2.) Here was a commendable care of her household affairs. It appears, from the respect shown to this family among the Jews (Joh 11:19), that they were persons of some quality and distinction; and yet Martha herself did not think it a disparagement to her to lay her hand even to the service of the family, when there was occasion for it. Note, It is the duty of those who have the charge of families to look well to the ways of their household. The affectation of state and the love of ease make many families neglected.
2. Here was something culpable, which we must take notice of too. (1.) She was for much serving. Her heart was upon it, to have a very sumptuous and splendid entertainment; great plenty, great variety, and great exactness, according to the fashion of the place. She was in care, peri pollēn diakonian - concerning much attendance. Note, It does not become the disciples of Christ to affect much serving, to affect varieties, dainties, and superfluities in eating and drinking; what need is there of much serving, when much less will serve? (2.) She was cumbered about it; periespato - she was just distracted with it. Note, Whatever cares the providence of God casts upon us we must not be cumbered with them, nor be disquieted and perplexed by them. Care is good and duty; but cumber is sin and folly. (2.) She was then cumbered about much serving when she should have been with her sister, sitting at Christ's feet to hear his word. Note, Worldly business is then a snare to us when it hinders us from serving God and getting good to our souls.
IV. The complaint which Martha made to Christ against her sister Mary, for not assisting her, upon this occasion, in the business of the house (Luk 10:40): "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister, who is concerned as well as I in having things done well, has left me to serve alone? Therefore dismiss her from attending thee, and bid her come and help me." Now,
1. This complaint of Martha's may be considered as a discovery of her worldliness: it was the language of her inordinate care and cumber. She speaks as one in a mighty passion with her sister, else she would not have troubled Christ with the matter. Note, The inordinacy of worldly cares and pursuits is often the occasion of disturbance in families and of strife and contention among relations. Moreover, those that are eager upon the world themselves are apt to blame and censure those that are not so too; and while they justify themselves in their worldliness, and judge of others by their serviceableness to them in their worldly pursuits, they are ready to condemn those that addict themselves to the exercises of religion, as if they neglected the main chance, as they call it. Martha, being angry at her sister, appealed to Christ, and would have him say that she did well to be angry. Lord, doest not thou care that my sister has let me to serve alone? It should seem as if Christ had sometimes expressed himself tenderly concerned for her, and her ease and comfort, and would not have her go through so much toil and trouble, and she expected that he should now bid her sister take her share in it. When Martha was caring, she must have Mary, and Christ and all, to care too, or else she is not pleased. Note, Those are not always in the right that are most forward to appeal to God; we must therefore take heed, lest at any time we expect that Christ should espouse our unjust and groundless quarrels. The cares which he cast upon us we may cheerfully cast upon him, but not those which we foolishly draw upon ourselves. He will be the patron of the poor and injured, but not of the turbulent and injurious.
2. It may be considered as a discouragement of Mary's piety and devotion. Her sister should have commended her for it, should have told her that she was in the right; but, instead of this, she condemns her as wanting in her duty. Note, It is no strange thing for those that are zealous in religion to meet with hindrances and discouragements from those that are about them; not only with opposition from enemies, but with blame and censure from their friends. David's fasting, and his dancing before the ark, were turned to his reproach.
V. The reproof which Christ gave to Martha for her inordinate care, Luk 10:41. She appealed to him, and he gives judgment against her: Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, whereas but one thing is needful.
1. He reproved her, though he was at this time her guest. Her fault was her over-solicitude to entertain him, and she expected he should justify her in it, yet he publicly checked her for it. Note, As many as Christ loves he rebukes and chastens. Even those that are dear to Christ, if any thing be amiss in them, shall be sure to hear of it. Nevertheless I have something against thee.
2. When he reproved her, he called her by her name, Martha; for reproofs are then most likely to do good when they are particular, applied to particular persons and cases, as Nathan's to David, Thou art the man. He repeated her name, Martha, Martha; he speaks as one in earnest, and deeply concerned for her welfare. Those that are entangled in the cares of this life are not easily disentangled. To them we must call again and again, O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
3. That which he reproved her for was her being careful and troubled about many things. He was not pleased that she should think to please him with a rich and splendid entertainment, and with perplexing herself to prepare it for him; whereas he would teach us, as not to be sensual in using such things, so not to be selfish in being willing that others should be troubled, no matter who or how many, so we may be gratified. Christ reproves her, both for the intenseness of her care ("Thou art careful and troubled, divided and disturbed by thy care"), and for the extensiveness of it, "about many things; thou dost grasp at many enjoyments, and so art troubled at many disappointments. Poor Martha, thou hast many things to fret at, and this puts thee out of humour, whereas less ado would serve." Note, Inordinate care or trouble about many things in this world is a common fault among Christ's disciples; it is very displeasing to Christ, and that for which they often come under the rebukes of Providence. If they fret for no just cause, it is just with him to order them something to fret at.
4. That which aggravated the sin and folly of her care was that but one thing is needful. It is a low construction which some put upon this, that, whereas Martha was in care to provide many dishes of meat, there was occasion but for one, one would be enough. There is need but of one thing - henos de esti chreia. If we take it so, it furnishes us with a rule of temperance, not to affect varieties and dainties, but to be content to sit down to one dish of meat, to half on one, Pro 23:1-3. It is a forced construction which some of the ancients put upon it: But oneness is needful, in opposition to distractions. There is need of one heart to attend upon the word, not divided and hurried to and fro, as Martha's was at this time. The one thing needful is certainly meant of that which Mary made her choice - sitting at Christ's feet, to hear his word. She was troubled about many things, when she should have applied herself to one; godliness unites the heart, which the world had divided. The many things she was troubled about were needless, while the one thing she neglected was needful. Martha's care and work were good in their proper season and place; but now she had something else to do, which was unspeakably more needful, and therefore should be done first, and most minded. She expected Christ to have blamed Mary for not doing as she did, but he blamed her for not doing as Mary did; and we are sure the judgment of Christ is according to truth. The day will come when Martha will wish she had set where Mary did.
VI. Christ's approbation and commendation of Mary for her serious piety: Mary hath chosen the good part. Mary said nothing in her own defence; but, since Martha has appealed to the Master, to him she is willing to refer it, and will abide by his award; and here we have it.
1. She had justly given the preference to that which best deserved it; for one thing is needful, this one thing that she has done, to give up herself to the guidance of Christ, and receive the law from his mouth. Note, Serious godliness is a needful thing, it is the one thing needful; for nothing without this will do us any real good in this world, and nothing but this will go with us into another world.
2. She had herein wisely done well for herself. Christ justified Mary against her sister's clamours. However we may be censured and condemned by men for our piety and zeal, our Lord Jesus will take our part: But thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. Let us not then condemn the pious zeal of any, lest we set Christ against us; and let us never be discouraged if we be censured for our pious zeal, for we have Christ for us. Note, Sooner or later, Mary's choice will be justified, and all those who make that choice, and abide by it. But this was not all; he applauded her for her wisdom: She hath chosen the good part; for she chose to be with Christ, to take her part with him; she chose the better business, and the better happiness, and took a better way of honouring Christ and of pleasing him, by receiving his word into her heart, than Martha did by providing for his entertainment in her house. Note, (1.) A part with Christ is a good part; it is a part for the soul and eternity, the part Christ gives to his favourites (Joh 13:8), who are partakers of Christ (Heb 3:14), and partakers with Christ, Rom 8:17. (2.) It is a part that shall never be taken away from those that have it. A portion in this life will certainly be taken away from us, at the furthest, when we shall be taken away from it; but nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ, and our part in that love. Men and devils cannot take it away from us, and God and Christ will not. (3.) It is the wisdom and duty of every one of us to choose this good part, to choose the service of God for our business, and the favour of God for our happiness, and an interest in Christ, in order to both. In particular cases we must choose that which has a tendency to religion, and reckon that best for us that is best for our souls. Mary was at her choice whether she would partake with Martha in her care, and get the reputation of a fine housekeeper, or sit at the feet of Christ and approve herself a zealous disciple; and, by her choice in this particular, Christ judges of her general choice. (4.) Those who choose this good part shall not only have what they choose, but shall have their choice commended in the great day.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv38–41 And she had a sister called Mary,.... Which also…
And she had a sister called Mary,.... Which also was a common name with the Jews, and is the same with Miriam; so we read of Mary, the daughter of Nicodemon, the same perhaps with Nicodemus; and the same person that is before called Martha, the daughter of Baithus, is sometimes called Mary, the daughter of Baithus (e), though these two names are certainly distinct:
which also sat at Jesus' feet; was a disciple of his, as well as Martha; for it was usual for disciples, or the scholars of the wise men, to sit at the feet of their masters, to which the allusion is in Deu 33:3; see Gill on Act 22:3 The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Coptic versions, read "at the Lord's feet": so Beza's ancient copy, and one of Stephens's; and the Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic versions read, "at our Lord's feet". The phrase is expressive of her great affection for Christ, her humble deportment, and close attention:
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and heard his word; or discourse; for as soon as he entered into the house, he began to preach to those that were in it, and that came along with him, improving every opportunity for the good of souls; and Mary heard him with great eagerness and diligence, affection, pleasure, and profit.
(e) Echa Rabbati, fol. 49. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv40–41 Martha was encumbered - The Greek word properly signifies…
Martha was encumbered - The Greek word properly signifies to be drawn different ways at the same time, and admirably expresses the situation of a mind, surrounded (as Martha's then was) with so many objects of care, that it hardly knows which to attend to first.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv38–41 Verse 38. A certain village] If this village was…
Verse 38. A certain village] If this village was Bethany, where Martha and Mary lived, at less than two miles' distance from Jerusalem, see Joh 11:1; Joh 11:18; Joh 12:2, then this must have happened later than Luke places it; because, in Lu 19:29, he represents Jesus as having arrived after this at Bethany; and what is said in Lu 13:22, and Lu 17:11, seems to confirm that this visit of Jesus to Martha and Mary ought to be placed later. Bishop PEARCE.
Received him] Kindly received, υπεδεξατο, she received him in a friendly manner, under her roof; and entertained him hospitably. So the word is used in the best Greek writers. Martha is supposed by some to have been a widow, with whom her brother Lazarus and sister Mary lodged.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v38 Luk 10:38-42. It came to pass as they went…
Luk 10:38-42. It came to pass as they went — As they journeyed to Jerusalem, whither it seems he was going to celebrate the feast of dedication: he entered into a certain village — Namely, Bethany, nigh to Jerusalem; and a certain woman named Martha received him — Martha was probably the elder sister, and, Grotius thinks, a widow, with whom her brother and sister lived. At least, she was now the housekeeper, and acted as the mistress of the family. And she had a sister called Mary — Who, with her brother Lazarus, doubtless made Jesus as welcome as Martha did. Who also sat at Jesus’s feet — On this occasion, Martha expressed her regard for her divine guest, by the care she look to provide the best entertainment in her power for him and his disciples; but Mary sat quietly at his feet, attending to his doctrine, for he embraced every opportunity of imparting the knowledge of divine things to such as were willing to receive it. But Martha was cumbered with much serving — The word περιεσπατο, here rendered cumbered, properly signifies to be drawn different ways at the same time, and admirably expresses the situation of a mind surrounded (as Martha’s then was) with so many objects of care, that it hardly knows which to attend to first. And said, Lord, dost thou not care, &c. — The burden of the service lying upon Martha, and she being encumbered with it, blamed Jesus for allowing her sister to sit idly by him, while she was so much hurried. And Jesus said unto her, Martha, Martha — There is a peculiar spirit and tenderness in this repetition of the word; Thou art careful, μεριμνας, anxiously careful, and troubled, τυρβαζη, disturbed, or hurried, about many things. The word is nowhere else used in the New Testament. It seems to express the restless situation of a person in a tumultuous crowd, where so many are pressing upon him that he can hardly stand his ground; — or of water in great agitation. But one thing is needful — Not one dish to eat of, as Theophylact, Basil, and many of the fathers explain the expression; but the care of the soul, or that spiritual wisdom and grace which Mary made it her chief care to seek and labour after. And Mary — Who now employs herself in hearing my doctrine, rather than in providing an entertainment for me, hath chosen a part which I approve of, and which I will not take from her. As if he had said, “There is one thing absolutely necessary, and of infinitely greater importance than any of these domestic and secular affairs: even to be instructed in the saving knowledge of the way that leads to eternal life, and to secure a title to, and meetness for it. And Mary is wisely attending to this; therefore, instead of reproving her, I must rather declare, that she has chosen what may eminently be called the good part, which as it shall not — Finally; be taken away from her — I would not now hinder her from pursuing it; but rather invite thee to join with her in her attention to it, though the circumstances of our intended meal should not be so exactly adjusted as thy fond friendship could desire.”
Observe, reader, Martha’s care, if it had been moderate, and her work, were good, in their proper place and season: but now something more important chiefly demanded her attention, and should have been done first, and most regarded. She expected Christ to have censured Mary for not doing as she did; but he, on the contrary, blamed her for not doing as Mary did; and we are sure that the judgment of Christ is according to truth, and that the day will come when Martha will wish she had sat with Mary at his feet! Mary said nothing in her own defence; but since Martha appealed to the Master, to him she was willing to refer the matter, and to abide by his award. And he justified her against her sister’s clamours. However we may be censured and condemned by men for our piety and zeal, our Lord Jesus will take our part; and, sooner or later, Mary’s choice will be justified, and all who make that choice and abide by it. Happy, therefore, “the man or woman, who, in a pressing variety of secular business, is not so encumbered and careful as to forget that one thing, which is absolutely needful, but resolutely chooses this better part, and retains it as the only secure and everlasting treasure! O that this comprehensive, important sentence, were ever before our eyes! O that it were inscribed deep upon our hearts! One thing is needful: And what is this one thing but present and eternal salvation? What but an humble attention to the voice of the gospel of Christ? Yet, as if this were of all things the most unnecessary, for what poor trifling cares is it not commonly forgot? Yea, to what worthless vanity is it not daily sacrificed? Let the ministers of Christ, let the friends of souls, in every station, exert themselves, that all about them may be awakened duly to regard this great interest, accounting it their meat and drink to promote it. Let them be always solicitous, that neither they, nor others, may neglect it, for the hurries of too busy a life, or even for the services of an over-officious friendship.” — Doddridge.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv38–41 A certain village - Bethany. See Joh 11:1. It…
A certain village - Bethany. See Joh 11:1. It was on the eastern declivity of the Mount of Olives. See the notes at Mat 21:1.
Received him - Received him kindly and hospitably. From this it would seem that “Martha” was properly the mistress of the house. Possibly she was a widow, and her brother Lazarus and younger sister Mary lived with her; and as “she” had the care of the household, this will also show why she was so diligently employed about domestic affairs.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v40 Calvin here ridicules the professors of evangelical poverty, because…
Calvin here ridicules the professors of evangelical poverty, because they gather from this place that there are two states of life, viz. the active and the contemplative, figured by Martha and Mary. But what will he answer, when he is informed, that this is the opinion not merely of monks, but even of a St. Augustine, (Serm. xxvii. De verbis Domini,) of a St. Jerome, (Com. 3 cap. of Jeremiah,) of a St. Gregory, and many others? Not that they were ignorant that there was another more natural explanation; but they were of opinion that nothing could be found more proper for the illustration of these different states of life. (Maldonatus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v38 2. Mary and Martha (Luk_10:38-42)
2. Mary and Martha (Luk_10:38-42)
38Now it came to pass, as they went [were journeying], that he entered into a certain 39village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. 40But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care41that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And [But] Jesus [the Lord14] answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled [or, anxious and perplexed] about many things: 42But one thing is needful;15 and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
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EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_10:38. Now it came to pass.—In view of the indefiniteness of this beginning, there is as little reason for the assertion that this event took place immediately after the discourse with the scribe as for assuming that it did not take place for some time after. Here also it appears plainly enough that Luke does not arrange the event with a strict chronology.
Into a certain village.—If we assume that all related by Luke from Luk_9:51 to Luk_19:27, occurred during one and that the last journey to Jerusalem, then unquestionably there is room for doubt whether the here-named κώμη is Bethany, and we must rather suppose (Meyer) that Luke speaks here of one of the villages of Galilee. But we know not what should hinder us from distributing the historical matter of this narrative of travel between two or three journeys to feasts, so that the present one should be about to end very soon with the feast of Tabernacles, which was near at hand, John 7. And if this is so, we can then very well imagine that the Saviour had now behind Him the boundary between Samaria and Judæa, and had tarried yet a day at Bethany before He went up ὡς ἐν κρυπτῷ to the feast, Joh_7:10. So taken, therefore, Luke transports us on to the same ground which we, guided by John in his 11th chapter, afterwards tread, and it at once appears that the brief portraiture of character in the text is an indirect, psychological, but powerful argument for the truth of the Johannean representation. This proof is by no means weakened by the fact that Luke makes no mention whatever of Lazarus (Strauss), for having in view only the difference between the two sisters, he had not the least occasion to speak of the brother also. It still remains remarkable that Luke describes the character of Martha and Mary wholly in the same manner as John; nor is it at all proved that Lazarus inhabited the same house with his sisters. As to the locality of Bethany itself, comp. Winer in voce.
Into her house.—The care of the entertainment appears to have been assumed by Martha, perhaps the elder of the two sisters, while it is wholly unproved that she was a widow (Grotius), and had been formerly married to Simon the leper (Paulus). That Jesus now appeared for the first time in this family, and that therefore the lovely beginning of the friendship of the Saviour with this domestic circle is portrayed, Luke does not tell us. So active a hostess, so deeply interested a friend, as Martha, would certainly have received Him as joyfully, even if His arrival had no longer had the surprise of novelty. In hearty and affectionate zeal, the best that the house can afford is brought forth in order right worthily to receive the beloved Guest. Martha knows not how to make her entertainment choice enough; she lacks hands for it; she wants to give the meal a thoroughly festal air. Is it a wonder that she took offence at Mary’s inactivity?
Luk_10:39. Mary … at Jesus’ feet.—There is not yet a reference to reclining at table (Paulus and Von Ammon), for the meal is not yet prepared, but a sitting like that of the disciples at the feet of the Master, as Paul afterwards—[Was it not at this very time?—C. C. S.]—sat at the feet of Gamaliel. In Joh_11:20 also, Mary is represented as seated, in contrast with the unquiet, busy Martha.
Luk_10:40. Lord, dost Thou not care.—What is censurable in Martha’s behavior consists especially in this, that she, in a difference with her sister, seeks to win the Saviour as her confederate.—Hath left me to serve alone, κατέ λιπεν.—Perhaps Mary had at the beginning, before the Saviour’s arrival, also assisted in the domestic labors, but soon afterwards had seen that she could now use the precious time more profitably, and therefore left her sister. Martha demands that the Saviour shall send Mary back again to her post, which she has left too early, since she can no longer be spared there.
Luk_10:41. Martha, Martha.—“Jesus’ reply is not to be taken in the earnest tone of preaching, but in the half jest [a hardly appropriate term.—C. C. S.] of friendly humanity.” The double utterance of the name, as also afterwards, “Simon, Simon,” “Saul, Saul,” is, however, meant to express the quiet dissatisfaction of the Saviour, not so much with the act as rather with the disposition and temper of Martha.—About many things.—It is not at all necessary to insert here any word having reference to food or to the meal.
Luk_10:42. But one thing is needful, ἑνὸς δέ ἐστιχρεία.—The explanations of this expression would have been far less divergent if the distinct inquiry had been proposed: Needful—for what? The answer can, according to the connection, only be this: “To receive the Lord aright;” for this was after all the main thing in Martha’s feelings, and even Mary also, little occupied as she appeared, must have been anything but indifferent. But for that, said the Saviour, “Not much,” but “one thing is needful.”—All explanations must be rejected which by the ἑνός will have us understand only one dish, or anything else than that which the Saviour Himself, a moment afterwards, names the good part, κατ̓ ἐξοχήν The ἕν is plainly = ἡ ἀγαθὴ μερίς. And what, according to that, is the one thing that is needful in order rightly to receive the Saviour? The disposition which Mary was manifesting at this moment, the sitting at the feet of Jesus, the receptivity for hearing and laying up the words of eternal life. Where Jesus comes, He comes to give, and where, therefore, there is a receptivity of faith for the spiritual good which He bestows, there is He at the same time received according to His own will, in the best manner. The Saviour does not say that Martha was wholly lacking in this disposition; she also was a disciple and friend; but He gives her to feel that she might incur the danger, amid all the bustle and tumult of life, of losing this temper of mind. In contrast with this stands the prerogative of Mary, whose part shall not be taken away from her. Her sister is not to call it in question, and if she remains of the same mind as now, her good part will also remain for her an imperishable one. “By ἥτις which does not = ἥ, what follows is marked as belonging to the essence of the ἀγαθὴ μερίς, quippe quœ.” Meyer.
One must certainly view this narrative with very singular eyes, if he is disposed, with Schwegler,Nachapost Zeitalter, ii. p. 52, to remark here an emphasized contrast between the Jewish and the Pauline Christianity, which are here, according to him, both presented, and of which, according to this, the latter was praised by Jesus. If the little narrative had been invented with such an intention, then without doubt the censure which Martha has to hear, would have turned out much stronger. For such an arbitrary fancy, we can merely give our opponent a “Duly received.” Tholuck.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is a view as incorrect as superficial to wish to regard Martha as the type of an earthly-minded woman, and Mary as the type of a heavenly-minded disciple of the Saviour. It is, therefore, also amiss to understand by that one thing which is needful, the care for eternal things in an entirely general sense, as if this was to be found in Mary alone, and was wholly neglected by Martha. Both—this must always be first held fast—are friends and disciples of Christ, whose heartfelt pleasure it is to serve Him according to their best ability, only that in relation to the manner how this must be done, each has her own idea. Martha is of the opinion that the Saviour would be best served by a carefully prepared entertainment; Mary, longing for salvation, hears the words of His mouth. With Martha the pleasure of giving Him much is preëminent; Mary feels the necessity of receiving much. With Martha, productivity, with Mary, receptivity, stands in the foreground. Martha is the Peter, Mary the John, among the female disciples of Christ. Both have, therefore, their peculiar calling and special Charisma. In Martha, the fact is not in itself censured that she will approve her love by a carefully prepared entertainment, if she only take care that the higher things also do not take harm by this. What is amiss in her consists rather in this, that she demands that Mary shall become like her, instead of recognizing that her sister in a certain relation is right, nay more, is in the enjoyment of a still higher privilege; for with all her attachment to the Saviour, Martha yet lacks that composed calmness of soul which can alone make her receptive for intimate and abiding communion with Jesus, which hitherto had only become Mary’s inestimable portion.
2. Martha is not the type of earthly-minded friends of the world, but the type of numerous Christians, who work restlessly for the cause of the Saviour and their own salvation, but forget the personal possession and enjoyment of Christ for and in themselves. Mary stands before us, on the other hand, as a lovely symbol of those blessed ones who have found rest with Him, and therein possess as well the ground of the highest blessedness, as also the activity most pleasing to Him. The heart of the former is often as a sea which the storms have too greatly agitated for it to be able clearly to reflect the image of the Sun, while with the second the light of heaven shines upon a still, clear, watery mirror. Here also does Tersteegen’s word hold good: “Thou must not bind thyself so much to form and manner. One is not continually seeking God. One must forsooth also find Him. Whoever is not in the search, he runs and works much; who hath found Him, enjoys and works. quietly.” [Du musst dich nicht so sehr an Form und Weisen binden. Man suchet Gott nicht stets, man muss ihn ja auch finden. Wer noch im Suchen ist, der laüft und wirket viel. Wer ihn gefunden hat, geniesst und wirket still.] The first character predominates in the Roman Catholic, the other in the Evangelical, Church. In its degeneracy, the Martha character becomes proud work-holiness, the Mary nature, on the other hand, slothful quietism. But if they are sanctified by faith both have their right; although without doubt the latter stands higher, yet both have in the kingdom of God their value, and may develop themselves independently beside each other, without any necessity that the one individuality should be suppressed or absorbed by the other. The more intimately the zealous Martha’s hand is united with the composed, quiet Mary’s heart, so much the nearer does one come to the ideal of a harmonious Christian life.
3. Mary also would have something one-sided, if she regarded every work of Martha without restriction as below her dignity. The two sides of character represented by the two, activity and passivity, direction towards the external and towards the internal, the practical and the more contemplative temper, spontaneity and receptivity, love and faith, unwearied activity and unmovable rest, we find them in the most perfect manner united in the perfect Son of Man, the God-man.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jesus the best friend of the family: 1. He heightens its joy; 2. He softens its sorrow; 3. He sanctifies the duty of the calling; 4. He strengthens its union; 5. He conducts towards the most exalted destiny in the domestic life of His people.—The right receiving of the Saviour.—The true service of the Lord consists in this, that we allow ourselves to be served by Him.—Mary and Martha, two grand forms of the Christian life, in their different relation to Him.—Great difference of character often with unity of principle and endeavor.—Non multa sed multum.—Much is not enough, but enough is much.—How sad it is when Christians reciprocally accuse each other instead of being helpers of their mutual joy.—How the Saviour,1. Compassionately hears; 2. seriously answers the complaints of His people; 3. makes them serviceable for their own amendment.—One thing is needful: 1. In order rightly to employ the time of life; 2. in order rightly to enjoy the joy of life; 3. in order rightly to endure the burdens of life; 4. in order rightly to await the end of life.—The good part: 1. Which cannot, 2. may not, 3. will not be taken away.—Jesus the defender of His misunderstood friends.
Starke:—J. Hall:—The female sex also does Christ esteem, and He will gladly enter into the house of their heart if they will only receive Him.—Blessed is the family when all with one accord are knit together in entertaining the Lord Christ.—Christians must be hospitable, Heb_13:2.—Majus:—A soul eager to learn the heavenly truth must have rest from earthly business and be humble, especially if it will learn.—Langii Op.:—If our mode of life brings much distraction with it, we have the more cause often to collect ourselves therefrom, in order to enter into a Sabbatismum sacrum, into secret converse with God.
Heubner:—Two different kinds of love towards Jesus, a more natural and a more holy one.—The preëminence of the vita contemplativa above the activa.—How many learned, subtle theologians are like Martha—take care and trouble for the merest trifles, while the substance escapes their attention.—Dræseke: a Sermon, 1824. Jesus and the Sisters of Bethany (one-sided apology for Martha).—Theremin:—The brother and sisters whom Jesus loved.—Schmidt:—One thing is needful: 1. What the many things are, about which man strives in vain; 2. what the one thing is which is needful, and how with this one thing all things fall to our lot.—J. Muller:—The true relation to our earthly occupations of the care for celestial things.—Arndt:—Jesus the family friend without compare, because He, 1. feels Himself happy in this domestic circle; 2. makes it happy.—Gerok:—The good part which our Evangelical Church has chosen.—Comp. also the beautiful hymn Eins ist Noth, ach Herr dies eine, and the Essay of F. W. Krummacher upon Mary and Martha, in Piper’s Evang. Kalender, 1851, p. 74 seq.
Footnotes:
[14]Luk_10:41.—The reading ὁ κύριος has not only the authority of B., L., [Cod. Sin.,] in its favor, but also the connection, and the usus loquendi of Luke in many other passages. [Rec. supported by Lachmann, Tregelles, Alford. The other by Tischendorf.—C. C. S.]
[15]Luk_10:42.—“The reading ολιγων δε εστιν χρεια η ενος (B., C.1, L., 1, 33, Copt., Æth., some fathers, [Cod. Sin.,] has arisen out of understanding the answer as referring to a dish” [!!!].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv38–41 MARTHA AND MARY. (Luk 10:38-42)
MARTHA AND MARY. (Luk 10:38-42)
certain village--Bethany (Joh 11:1), which Luke so speaks of, having no farther occasion to notice it.
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received him . . . her house--The house belonged to her, and she appears throughout to be the older sister.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv38–41 § 99.—JESUS RECEIVED INTO MARTHA’S HOUSE—MARTHA AND MARY, Luk_10:38-42.
§ 99.—JESUS RECEIVED INTO MARTHA’S HOUSE—MARTHA AND MARY, Luk_10:38-42.
The document which Luke here uses names no place, as he narrates not so much for the story as for the lesson it inculcates. If from the parable of the good Samaritan any one should infer that all religion consisted in outward works of benevolence, let him learn from the example of Mary, and the rebuke of Martha, that outward performance must be based upon an inner work. Let no man despise the studies of the priest or the religious meditations of the Levite because, in some cases, such men sink into a mere abstract religion and forget the active duty.
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38. A certain village—The village unquestionably was Bethany. Luke says nothing of Lazarus, and his account is evidently independent of John; and yet the character and condition of Mary and Martha so perfectly agree with their appearance in John as to furnish a striking proof of the truth of both.
Received him into her house—Martha, it is evident, not only from this place, but from the order in which the three are named in Joh_12:5, was the housekeeper. Whether she was a widow or maiden lady we know not; we only know that she was mistress, if not proprietor of the house.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv38–41 38-42. The Sisters of Bethany.
38-42. The Sisters of Bethany.
38. into a certain village] Undoubtedly Bethany, Joh_11:1. Both this and the expression “a certain woman” are obvious traces of a tendency to reticence about the family of Bethany which we find in the Synoptists (Mat_26:6; Mar_14:3). It was doubtless due to the danger which the family incurred from their residing in the close vicinity of Jerusalem, and therefore of “the Jews,” as St John always calls the Pharisees, Priests, and ruling classes who opposed our Lord.
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By the time that St John wrote, after the destruction of Jerusalem, all need for such reticence was over. It is mere matter of conjecture whether ‘Simon the leper’ was the father of the family, or whether Martha was his widow; nor can Lazarus be identified with the gentle and holy Rabbi Eliezer of the Talmud. This narrative clearly belongs to a period just before the winter Feast of Dedication, because Bethany is close to Jerusalem. Its introduction at this point by St Luke (who alone preserves it, see Introd. p. 27) is due to subjective grouping, and probably to the question “what shall I do?” Luk_10:25.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv38–41 (38) He entered into a certain village.—The identity of…
(38) He entered into a certain village.—The identity of the two names that follow, and, we may add, of the characters connected with the names, leaves hardly room for doubt that the village thus spoken of was Bethany. (See Note on Mat_21:1.) St. Luke’s reason for not giving the name is probably connected with the singular reticence of the first three Gospels as to the family of Lazarus. St. Matthew (Mat_26:7) and St. Mark (Mar_14:3) narrate the anointing, which we learn from Joh_12:3 to have been the act of Mary, but suppress her name. St. Luke gives, in this section, a characteristic anecdote of the two sisters, but suppresses the name of the village in which they lived. None of the first three Gospels name Lazarus, though there seems some reason to believe that the first two narrate a fact in which he took a prominent part (see Note on Mat_19:16), and that the third gives the name with a special reference to him. (See Note on Luk_16:20.) A probable explanation is that, both on spiritual and perhaps social grounds, reticence as to the family of Bethany was, for a time, generally maintained among the disciples of Jerusalem, and that St. Luke, coming at a later period, and finding his way, as a physician, into the company of devout women, named one fact that seemed of special interest. (See Introduction, and Note on chap Luk_8:1.)
Martha.—The name does not appear in the Old Testament, and is Aramaic rather than Hebrew. It has a point of contact with secular history in having been borne by the Syrian prophetess who accompanied the Roman general, Marius, in his Numidian campaigns. Its meaning, as the feminine of Maran (= Lord), and therefore equivalent to the Greek Kyria, suggests the possible identity of the sister of Lazarus with the elect Kyria (or elect Lady), to whom St. John addressed his second Epistle. (See Note on 2Jn_1:1.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv38, 40, 41 Vers. 38-42. The sisters of Bethany. The following points…
Vers. 38-42. The sisters of Bethany. The following points are noticeable. A close intimacy evidently existed between the brother and his two sisters and Jesus. They evidently were prominent friends of the Master, and during the years of the public ministry were on many occasions associated with Jesus of Nazareth, and yet a singular reticence evidently existed on the part of the writers of the first three Gospels in respect of the brother and sisters. His name is never mentioned by them. Here, for instance, Bethany is simply alluded to as "a certain village.
There was some reason, no doubt, why the three synoptical evangelists exercised this reticence. We have before explained that these Gospels more or less represent the "texts," so to speak, upon which the first preachers of the religion of Jesus based their sermons and instructions.
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The long recital of John 11. gives us the clue. For the disciples of Jesus publicly to call attention in their sermons and addresses to Lazarus, on whom the Master"s greatest miracle had been worked, would have no doubt called down a ceaseless, restless hostility on the Bethany household; for it must be remembered that for years after the Resurrection the deadly enemies of Jesus and his followers were supreme in Jerusalem and the neighbourhood.
There were reasons, no doubt, now unknown to us, which rendered it important to the welfare of the early Church that the Bethany family should remain undisturbed and in comparative privacy. The peculiar and unique position of Lazarus. During those four days what had he seen and heard? Much curiosity, no doubt, existed to question the risen one: what fierce hostility, what morbid useless speculation, might not have been easily aroused?
St. John"s Gospel was not written for long years after the event. It probably represents no public preaching, rather a private and esoteric teaching. The home of St. John, too, for years prior to putting forth his Gospel, was far distant from Jerusalem. Probably Jerusalem had ceased to exist as a city and the Jews as a nation well-nigh a quarter of a century before St. John"s writing was given to the Church. There were no reasons then for any silence. Jerusalem and Bethany were a heap of ruins. Lazarus and his sisters and well-nigh all their friends had probably then been long in the presence of the loved or hated Master.
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village. The scene here related took place, no doubt, at Bethany, and, most probably, during that short visit to Jerusalem, at the Feast of Dedication, in the month of that December which preceded the Passover "of the Crucifixion." This visit to Jerusalem, as has been suggested above, was made in the course of that solemn progress the account of which fills up the long section of St. Luke"s Gospel, beginning at Luk_9:51. The characters of the sisters here mentioned exactly correspond, as do their names, with the well-known Bethany family of that Lazarus for whom the great miracle, related at length by St. John, was worked. There are several mentions of this family in the synoptical Gospels, besides the long and important notice in St. John. A certain woman named Martha. The name is rather Aramaic than pure Hebrew. It is equivalent to the Greek Kyria, and signifies "lady." It has been suggested that the Second Epistle of St. John was addressed to this Martha. It was written, we know, to the elect kyria, or "lady". (2Jn_1:1) Various identifications, more or less probable, have been attempted in the persons of the Bethany family. Martha has been supposed to be identical with the wife of Simon the leper. (Mat_26:6 Mar_14:3) One hypothesis identifies Lazarus with the "young ruler" whom Jesus loved (see Dean Plumptre, in Bishop Ellicott"s Commentary); another, with the saintly Rabbi Eliezer (or Lazarus) of the Talmud. These are, however, little more than ingenious, though perhaps not quite baseless, fancies.
Vers. 38-42. Christ"s sermon in the house of Martha.
A very short sermon, its substance being given us in the two last verses. But it is a sermon whose teaching goes far down into the truth of our hope and faith. Let us trace it, first, in the revelation made in Christ"s word of the differences which the heavenly life comprehends; and, secondly, in the counsel with regard to this life which Christ"s word conveys.
I HOW INTERESTING IS THE SKETCH OF THE TWO SISTERS AT BETHANY! They are so lifelike that we feel as if we had seen and known them. And, indeed, we have, because they portray familiar types of character and temper. No person of candour will regard the elder sister as only the embodiment of worldly mindedness in contrast with the younger as the embodiment of spiritual-mindedness. When we look more closely into the narrative, we see the injustice of this view. It is Martha who receives Jesus; it is she who provides for his comfort. If she is bustling and busy, this is only the sign of her devotion. Nor does Jesus say that, in her anxiety about many things, she had lost the one thing needful, and that she had no share in the good part which could not be taken away. He is defending Mary against the temporary petulance of Martha, and, in so doing, he cautions her against the temptations incident to her activity. "Jesus," says St. John, "loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." Assume, then, that each of the two has a place in the communion of saints, and see what this place is and wherein each is fulfilled in the other.
1. The usefulness of the Martha character is at once suggested. It hears the impression of the liberal soul who deviseth liberal things, who will take any amount of pains to oblige, who is eager to serve. Honour to those who have the readiness to do, and the knack of business! In such persons there is generally a vast amount of self-denial. You will find them toiling when there might be many excuses for resting. Prompt, energetic, shrewd, they go straight on, their activity being in a high state of development. All honor to the housekeepers! They enable the quiet and thoughtful to think and write. Erasmus and Melancthon can study when Luther and Farel are up and doing; the Leightons can preach for eternity because the Melvilles and Hendersons preach to the time. Your Marys could not sit at Jesus" feet unless the Marthas were going about the house. But the Marys, too, have their place. Busy business people are apt to underrate them. They exhibit something of the elder sister"s impatience: "We are left to do all; these dreamers do not help." Not help? It is Mary who sees into the truth of Jesus" sacrifice. It is she who, sitting and listening, divines the joy and the sorrow which meet in the heart of the Lord. By-and-by, when Martha makes a feast, she feels that the hour has come, and she brings the alabaster box of ointment which she has been keeping for the hour. "Against the day of my burying," says Christ, "has she kept this box.., this that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." The prophetic spirit belongs to the meditative. Martha is the worker, but Mary is the seer.
2. The conclusion, therefore, is, "Let the Marthas and the Marys abide together in peace and mutual self-respect. Let the world of action and the world of letters recognize, each in the other, the balancing, completing half. God has created minds male and female the active and the contemplative, the communicative and the receptive, the objective and the subjective. The Church of Christ, the progress of humanity, demands both; if the one is the guide, the other is the inspirer, of movement; and, for permanent effect, as well as for the discovery of truth, the Johns outrun the Peters. Let each person ascertain which of the two sides is predominant in him, and seek the balance supplied by the other. Whoso is Martha-like should cultivate the Mary temper. Unless he sit at Jesus" feet, he will be cumbered about the serving. It is not enough to get all right for the Lord; the first thing is to be right with and in the Lord. Whoso is Mary-like should recollect that gymnastic is needful to health; that he must work as well as enjoy quietly. He must not eat all the fat and drink all the sweet. The sitting at Jesus" feet must be with a view to the following in Jesus" steps. The real moral strength is found when this balance is found. So, from the Martha side it was found by St. Paul, who labored more abundantly than all the apostles, yet all the while sat at Jesus" feet. From the Mary side it was found by St. John, who, although the one who leant on Jesus" bosom, was the one named Boanerge Son of thunder. To serve much, without being cumbered about it, "inquiring in the temple;" to be the thinker, with the liberty of the seat at the Master"s feet, and yet the doer of the Word; this is the beautiful proportion of the heavenly life. This life is love; and love must first see as did Mary; then, but in a sweeter and wholesomer spirit, it can work as did Martha.
II Consider now THE TRUTH OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE WHICH IS INDICATED IN THE COUNSEL GIVEN BY CHRIST. It is a counsel administered under the twofold form of a caution and a commendation.
1. The finger of caution is pointed to Martha. (Ver. 41) Observe the antithesis the "many things," the "one thing." The good, kind soul is distracted by a multitude of concerns. Who does not know the worry which comes through the pressure of many littles? May it not be added that there is nothing which more wears the energy out than attention to the details of home-management? The whole sentence of Jesus is most expressive. First, the "careful, or anxious, this is the inward fault; and then the "troubled, this includes the external, the "restless turning and bustling hither and thither." Is it not eminently characteristic of what we notice in others and sometimes feel in ourselves? And note the mistake. It is not the serving; it is the being "cumbered" about the serving the serving impeding the movement heavenward, as a heavy garment impedes the one who runs a race. The "many things" run away with both the peace and the strength of the mind. We may not absolutely forget; in a kind of way we recollect; but we cannot really concentrate our attention on the one thing which is needful. "Martha, the feast over which thou art exercised is good in its way. The intention is kind. But this day salvation has come into thy house. There is no need of all these dishes, all this cooking and preparing. But there is need of thine acceptance of the gift of God. If thou knewest that gift, and who it is that speaks to thee, thou wouldst feel that the one thing needful is to ask life of him, to learn what the life is from him, to receive the gift of the life eternal. O Martha-like souls, of every type and shade, "why do ye spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which satisfieth not"? The heart hearkening for Christ is the one thing, and you cannot have that without an inward collection and repose of spirit, without peace and liberty in God. Why be so greedy of the unneedful? Why pursue it with such impetuous eagerness that there are only odd times, fragments of thought, for that which is needful to health of mind, to the wants and desires of an immortal nature?
2. The finger of commendation is pointed to Mary. (Ver. 42) "She hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." The good part is a place, a nourishment, and a choice. The place Jesus"feet. Oh the blessedness of sitting there! When the Gadarenes went out to see what had been done in their country, they saw the man who had devils long time the devils now departed at Jesus" feet, clothed, and in his right mind." To find that place is the sign that the strong one who binds with chains and fetters has been bound by the Stronger One, who has come into the heart. The nourishment heard his word." That is the meat which endures to life everlasting. What cares she for the feast about which Martha is so busy, whose care is"Oh, take away whate"er has stood Between me and the highest good! I ask no better boon than this To find in thee my only bliss"?
The choice has chosen." Behold the way of deliverance from the Martha carefulness and trouble. Choose your portion. Have within you, as the center of your life, a fixed, supreme determination. In this there is force. It keeps a united heart among the competitions of the "many things." The part is good, because it interprets the voice of reason; it expresses the wedding of the actual life to the truth and calling of God. It is good, because it confers a real spiritual independence, so that a man is not mastered by things, but can be the master of things. It is good, because it never can be taken away. Your banquets last for only a short time. The most satisfying food, apart from God, must one day fail and forsake you. Whatever is yours will be taken away. This part alone is you. It is you hidden with Christ in God hidden where death can obtain no entrance. "He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever... Thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceedingly glad with thy countenance." It is good, to sum up all, because it is not, as was the part of Martha, a moving about and around Christ, but "a seeking, laying hold of, and enjoying Christ himself." Thus one of the poets of the German Fatherland has sung"As Mary once devoutly sought The eternal truth, the better part, And sat, enwrapt in holy thought, At Jesus" feet with burning heart, For naught else craving, yearning for the word That should be spoken by her Friend, her Lord, Losing her all in him, his word believing, And through the One all things again receiving; "Even so is.all my heart"s desire Fix"d, dearest Lord, on thee alone. Oh, make me true and draw me higher, And make thyself, O Christ. my own Though many turn aside to join the crowd, To follow thee in love my heart is vowed. Thy Word is life and spirit. Whither go? What joy is there in thee we cannot know?
Vers. 38-42. Christ at Bethany.
There are few places at which we so much like to think of our Lord"s presence as Bethany. We like to think that there the Son of man, who had not where to lay his head, did find a home; that there, away from the conspiracies of those who hated him, he found a refuge with those who loved him. We like to think that there he found a diligent disciple in one sister, and an assiduous and eager ministrant in the other. We must carefully consider
I THE COMPARISON WHICH OUR LORD WAS MAKING. (Ver. 42) For it was comparison, not a contrast a comparison between the choice that was good but was not the best, and the choice that was the good one.
It was not a contrast between the absolutely bad and the positively good; it was a comparison between the good that was insufficient and the good that sufficed. There are those who choose the positively bad pleasures which are unlawful, profits which are dishonest, a life that is ungodly. Christ condemns this elsewhere; but here (in the text) he is condemning another thing. He condemns the too-absorbing pursuit of that which is not supreme, which is good only up to a certain point, and beyond that is powerless. Christ was comparing the woman who was absorbed in doing a right but an inferior thing with her sister who was intent on the highest and best of all.
II THE INFERENCE HE WAS DRAWING. That many good things, however many they may be, do not constitute the good thing, and that they will disappear and disappoint. Health, home comforts, worldly position, literary delights, art, these are good in their measure; but they will not together make up our human requirement; they are not "the bread of life" and "the water of life;" they do not satisfy, and they will not last; sooner or later they break down and leave us portionless and hopeless.
III THE POINT WHICH HE WAS PRESSING. There is one thing which is so surpassingly excellent that it may be considered the one good thing that good part which shall not be taken away." To Mary this was Divine truth as it came to her in the Person and in the words of Jesus Christ. And to us it is also heavenly wisdom, as we gain it direct from our Divine Lord. She drank in that immortal truth as she "sat at his fact, and heard his word." We also receive it into our hearts as we "go unto him" and "learn of him," as we follow him, and as we abide in him. Of him we learn the way to God, the way to the light and the peace and the life which are in him. From him we gain forgiveness, friendship, purity, usefulness, a hope that does not make ashamed. This is the "good part," the intrinsically precious, the invaluable thing, of which no figures can indicate the worth; it is the good part which can never be lost. For there is no power on earth that can touch it to harm it. Disease will not waste it, fire will not consume it, force will not crush it, fraud will not steal it, time will not enfeeble it, death will not destroy it, the grave will not hold it. It lives ever and outlives everything which the eyes can see, on which the hand can rest. This is the one thing which is above high-water mark; all other, all earthly good things will be washed away by the incoming tide; but this portion, this heritage, no wave will reach in the mightiest storm. This is the "part" to choose.
1. We all can choose it. God is opening his hand to offer it; we can open ours to take it if we will; our destiny is in our choice.
2. We must choose it. If we fail to do so, we shall not only shut ourselves out from all that is most worth having and being, but we shall shut ourselves in to loss, to shame, to death. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v38 Martha received Him into her house
Luk_10:38-42
Martha received Him into her house
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Christs visit to Martha and Mary
I.
THE CONDUCT OF CHRIST IS TO BE CONSIDERED.
1. It is observable that as soon as He entered the house, He attended to the great work for which He came into the world.
2. It is further observable that Christ noticed the manner in which the two sisters were employed, and that the rule of his judgment was the claim of His doctrine upon their attention.
II. CONSIDER THE MOST PROMINENT PARTICULARS OF THE CONDUCT OF THE TWO SISTERS, BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATING THE GROUNDS OF OUR LORDS REMARKS.
1. In Martha there was an error of judgment: not of that kind which proves the entire want of real piety, but which implies great oversight, and a disregard to existing circumstances.
2. She neglected a religious opportunity. Christ was travelling with His disciples, and hence His stay would be short. It was a privilege of rare occurrence to have Him as a guest. But by Martha it was neglected, and the reason was not one of necessity but of choice. It was not because affliction, or acts of mercy to others prevented her, but because she deprived herself by gratifying a useless inclination.
3. There was evil passion in her conduct. It was the warmth of her temper which prompted her to make the appeal, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? She felt irritated because her sister did not think and act like herself. She measured her sisters conduct by her own line, and hence her rash reflection on Marys composure.
III. MAKE A FEW OBSERVATIONS IN ORDER PERSONALLY TO IMPROVE THE SUBJECT.
1. The narrative evidently gives the highest importance to the concerns of the soul.
2. Let the examples set before us in the text be regarded as very instructive in this respect. One is an example by which we are warned against the evil of earthly-mindedness. Influenced in such a way the heart is in danger of being entangled so as not only to be kept from attending to what is better, but to think it strange that others should differ from ourselves. We sustain a serious loss without being sensible of it. The other is an example which we ought to imitate. In Mary we witness that readiness to hear Divine instruction, that improvement of a present opportunity, that subordination of temporal things to spiritual, which show the seriousness and correct preference of the mind--the purity and fervour of the affections. Hers was thinking and acting for eternity.
3. The narrative teaches us in what way we are to expect the notice and approbation of our Divine Redeemer. Not when pursuing our own plans, not when devoting ourselves to worldly concerns; but when honouring His word, when learning His will and seeking His grace. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
Lessons from the incident at Bethany
I. CONSIDER THE DILIGENCE OF THE SAVIOUR IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF TIME. He goes about doing good. He always pays for His entertainment. In the parlour as well as the temple, He furnishes admonition and counsel. No sooner does He enter this house than we find Him teaching.
II. OBSERVE, HOW IMPROPER IT IS FOR A FOLLOWER OF THE LORD JESUS TO BE SENSUAL AND SELFISH. Mary who hears His word pleases Him better than Martha who prepares His meal: yea, Martha even grieves Him by her assiduity to entertain Him. He would rather feed than be fed.
III. SEE WHAT DIVERSITIES THERE ARE IN THE FOLLOWERS OF OUR LORD. Many things diversify the degree and the exercises of religion. Thus the stations in which Providence places good men differ; one shall be favourable to devotion, another shall afford less leisure and create more distraction. Constitutional complexion also has its influence. Thus some Christians are more inclined to contemplation and the shades; ether are formed for the active virtues. The difficulties which chill the timid serve only to rouse and animate the bold and courageous, Religion, like water, partakes a little of the nature of the soil over which it runs.
IV. WE MAY MEET WITH HINDRANCES IN RELIGION FROM THOSE WHO SHOULD BE OUR ASSISTANTS. Such are friends and relations. Michal ridicules the holy joy of David. A brother may discourage a brother. A sister may reproach and repel a sister. Our foes may be those of our own household. Yea, even by religious friends and relations we may sometimes be injured. They may be wanting in sympathy. They may censure and condemn our actions from ignorance of our circumstances and motives.
V. How ANXIOUS SOEVER WE MAY BE ABOUT MANY THINGS, ONE THING ALONE REALLY DESERVES OUR ATTENTION: one thing is needful. It is, hearing the Saviours words; it is, an attention to the soul; it is--religion. What? is nothing else necessary? Yes; many things. But, compared with this, they are less than nothing and vanity. Other things are accidentally needful--this is essentially so. Other things are occasionally needful-this is invariably so. Other things are partially needful--this is universally so-needful for prosperity and adversity; needful for the body and the soul; needful for time and eternity. Some things are needful fur some individuals, but not for others; but this is needful for all. (W. Jay.)
Lessons
1. This passage suggests important cautions as to domestic, and all worldly affairs. The difficulty here is to pursue the proper medium--to pay sufficient attention to these matters, and yet not to carry that attention to an excessive and hurtful length. On the one hand, let all needful attention be paid by the pious mistresses of families to have everything in their house in a judicious, orderly, and comfortable state, according to the station of life in which they are placed; and let them conscientiously avoid all indolent, careless, and slovenly habits, as they would avoid bringing a scandal on their profession, and prejudicing the worldly against it. In describing the virtuous woman, Solomon says, She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. On the other hand, this care must not be carried to excess; it must not be the chief business; it ought to be managed so as not to interfere with, but to promote, the one thing needful. One breach of duty, in consequence of excessive domestic care, occurs when it is the means of preventing secret and family worship altogether, or of impeding their regular and calm exercise; and this is very similar to the situation to which Martha now reduced herself. Another sinful error, in this respect, is that of giving or requiring from servants more time and attention to the preparation of food, and to other family concerns, on the Lords-day, than is necessary.
2. Improve this passage as a test of your state and character. Ask yourselves, What has had the chief place in your thoughts--the world and its cares, or Christ and His salvation?
3. Consider the folly, guilt, and danger of neglecting the one thing needful, and the good portion.
4. Let me earnestly urge you all to make Marys choice. (James Foote, M. A.)
Mary and Martha
I. Let us clear the way, by a brief statement as to WHAT THESE SISTERS WERE NOT. It is clearly wrong to take them as representatives severally, of the worldly and heavenly sides of life. It was not for diligence in housewifes tasks that our Lord took Martha to task, if He did take her to task; and it was not contemplative piety that He commended in Mary, if He really did commend her. Nothing is more striking, in the life we are called to follow, than the way in which we are taught to serve God. We are called to serve God, actively if possible, passively at any rate, but in any case to serve Him. Mere gazing, mere reading, mere listening, mere dreaming, have never prospered as forms of Christian life; and we can be certain that it was not for anything that could be so named that Mary was commended by the Lord. The Jaw for our spiritual life is, Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Martha served; Mary sat at His feet; and the Lord, by what tie said, did not put any mark of disapproval on Marthas serving.
II. Let us try to gather up THE TRUE LESSONS OF THE INCIDENT.
1. Observe the word also in Luk_10:39. It refers to something that had gone before. She was Marthas sister. It can hardly refer to that. Must not this be the meaning--she had joined with Martha in receiving their Guest, had taken part with Martha in the household tasks; and also, in addition to that, when all she considered needful was done, she sat at the Masters feet.
2. Observe next, that what brought Martha with her complaint to Jesus, was not her sisters freedom from service and neglect to fulfil her household duties, but just this--she was cumbered with much service.
A temporary entanglement with many things; a confession that she was unable to undertake her tasks. What we have to deal with is not her whole life, but a special and exceptional moment of it--that moment when Patience was not allowed to have its perfect work in her, when Care sat on the hearth. Caught in this moment of weakness, and weighed down by the very burden which her love had taken up, she stumbled at what seemed, but was not, the indifference of her sister, and came to the Lord and said, Dost Thou not care that I am left to do all the work alone?
3. Now let us turn to the words and meaning of the Lord. They are not to be taken as words in a sermon, but as words spoken in the quiet atmosphere of the house, with holy emphasis attached to them. Dear Martha! Art thou troubled so? My coming has proved indeed a burden to thee. Do not suffer My coming to be a burden; do not trouble about many things for the table; one thing is enough for Me. Then consider the words about Mary. Martha wanted our Lord to tell Mary to rise from sitting at His feet, and come and help in the preparation of the meal; she was grudging her the place she had taken. The Lord replies: Oh Martha! only look. It is not the seat of honour; it is the lowliest place. It is at My feet. She has not taken thy place as head of the house, but simply the retired place, the place of a disciple, at My feet--the humblest place there was at the table. She has chosen that good place which shall not be taken from her.
III. WHAT DO WE GAIN BY SURRENDERING THE OLD FAMILIAR INTERPRETATION?
1. We gain, first of all, an escape from the mere conventional reading of the story. We gain what painting does when taken from the monastic attitudes and golden halos which surround the heads of mediaeval martyrs, and get back to natural forms, to nature and to humanity.
2. And next, we gain an immense freshness in the reading and application of this story, instead of having to descend to lower levels of Christian truth. Mary and Martha are brought nearer and more akin to us, seem to be more certainly our own flesh and blood. (Alex. Macleod, D. D.)
Now it came to pass, as they went, that they entered, etc
In this we have two things observable--
1. The nature of the place, which Christ at this time turned into--He entered into a certain village.
2. The party that entertained Him, and took Him in upon His entering into the town--A certain woman named Martha, received Him into her house. To speak a word of the first, THE NATURE OF THE PLACE--He entered into a certain village. We see here that Christ did not only take care of cities and great towns. This was the temper and disposition of Christ, to condescend so far to such places as these are, for the scattering of His heavenly Word and doctrine amongst them.
And thus there is a very good reason for other ministers likewise to do, upon occasion, in divers regards.
1. Because heres an opportunity of doing good, as well as elsewhere. There are souls to be saved in the villages, as well as in the great cities.
2. Theres encouragement of a mans ministry in these, as well as in other places, and sometimes more. All religion is not compassed and comprehended within the walls of a city.
3. For a difference of gifts, and various improvements of those abilities which God pleases to dispense.
The second is THE PARTY THAT ENTERTAINED HIM. And a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.
1. The protection and blessing which she was likely to receive from His person and presence with her. The presence of holy men casts a blessing upon the places where they are; which are in so much the greater safety and security for their sakes. As Jacob tells Laban, God has blest thee since my coming to thee; te-ragli, alms-foot; since I set my foot within thy doors. Such a Guest was Christ to Martha, a blessing and protection to her.
2. The benefit she should have from His instruction, and doctrine, and conversation, and communion with Him. This day is salvation come to this house, i.e., in the means (Luk_19:9).
3. The special love and affection which she bare unto Him by way of thankfulness, and requital to Him. It is said, Jesus loved her (Joh_11:5). And now she shows her love to Him again. She had taken Christ at first into her affections, and now she takes Him into her house.
It follows in the text: And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet, and heard his words.
1. I say, Christ was here to good purpose, as indeed He was everywhere else. From whence we learn the like duty, and disposition, and practice, both ministers and others; where we see any coming forward in religion, to promote them, and bring them on further all we can. Thus did Christ here to these two sisters, Martha and Mary; He took occasion, from his presence with them, to establish them further in religion. Here there are divers rules which, by the way, are to be observed by us; as, namely these:
1. That we always carry about us a full heart. We should be full of heavenly meditations, that so we may the better be fitted for heavenly discourse.
2. We must also have respect to the company we converse withal. Theres a casting of pearls before swine; which our Saviour has given us warning of.
3. To time and season: Everything is beautiful in its season, and a word spoken then, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. The second is that which is expressed. The different entertainment of Him by these two sisters: Mary, she sat at His feet, and heard His word; but Martha, she was cumbered about much serving. Well speak to the carriage of them both, etc.
1. Of the carriage of Mary: She sat at His feet, and heard His word. Wherein we have divers things observable of us.
1. Here was her wise improvement of the opportunity for the good of her soul. She was not sure to have Christ always, therefore she would make use of Him while she had Him.
2. She sat at His feet. Heres another expression of her carriage; which has also its several intimations contained in it; as especially these two:
1. Her reverence and composedness of carriage and quietness of mind. A roving and unsettled hearer can never be a good hearer Psa_46:10). For this purpose we should come with preparation and premeditation aforehand; labouring to disburden our minds of those cumbrances which are apt to molest us.
2. Here was her humility: She sat at His feet. We have many hearers sometimes which do not sit at the feet, but rather at the head of their teachers; which will be teaching those which should teach them (Col_2:18).
3. She heard His word. She attended to the things which were spoken; as is said of Lydia.
2. Delight. She had a sweet savour and relish of them, and complacency in them.
3. Reposition. She retained them, and laid them up in her heart. And thus much for the carriage of Mary.
The second is, Marthas carriage herself, which was very different from it.
1. I say, Here is her own behaviour for for her own particular: She was cumbered about much serving: that is, in the friendly entertainment of Christs person. But, accordingly as it is here qualified in her; so it had somewhat which was vicious in it.
1. Luxury and excess. She was too large in her entertainments. It may be she provided more than was fitting for such a time.
2. Curiosity for the manner. She was cumbered about it. She was too punctual, and curious, and exact in her preparations, that she thought nothing good enough.
3. There was a turbulency and unquietness of spirit. Sometimes it proceeds from unskilfulness; as those things which people have no skill in, they are troublesome to them to go about them. Sometimes it proceeds from unaccustomedness; as those things which they are not used to, they are disquieting when they undertake them. But more especially, it does arise from a weakness and impotency of mind. And so much for her own behaviour. The second thing here considerable, is the censure of her sisters carriage; yea, upon the point of Christ Himself: wherein also there were many weaknesses and infirmities involved at once.
As--
1. There was a spice of pride and vain-gloriousness in her obsequiousness: Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? As who should say, Dost Thou not take notice of how much pains I take to entertain Thee? While she finds fault with her sister, she does implicitly commend herself; which is oftentimes the end of such speeches. She saw she outstripped her sister in this service, and now she would needs be commended for it. The remedies of this distemper are these:
(1) A reflection upon our weaknesses and failings other ways.
(2) A consideration that all we do, is a due debt.
(3) That others may be better in other respects, &c. Thats the first.
2. Here was a spice of envy and censoriousness of her sisters forwardness in religion: Lord, dost Thou not take care that my sister, &c. Here was a quarrelling and contending with her sister; as one weakness brings in another. From pride comes contention (Pro_13:10). And this is joined with envy, and censure, and emulation. She would needs be thought the best of the two, and she pleased herself in her own good performances; and hence falls upon her sister. And where theres one neglects the world for the looking after their souls, there are hundreds which lose their souls for attending too much upon the world. And thats a second infirmity here observable.
3. Here was a spice also of impiety, in interrupting the good discourse of Christ. Those which have no mind to listen themselves, when they come at any time to the hearing of the Word; they are the forwardest to distract others: and those which care not themselves to discourse, will not suffer others to do it neither.
4. Here was a great deal of incivility in her carriage to her Guest Himself; a great deal of fondness, and trespassing upon the rules of hospitality; and that in sundry particulars, that we may see the unseasonableness of this passion in this pious woman.
1. She does here commend her own diligence and care of entertainment--I am left alone to serve. What a sad thing is this! As she desired to be commended by Christ, which we spake of before; so, for want of it, she commends herself for her own attendance: this was absolutely contrary to the rules of hospitality and entertainment.
2. Which was as bad on the other side; she finds fault with her Guest, and picks a quarrel with Him, which now was a stranger to her. This was another trespass upon entertainment.
3. She puts Christ, which was a stranger, upon finding fault with His own entertainment, which was another ridiculous business. For though Christ, as He was in His proper person, might justly find fault with anything; yet, take him now under the notion of a Guest, here it was not so proper for Him.
4. There was this incivility and disrespect to Christ her Guest, and so a trespass upon hospitality; that she wrangles with her sister in His presence, which was very unseemly. (J. Horton.)
1. Here is the reprehension itself; He checks and reproves Martha: and thus it may be amplified to us according to a various and different apprehension and notion, in which we may here look upon her: and that especially threefold.
(1) As she was a good and godly woman.
(2) As she was a kind and friendly woman.
(3) As a woman beloved.
1. She was good, and yet Christ reproves her, and checks her, where she was now amiss. Whence we note; that even those which are good, are to be reproved when they do that which is evil. And good reason for it: For--
(1) The goodness of the person does not change the nature of the action. Sin is no better than sin, whosoever they be that commit it.
2. The goodness of the person sometimes makes the action worse.
3. Those which are good may be better; and this is a means so to make them; therefore the rather to be reproved in this regard. Indeed, in the reproof of good persons, there are some cautions which are fit to be observed.
(1) That we be sure to reprove them for that which is evil, and no 1Sa_1:14).
(2) We must do it with another kind of spirit, than those which are commonly profane persons; looking upon them as brethren and sisters in Christ.
(3) So order the business as near as we can, that our reproof of good persons may not reflect upon goodness itself.
2. We may look upon her as a friendly woman. She was one that entertained Christ; took Him into her house. Whence we note, that the receiving of courtesies from any persons, does not discharge us from our duty towards them; where, by our place and occasions, we are called to the reproving of them.
This, then, it serves, for the use of it, to meet briefly with two sorts of persons.
1. With people, who think by their courtesies sometimes to stop the ministers mouths where they show any testimony of respect and kindness.
2. It meets also with some ministers: their pusillanimity and lowness of spirit in this regard, which are silent, and meal-mouthed, where at any time they receive courtesies, and will not reprove where things are amiss. The second is the matter of reproof, or the thing which He reproves her for: Thou art careful, and troubled about many things.
In which passage of Christs to her, there are divers particulars couched, as reprovable in this good woman.
1. Here was a mistake in her, and misapprehension of Christ Himself. She did not judge aright of Him in this particular. That we are all apt, by nature, to think we please Christ most, when we abound in outward services and performances to Him. Martha, because she stirred herself in the entertainment of Christ in her house, therefore she thinks she has now quitted herself, though she neglect, and let pass His doctrine.
2. Another thing reprovable here in Martha, was, as a misapprehension of Christ, so a misplacing of her own affections. She looked after that which was but trivial, and nothing to speak of, the providing of her feast, etc., and neglected the main chance of all, which was the word of Christ. Thou art careful, and troubled about many things; where that which expresses many things is in the Greek τὰ πολλὰ; that is, ordinary, and common, and vulgar things, τὰ τυχόνζα. And here we learn thus much; that it is a great fault in Christians, and those who are professors of religion, to have their minds and thoughts taken up about slight and trivial matters Col_3:2).
This minding of such things is very unfitting in these respects.
1. In regard of the unsuitableness of these things to their minds; they are things below a Christian spirit. Take an heart which is sanctified by grace, sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ, has the Spirit of God dwelling in it; and how far are these outward things inferior to it? as much, and a great deal more, than the sports and pastimes of children are to the thoughts of grown and grave men.
2. Because they have better, and other things to take their minds up.
3. Because they little conduce to that end to which themselves are appointed. Our main end is a better life, and to be fitted and prepared for that. The third and last thing which Christ seems here to tax in Martha, is her solicitude and distraction of spirit and excess in this business.
1. Here was her excess and superfluity, in the word many things, as a note of variety. Christ did not find fault with her hospitality, but she was too curious, and superfluous in it. We are very ready and subject to over-shoot ourselves in things lawful and necessary, and to go beyond our bounds in them. And this now leads us to the second thing, which is the last observable in this verse; and that is, Marthas solicitude and distraction.
First, she was cumbered. Secondly, she was careful. Thirdly, she was troubled.
1. Distraction, it does noway further or promote Which of you, by taking care, can add one cubit to his stature? (Mat_6:27).
2. Distraction, it does very much hinder, and put back; both formally, and demeritoriously; forasmuch as it weakens the mind, and makes it unfit for service.
3. Distraction, it does contract a great deal of guilt with it. It is a very vicious and inordinate affection, as that which casts a disparagement upon His promises and care over His people. For this purpose, it may be very pertinent to consider both the causes and remedies of this distemper; and the one will very fitly and pertinently follow upon the other.
The causes of it are partly these:
1. Sometimes a dependence too much upon outward means. He which trusts to outward means, will be distracted; because these, they oftentimes fail, and give a man the slip.
2. A limiting of Gods providence to such a particular way. This is another thing which causes distraction.
3. An over-prizing and over-valuing such a project and design. Our distractions are oftentimes according to our estimations; where we make too much of anything, it will be sure to trouble us, when it falls contrary to us. Lastly. A special cause of distraction is a special sickness which is upon the soul in this regard: weak things are apt to be unquiet; and frowardness, it causes trouble. Now, the remedies against distraction are likewise these:
1. A commending of ourselves and our ways to God by prayer
Php_4:6).
2. A consideration of our call to such and such businesses and ways which we fall into.
3. A meditation on the promises which God has made in such and such conditions. (J. Horton.)
But one thing is necessary, or needful
This is the one thing which is necessary. And here there are two things further to be explained. First, how this is said to be one thing. And, secondly, how this, alone, is said to be necessary, as if none were so but this.
1. How it is said to be but one. For if we speak of spiritual matters, we know that there are divers and sundry things of this nature, and they have their varieties in them. There is the Spirit of God, and there is the Kingdom of God. These, they are not one, blot many, in the kinds and in the operations of them. To this we answer: That these all, they come to one, and tend to one purpose in conclusion.
1. This is that which is most noble and excellent in its own nature, that is mainly and principally to be regarded, and looked after by us; which, of all other things, is most noble and excellent, considered in itself. It is that which does indeed excel all the comforts and contentments of this world; they are nothing in comparison with it. There is an emptiness and a defectiveness in them, and such as will be unable to satisfy at another day: whereas this, it makes a man fully and completely happy. Now, this is this one thing in the text. It can be least spared of all other things besides.
2. It is of the greatest influence, and extent, and usefulness to us; it is that which we have occasion for in the whole course and compass of our lives, and we cannot properly do anything without it. It manages all callings, and all providences, and all affairs whatsoever they be. And a man cannot carry himself in them so decently, and as becomes him, that wants it. That man that neglects his soul, there is nothing else which can be well minded by him.
3. It is of the greatest continuance and duration.
4. This is also the main purpose for which every man was sent into the world; therefore it is mainly to be regarded and looked after by him. For this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should live according to the truth.
The consideration of this point may be thus far useful to us.
1. To teach us where especially to spend our chiefest thoughts and endeavours. And that is, upon this one thing, which is so needful and necessary for us, as we have heard it is. We see hero where to begin, and fasten our studies:
1. To take care of necessaries, before we take care of superfluities. We count him to be a madman, in reference to the world, who looks after flowers, and pictures, and music, and such things as these; and, in the meantime, suffers himself to starve, and want bread. Well, there is a time coming when things will appear in another kind of view than now they do; when this one thing needful will appear to be needful indeed. Now, therefore, this is that which in the first place we should work ourselves into; an apprehension of the necessity of religion. The way hereunto is first of all to get a spiritual favour and relish and appetite in us; what makes men to think meat to be needful, but because their stomachs call for it from them, and their mouths crave it at their hands? And so, what is that which makes men to think grace to be necessary? It is because they have gracious dispositions in them, which accordingly we must labour for. This will make us, with the prophet David, to think the word of God to be to us as our necessary and appointed food.
2. Labour to be convinced of the vanity and insufficiency of the creature. This will make us to think one thing necessary; that is religion, and nothing else. For, it may be, we think it necessary; but other things as necessary as that; and this divides our cares about it.
3. Get our hearts freed from those lusts and corruptions which are in them, and are apt to prevail over them; thats another way to make us to mind this one thing necessary. A covetous heart wilt never prize this one thing, nor care for attaining unto it. Secondly. Seeing one thing is need-rid, we should therefore not only mind this one thing itself, but also mind everything else in reference to that one.
We should make all our projects, and actions, and undertakings, subordinate and subservient hereunto; whatever we do, we should examine what connection it hath with this; how it furthers our salvation? how it advances the glory of God?
1. In matters of doctrine, and opinion, look at the one thing needful here. There are many frivolous and unnecessary disputes which the world sometimes is troubled withal; which take up mens heads, and minds, and divert them from better things. They never consider the influence or extent of those things which they hold, as to the making of a man better or worse; but indifferently rush upon them without any heed or regard at all.
2. In the duties and exercises of religion, look still at the one thing which is needful; and that according to the particular nature and quality of them. There are many religious performances, which have that which is merely accessory to them. In prayer, to pray in the Holy Ghost; in hearing, to receive the word with meekness; in fasting, to afflict the soul; in communicating, to feed upon Christ; and so of the rest.
3. In our employments and the works of our ordinary callings let us have an eye also still to this; consider what that is which is principally required of us. Lastly. In all the several passages and contrivances and occasions in the whole course of our lives, let us still have a regard to that which is of greatest concernment. Again, further, take it in mens dwellings, and the contrivances of their habitations; they should still look at that which is most needful, not only as to corporal or secular accommodations, but as to spiritual. Men commonly look at the goodness of the air, at the convenience of the soil, at the pleasantness of the situation; what it is for trade, what it is for health, what it is for pleasure; and it may not be amiss in them to do so. But is there nothing else to be regarded by them, but only these? or, are these the chief, and the principal? What are the means for Heaven? and salvation? and spiritual improvements? So again likewise for marriage, and the altering of mens conditions in the world, what is the one thing needful? The third is this: that feeling but one thing is needful, we should therefore take heed of all needless and frivolous distractions in ourselves.
4. We learn from hence how to judge both of others, and likewise of ourselves. If there be but one thing which is needful, let us see what we are, according to the abiding, and the abounding of this one thing in us. We commonly reckon of ourselves from other qualifications and endowments. No, but let us do it rather by this. No, but we count him a rich man, that has a great deal of gold, and silver, and jewels, and plate, and the like. And so it is here in this particular, as to the whole compass of happiness; he is not so happy a man that does abound with outward accommodations as he that doth abound with the excellencies of grace, and the adorning of the inward man. All perfections besides, without these, am very imperfect; and such as being truly considered, are of no account at all. Lastly. Seeing one thing is needful, we have here also a very good account of Gods dealings and proceedings with His people here in the world, as a special ground and argument of satisfaction, and contentation unto them. Seeing He provides this one thing for them, they have no cause to murmur against Him, as to some outward and worldly deprecations. Again, further, this may also satisfy us in all the hard and severe courses which God seems sometimes to take with His children, when He lays His corrections upon them here in this life, as a means to work out their corruptions, and to prepare them for an heavenly condition: all this is needful and necessary, and such as can not be well omitted. Physic, it is as needful as health, which is procured by it. That the way to be freed from superfluous cares, is to divert, and so turn to necessary. The looking after salvation will take men off from distraction about the world and the things that belong thereunto. This we gather from the course which was taken by our Saviour with Martha in her present condition, who suggests this unto her as that which was most seasonable for her. This it does upon a twofold account.
1. As it is another thing; and so it does it by way of interruption.
2. As it is a greater thing; and so it does it by way of absorption.
1. I say, as it is another thing; and so it does it by way of interruption. Diversions, they break the force of anything, and cheek it in its full pursuit. As inordinate bleeding in one part is cured by opening of a vein in another, and the violence of it is stopped by revulsion; even so it is here.
2. As it is a greater thing, and so it does it by way of absorption, and swallowing up; the greater devours the less. As when a man is in care about his life, he forgets some small and petty matter that troubled him; even so it is here. When men are made sensible of the concernments of their souls and their future salvation, other matters do not so closely stick by them as otherwise they would. This, it serves to give us account of so much inordinacy as there is in the world. Therefore we are commonly troubled about many things because this one thing is so neglected by us.
We should still have this sentence in our remembrance--that one thing is needful and we should accordingly be affected with it.
1. By way of specification: Seeing there is one thing needful, therefore be sure to mind that; and, at the least, not to neglect it.
2. By way of order: Seeing it is the one thing needful therefore take care of that first; mind religion afore anything else.
3. By way of measure and degree: Seeing it is the one thing needful, therefore give it the greatest care and endeavour. And to make it full and complete, let us take it also in its fall latitude and extent. Religion, it is the one thing needful, and it is needful for all persons, and all ages, and all conditions. It is needful for people in their youth to look after their souls then, and to begin with God. And it is needful for people in their old age, that so they may end their days in peace, and exchange this life for a better. (J. Horton.)
And Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her
1. Here is His judgment itself, which is in a way of praise and commendation; Mary hath chosen that good part. Christ commends Mary for her choice. Where there are divers things observable of us. We will take them as they offer themselves to us to be handled by us.
1. We learn from hence thus much: That it is the commendation of a Christian to make choice of such ways as are best and most approvable to Christ. If there be any way better than other in the course and tenour of his life, to be sure to pitch and fasten upon that. This is also commendable in every one else besides, and that upon these following grounds.
1. It is an argument of a good and sound judgment; it is an argument of persons well grounded and principled in religion, and that know what belongs unto it.
2. It is an argument also of a gracious and savoury spirit. Men choose commonly according to their affections, and there is much of their spirit in those things which they fasten upon. We may see what is within them, and what principles they are acted by, according to that which they make choice of. A spiritual heart is most affected with spiritual objects, and places its greatest delight and contentment in such things as these.
3. It is an argument of some courage and self-denial and resolution of mind. For the better part, it is not commonly without opposition and resistance in the world. Lastly. It is also an argument of an elect and chosen vessel. It is a sign that God has chosen us, when we choose Him, and such ways as these, which are good and pleasing to Him. We see in other matters for the world, how careful men are (what they are able) to make the best choice that may be, and there is nothing good enough for them, so exact and curious are they. And how much rather should they then choose the best in spiritual matters. The way hereunto is first of all to beg direction of God Himself for the guiding of us. Alas! we are but fools of ourselves without His Spirit to teach us, and therefore we must have recourse to Him.
2. We must also seriously weigh and compare one thing with another. Good election, it proceeds from good deliberation.
3. Take in the advice and experience of wellgrounded and experienced Christians to help us. Lastly. To labour to be acquainted with the power of religion ourselves. Religion, it is a matter of election; it is not a business of chance, but a business of choice. We are not to be carried only by others principles, but by principles of our own, not only to take the better part, but to choose the better part; that is, to take it out of a liking of it, and out of an affection to it; at least, to do so at last, and before we have done. And, further, they have also more delight and contentment in it. That which is forced, it is commonly burdensome, and men undertake it with a great deal of reluctancy, and are not themselves in it. But that which comes from them upon their own choosing, it is so much a great deal more pleasing and acceptable to them. We do not hereby advance the power of nature, as if we could do it of ourselves, without the grace of God assisting us; for that we cannot do. In the last place, we may here take notice of the object itself here propounded--that good part. For the better opening of this point unto you I shall briefly do two things.
1. Show you what, in religion, may be lost and taken away from us. And--
2. What may net. For somewhat is considerable in both.
1. For what may be lost. And we may take it in these particulars.
(1) The outward means of salvation, that may be sometimes lost, and taken away.
(2) Liberty of outward profession, and expression of the several graces of the Spirit, that may be restrained also.
(3) The sense and feeling of grace in us, that may also be taken away, and removed from us--we may lose that. Now, further--
2. (which is more proper to the text) We may here consider what it is which cannot. Now, sure it holds good of religion that it cannot be taken away, as is here expressed in this particular case of Mary.
(1) In regard of its root and principle--This shall not be taken away. Thus Job intimates of himself, when he was deprived almost of everything else; yet, that the root of the matter was found in Job_19:28). And (Isa_6:10) a godly man is compared to an oak, whole substance is in him, when he casts his leaves. The second is in regard of its operations and effects which it works in the heart. The better part shall not be taken away thus; it still leaves somewhat behind it, which is sure to stick fast.
(3) In regard of its reward and recompense both here in this life, and in another world; it shall not be taken away so neither. (J. Horton.)
Martha and Mary
Some are full of fever and excitement; some live in the shade.
1. The essence of the Christian religion is, that it is a religion of receiving. Martha was studious of giving; Mary, of receiving. Both had reference to Christ; nevertheless, Martha was reproved, while Mary was praised. Now, brethren, be persuaded of this--those please God most who take in most, and dwell in the calm contemplation of His glory till we reflect something of His likeness.
2. But the difference between Martha and Mary did not, after all, lie so much in what they did, as in the spirit in which they did it. Martha worked anxiously. Marys mind rested. Had Martha gone about all her business with a heart quiet and at ease, I do not suppose that she would ever have been reproved. Now what is the great end for which Jesus lived and died--the end of ends, next to the glory of God? That you may have peace--that the soul of the sinner may be quiet, and rested, and happy. Christ had more pleasure in Marys peace than He had in Marthas work.
3. But once more. Mary had learnt to do what Martha could not do-to concentrate her mind. She could gather all to one single point, and that point was Christ. It is impossible to suppose that Martha had not several motives as she bustled about that day in the house. Was not she thinking about who was looking at her? Had not she some desire for admiration? Were not there some grovelling feelings, and some unnecessary cares? Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Martha and Mary
I. THE MARTHA SPIRIT IS VERY PREVALENT IN THE CHURCH at this period--prevalent in some quarters to a mischievous degree, and among us all toa perilous extent.
1. There is a considerable tendency among Christian people, in serving Christ, to aim at making a fair show in the flesh. Jesus would be better pleased with a grain of love than a heap of ostentatious service.
2. The Martha spirit shows itself in the censuring of those persons who are careful about Christs word, who stand up for the doctrines of the gospel, who desire to maintain the ordinances as they were delivered unto them and who are scrupulous and thoughtful, and careful concerning the truth as it is in Jesus. Mary, treasuring Up every word of Christ, Mary, counting each syllable a pearl, is reckoned to be unpractical, if not altogether idle. Contemplation, worship, and growth in grace are not unimportant. I trust we shall not give way to the spirit which despises our Lords teaching, for if we do, in prizing the fruit and despising the root we shall lose the fruit and the root too. In forgetting the great well-spring of holy activity, namely, personal piety, we shall miss the streams also.
3. The Martha spirit crops up in our reckoning so many things necessary. To bring us back to first principles, one thing is needful, and if by sitting at Jesus feet we can find that one thing, it will stand us in better stead than all the thousand things which custom now demands. To catch the Spirit of Christ, to be filled with Himself, this will equip us for godly labour as nothing else ever can.
4. The censurable quality in the Martha spirit appears in the satisfaction which many feel with mere activity. To have done so much preaching, or so much Sunday-school teaching, to have distributed so many tracts, to have made so many calls by our missionaries, all this seems to be looked at as end rather than means. If there be so much effort put forth, so much work done, is it not enough? Our reply is, It is not enough, it is nothing without the Divine blessing.
5. Once more, Marthas spirit is predominant in the Church of God to a considerable extent now, in the evident respect which is paid to the manifest, and the small regard which is given to the secret.
II. THE MARTHA SPIRIT INJURES TRUE SERVICE.
1. It brings the least welcome offering to Christ.
2. It brings self too much to remembrance.
III. THE MARY SPIRIT. I have to show you that it is capable of producing the noblest form of consecration to Christ. Its noblest results will not come just yet. Marthas fruits ripen very quickly, Marys take time. While she was sitting at Christs feet, she was forming and filling the springs of action. You are not losing time while you are feeding the soul. While by contemplation you are getting purpose strengthened and motive purified, you are rightly using time. When the man becomes intense, when he gets within him principles vital, fervent, energetic, then when the season for work comes he will work with a power and a result which empty people can never attain, however busy they may be. If the stream flows at once, as soon as ever there is a shower, it must be little better than a trickling rivulet; but if the current stream is dammed up, so that for awhile nothing pours down the river bed, you will in due time, when the waters have gathered strength, witness a torrent before which nothing can stand. Mary was filling up the fountain head, she was listening and learning, feeding, edifying, loving, and growing strong. The engine of her soul was getting its steam ready, and when all was right her action was prompt and forcible.
1. The manner of her action was being refined. Her estimate of Christ was truer than Marthas. Those who think not, who meditate not, who commune not with Christ, will do commonplace things very well, but they will never rise to the majesty of a spiritual conception, or carry out a heart-suggested work for Christ.
2. That sitting of Mary was also creating originality of act. Martha is in a hurry to be doing something--she does what any other admirer of Jesus would do, she prepares meat and a festival; but Mary does what but one or two besides herself would think of--she anoints Him, and is honoured in the deed. She struck out a spark of light from herself as her own thought, and she cherished that spark till it became a flaming act. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Martha; or, thoughts on the active life
The name of Martha suggests to the minds of most of us, I fancy, the thought of an anxious, troubled, and perhaps a somewhat fussy woman, with a short temper and a hasty tongue. That I think is the picture that many of us have drawn of Martha in our own minds. But you must remember that there is something to be said on the other side, something to be said on Marthas behalf; and while we do not shut our eyes to Marthas faults, we may learn something from that which is recorded to her credit. Martha, herself, the managing spirit of the household, is the person who invites the Lord Jesus Christ to come and take His abode for a season in her house. And here let me say that it is a happy thing when a strong mind and a vigorous will are turned in the right direction, and employed for the right purpose. It is something to be thankful for if we have such qualities as a strong mind and a vigorous will to present to the Lord for His service; and although these are not unfrequently coupled with an ungentleness and hastiness which are net altogether lovely, nay, may sometimes be repulsive and painful, yet let us acknowledge the fact that God can utilize that element in our temperament which Satan seeks to abuse, and that where a strong will and a vigorous determination may be employed by the devil with the worst possible results, such natural characteristics, dedicated to the service and glory of God, may prove of priceless value. Now we must remember that Martha had to face a good deal in inviting Jesus Christ into her household. The test was a severe one to her, because it was to try her in her weakest point. There were thirteen hungry men to be provided for, and then no doubt some of the neighbours would also be expecting an invitation to meet this Jesus, who had come among them, and about whom there was so much talk. Perhaps, too, there may have been other unpleasant consequences that she may have had to think about. Jesus Christ not unfrequently may have seemed a troublesome guest, in other ways besides those that I have referred to. His presence may sometimes have exposed people to an amount of hostile criticism and censure which they would fain have avoided. One thing is clear, she was a brave woman, whatever faults she may have had. It required a good deal of moral courage to invite this much-maligned and much-abased Man into her house, and to treat Him as a loved and honoured guest. But Marthas courage was equal to the occasion. And, my dear friends, we too shall find it no light matter to receive Jesus into our hearts and into our homes. And it is as well that we should clearly understand what the consequences may be if we take so important a step. The question will have to be asked over and over again, Is this and that in accordance with the mind of Him whom we have received and welcomed as our guest? for we must bear in mind that wherever Christ goes He declines to occupy a subordinate position. It is possible for some of you to do what Martha did. You may be the means of introducing Jesus Christ into your household; and although His presence may cause a disturbance, just think what an honour it is to be the means of introducing the King of kings and Lord of lords into the household which belongs to Him, but which has not previously recognized His claims. Think of the beneficent results that may flow from your action--how the purifying and elevating influences of the Divine Presence may reach one person after another, until at last you can look around with holy joy, and exclaim, As for me and my house we now serve the Lord. Not long since, at the close of a mission that I had conducted in the North of England, a gentleman, a man of property, returned to his country house, from the large l own where I was working, a changed man. On his arrival he summoned into his dining-room all his household, servants and all; and standing up before them all, he addressed them to this effect: My dear friends, I have to confess with shame and sorrow that this has not been hitherto a Christian household it has not been regulated upon Christian principles. I, as your master, have not been setting you a Christian example; but, on the contrary, all my influence has been thrown into the wrong scale. I cannot express the amount of sorrow I feel as I look back over the past. But I have called you all together to tell you that, through Gods mercy, a great change has taken place in me, and now my supreme desire is that this household should be a Christian household, and that all that is done in it should be done just as the Lord would have it done. Turning to the butler, he said, We have never hitherto had family prayers; but now understand that at such an hour in the morning, and such an hour in the evening, you ring the bell, and we will all gather together and acknowledge God in our family. And he added, Be sure you make no difference; whoever may be in the house, whether they be worldly or whether they be religious people, make no distinction. From this time forth Jesus Christ must be Master in this household; we have ignored and dishonoured Him too long. It must have needed some courage, no doubt, to make such a declaration as that. But oh! do you not think he had his reward in the joy and satisfaction he must have felt as he knelt for the first time, surrounded by his family, at the feet of a reconciled God, and thus publicly received Jesus into his house? And remember you may be the means of introducing Christ into your household, even if you be not at its head. The humblest member of the family, or even one of the servants, may be the means of bringing Christ in, and by and by the influence and effect of His presence may be recognized and felt by all. Dear friends, do you think Martha ever regretted receiving Jesus Christ into her house? Martha received Jesus, but little did she know, when she did so, how soon she was to stand in terrible need of His sympathy and comfort and help! Ah, dear friends, sweet are such uses of such adversity as this I blessed are the sorrows that bring out such new and fresh revelations of our wealth in Christi It is only this that can make our sorrows fruitful of good. But it is time that we should look at the other side. So far we have been saying all we could in Marthas favour, but we must not shut our eyes upon her faults; for there is much to be learned from considering the faults and failings even of those whose hearts are in the right place, if we approach the consideration of these in the spirit of charity and humility. It is evident that Martha got some harm as well as some good out of Jesus visit; for she seems here to be sadly flustered and flurried, and even somewhat peevish and irritable. She seems indeed to have been out of temper with the Master as well as with her sister, and to have implied some little reproach on Him as well as on Mary. But why all this disturbance and irritation? Surely it all came of this, that she was thinking more of serving Christ than of pleasing Him. If she had paused to reflect, she must have seen that a sharp, half-reproachful word, and the obvious loss of composure and temper, would cause the Master a good deal more pain than the best-served meal in the world could give Him pleasure. She was busy about Christ, but she failed to enter into sympathy with Christ. Here we have a very important lesson taught us, and one that we need to have impressed upon our minds as Christians and as Christian workers. Our object in life should not he so much to get through a great deal of work, as to give perfect satisfaction to Him for whom we are doing the work. If Martha had looked at things from His point of view she would have felt differently about Mary, differently about those household cares that were troubling her. But Martha in her attempts to serve Christ, though scarcely conscious of it, was really serving herself. Her great desire was, that everything should pass off well. Everything was to be clean and tidy, and well served and well managed, so that nobody should make any unfavourable criticism upon the whole entertainment. We are bound to offer Christ our very best, and nothing done for Him should be done in a slovenly, slip-shod, negligent way, as if anything were good enough for God. She was right in her principle, and yet she failed in carrying it out, and in that failure denied her Guest the very thing that pleased Him best. Martha is quite indignant, and doesnt care to conceal it. And you know people of her class, while they are very useful in a Church, and do a great deal of work, are very frequently indeed, like Martha, somewhat short-tempered. They have a great deal of energy, and a great deal of enthusiasm; but when things do not go exactly as they wish, the hasty word soon slips out, and the unpleasant thought is harboured, and that soon takes all the joy and all the blessing out of Christian work. How often is the work of the Church marred by this hasty spirit, and the Master is grieved in our very attempts to honour Him! And the same spirit, still, I fear, not unfrequently mars a useful life, and desecrates our sanctities. Yes, there is something better than service; there is something grander than doing. It is well to serve; but better still to offer acceptable service. It is well to do; but it is better still to do things in the right way. Martha had her own idea of what the right way was, and it was a worldly idea. What Martha needed was sympathy with Jesus Christs spirit, to come within the charmed circle of His inner life--to understand His object and aims, to appreciate His longing desire, not to feed Himself with outward food, but to feed a famishing world with the revelation of God in His human form; to reciprocate His spiritual desires for those He sought to lift to a high and heavenly level of experience. This was where Martha went wrong, and this where Mary went right. As it was, Mary chose the good part which could not be taken from her, and Martha missed it, and by her very conduct showed that the Master was right in describing that good part as the one thing needful. Christian workers, let us learn our lesson. It is not enough to receive Jesus into our homes and into our lives--this we must do before anything else--but we need to sit at His feet, to gaze on His spiritual beauty, to hear His words, to yield ourselves wholly to His spiritual influence. Thus, and only thus, shall we find ourselves possessed of the one thing needful; and while hands or feet or brain are busy--or while all are busy together--there shall be a great calm within; there will be speed without feverish haste, and activity without bustle, and our work shall become sabbatic, and our lives an unbroken sanctity. Whatever happens let us not be too busy to sit at Jesus feet. (W. H.Aitken, M. A.)
Mary; or, the contemplative life
These two sisters have been regarded, and rightly regarded, it seems to me, as illustrating to us, in their character, two contrasted elements of spiritual experience. Martha represents the active life, and Mary represents the contemplative life. For we know, and do let us bear in mind, that Christian work in itself is intensely interesting; indeed, there is nothing morn likely to become engrossing. We all know how absorbed men may become in their own special pursuits. For instance, we have read about Sir Isaac Newton, and how absorbed he used to be in his mathematical and astronomical researches until he was scarcely able to give a thought to the common duties and circumstances of life, but used frequently to make the most ridiculous blunders about commonplace things, because he took so profound an interest in, and was so fully occupied with, his own great discoveries. And so it is with other branches of knowledge. When men devote their attention to a particular branch of knowledge or science, it becomes a sort of passion, and they no longer find it necessary to stimulate themselves to exertion in that particular; rather they have to check or curb themselves, in order to prevent their minds from becoming too deeply absorbed in their favourite studies. And it sometimes happens that when the mind is given over to some special pursuit, interest in their work becomes so keen that men seem to lose all power of checking themselves, and their brains go on working, as it were, automatically, when they dont intend them to be working at all. I well remember some years ago hearing a touching story of a late Cambridge professor, who was one of the greatest Greek scholars of our time. For some few months before he died he was advised by his friends to shut up his books, give up his studies, and go as much as possible into social life, in order that he might be drawn away from those subjects in which his mind had become so absorbed that his constitution was impaired; indeed, he was threatened with softening of the brain. On one occasion he was in a drawing-room, surrounded by cheerful company, when a half-sad smile passed over his countenance as he observed to a friend, What is the use of you shutting up my books and not allowing me to work? While I have been here I have traced the derivations of three distinct Greek words, and detected their connection with certain Sanscrit roots. Such was the force of his ruling passion. Now if we can become so absorbed in intellectual researches, is it a wonder that we should become even more absorbed in those higher pursuits in which it is the privilege of Christian people to engage? To be doing Gods work; to be endeavouring to make people happy; to be the means of regenerating human hearts and lives, and of reforming the homes of the vicious and degraded; to be restoring those that are fallen, and rescuing those that are tempted--is not this necessarily a most engrossing work, and one that should employ all our energies? It is well, my friends, indeed it is necessary, that we should be interested; for no man ever yet did anything well until he threw his whole heart into it and felt an interest in it. Yet in this very interest lies the danger; for may not the work become everything to us, and He for whom we work be allowed to fall into the background, and eventually be almost forgotten? Nor is it only our work that suffers. We suffer ourselves; for our very work has practically clipped in between us and the Lord for whom we are working, and thus becomes to us, instead of a means of grace, drawing us nearer to God, on the contrary, rather a barrier between ourselves and God. How shall we guard against this error? Yon medieval monastic would reply, Give up your work, tear yourself away from the activity of life, seclude yourself in the desert; and then you will be able to enjoy the fellowship of Christ and to enter upon the life of vision, the mystical blessedness of apprehension of the Divine. That is one answer; but it is not such as is given here, and we know what it has brought about in bygone ages. Let us look for an answer to all such misapprehensions to the scene that lies before us. On the one side, there is busy Martha; on the other, quiet, contemplative Mary. We are not told to be imitators of either Martha or Mary, but we are told to be imitators of the Lord Jesus Christ. Was there ever such a busy life as Christs? Was there ever such a contemplative life as Christs? He moved forward in the quietness of assured power. He was a true Quietist; for His life was very still, and yet its very stillness told. We may learn a good deal in this respect from observing outward objects. The mightiest things are not always the noisiest things. You go down to one of your own quays, and there you will see the little donkey-engine, on the deck of one of your ships, that is being employed in loading or unloading its freight. What a fuss it makes! Your ear is at once painfully arrested by its clatter and noise; but when you come to examine it, you find it is only a small and insignificant thing, in spite of the noise it makes. It is very useful, no doubt, and does its own work; but it does it very fussily, and that work is not a very great one. You descend into the vessel, and there you see the colossal engine which is to take the ship, donkey-engine and all, across the ocean; and it does all that work without making half as much noise as the little insignificant piece of mechanism that you have been listening to. Or take a picture from Nature. Look at yonder little bubbling rill flowing down the mountain side, dashing in and out between the rocks, and making a noise which can be heard a considerable distance away. You follow the stream until eventually it is absorbed in a great river, which flows smoothly, calmly, and quietly along in all the majesty of its strength. Perhaps it is strong enough to bear up the navy of a great nation, and yet it does not make the noise that the little stream did. Do let us endeavour, dear friends, in this somewhat noisy age, to distinguish between noise and power. We sometimes think that noise is power, and that if we can create a certain amount of bustle we are doing a large amount of work. I think our work is done well just in proportion to the absence of bustle from it. Now to correct this noisy fussiness we need to learn to imitate Mary and to sit at Jesus feet, and in silence and stillness of soul to hear His words. No amount of service will make up for the loss of this inward and secret fellowship of the soul with Christ--this hidden life of love, in which Christ and the consecrated heart are bound together in a certain holy intimacy and familiarity. This it is that sanctifies even the most commonplace toil, and the loss of this robs even the holiest things of their sanctity. Notice then, first, Mary sat at Jesus feet as a learner; and if we desire to learn, here it is that we must receive our lessons. Several thoughts suggest themselves to our minds as we see her sitting there. Let
us dwell upon them for a few moments. First, sitting at His feet, she is taking the place of the lowly; and only those who wish to be such can learn of Jesus. The proud and sell-confident, whether they be intellectually proud, or morally proud, or spiritually proud, will ever have to go empty away; but such as are gentle, them shall He learn His way. Next, observe, it is the place of true honour and dignity; for it is better to be a junior scholar in the school of Christ than to be a distinguished philosopher untaught by Him. Next, let me point out to you that while she was sitting here she was in a position, not only to learn by Him, but to learn of Him. It was not merely that she heard the truth from Him; it was rather that she found the truth in Him. He was Himself to her the Truth. And we, too, dear brethren, need to discern the difference between learning about Christ or learning by Christ and learning Christ. We may be good theologians and yet bad Christians. We cannot sit with Mary now before a visible Christ, but we can contemplate His moral features even as she gazed upon His outward countenance, and we can hear His spiritual teaching even as she heard His outward voice. And there is a sense in which we may be said to know more of Christ than at this time Mary did or could know; for she had never gazed upon the cross, and read the more perfect revelation of the Divine character as it is written there. Come, let us look at Mary, that we may learn to be a learner. How impressed she is with His superior wisdom; how little confidence has she in her own. Nay, the more she learns, I doubt not, the more she feels her ignorance. Oh, blessed is the ignorance that brings us so near to infinite wisdom, and blessed the child-like simplicity that enables us to understand what to the world may seem inexplicable! Then see how absorbed she is. I can never believe that Mary was selfish and inconsiderate. If she had been, I feel sure Jesus would have gently reproved and not commended her. When Mary is next introduced to our notice she is again at Jesus feet, and this time she is at His feet as a mourner. Blessed are those mourners whom sorrow drives to Jesus feet; for they shall indeed be comforted! I Refer for a moment to the passage Joh_11:32): Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Oh, blessed are the trials that bring us to Jesus feet! The sorrows of this world harden and embitter some people. They grow sour and selfish. I dare say she felt as if she had never loved Him so much before, as she loved Him then when she saw those tears of His. When we feel crushed with sorrow, do lot us try to remember that Jesus Christ Himself was the Man of sorrows. Now, dear friends, let us look at Mary once again. We have seen her at the Lords feet as a learner, and we have seen her there as a mourner: and now, in Joh_12:1-50., we shall see her at the Lords feet as a worshipper. Turn for a moment to the beginning of that chapter: Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served. Dear Martha! how I love her for it! Always true to her character; never weary of waiting on such a Guest, and this time not even in her own house. Even in the house of Simon Martha must wait upon her Lord; no mere hireling or slave shall be allowed to minister to Him while Marthas willing hands and heart are near. The truest form of worship is, first of all, the presentation to God of all that is most precious, all that is most costly, that we have or that we are. (W. H.Aitken, M. A.)
The good part chosen
I. First of all, I would speak of THE DECISION. Mary, saith our Lord, hath chosen. She had made up her mind; she had taken her choice. She had discerned what she loved; she had seen what was for her good; she had great courage, and, caring not for the praise or the blame of others, she determined to hold fast what she had chosen. How valuable is this decision of character! How valuable it is, even in the children of this world! How many statesmen, generals, leaders of men, have been distinguished by it! Look over the lists of the men who have moved the world, or who have led vast armies to battle; take such men as Julius Caesar, such men as the Emperor Napoleon; and mark how decision of character--bold, unflinching, unhesitating decision of character--is their leading feature. And mark how, in all the Word of God, we find this a leading characteristic of Gods servants. We find Noah boldly and decidedly making the ark in the face of an ungodly and unbelieving world; we find Abraham leaving his fathers house, to go to a land he had never seen; we find Moses forsaking the pleasures of Egypt, looking for recompense in the unseen reward; we find Joshua saying to the people, As for me and my house, whatever ye do, we will serve the Lord; we find Daniel going down to the lions den, choosing to meet with what was to ell appearance a dreadful death, rather than deny his principles; we find Paul the apostle opposing a world in arms against him, and withstanding even his brethren, when there seemed to be an article of the faith impugned. And coming later, we find men like Athanasius, ready to meet the world and the Church too, when they seemed to be against them--men like Martin Luther, opposing all the professing Church of their day, when they saw the professing Church opposing the Bible. In all these men we find the same bold, firm, uncompromising decision of character. But when we turn to the world at large, how uncommon is this very decision of character which has such power and possesses such influence! Doubting they live, doubting they hear our sermons, doubting they come to our means of grace, doubting they pass through the course of this world, and doubting, hesitating, lingering, undecided, too often they lay down their lives, and leave this world for another! Dear brethren, for your own comforts sake, for your own happiness sake, for your own usefulness sake in this world, if ever you would know the joy and peace of the gospel, if ever you would be useful in your day and generation, and have influence on the minds of men, cultivate this decision of character. Very beautiful is that allegory in which John Bunyan describes what happened to his pilgrim, when the interpreter took him up to the door of an elegant and well-furnished palace, within which were men and women taking their ease and in the enjoyment of all happiness; and at the door of the palace, and all round the entrance of it, there stood a body of armed men to withstand every one who would enter. Many come up to the palace; they dare not go forward; they fear the conflict; they shrink from the attempt. At last one bold man is described as coming up to the gate, saying to the person who had charge of the palace, Set down my name, Sir, and putting a helmet on his head, and a sword in his hand, forcing his way through the armed men, when he hears a pleasant voice saying--
Come in, come in;
Eternal glory thou shalt win.
There was Christian decision. That man is a model, a pattern, an example, to every one who would be a faithful soldier of Christ, laying hold on eternal life, fighting a good fight, warring a good warfare--to choose boldly and act decidedly--to go straight forward, not fearing any opposition that he may have to meet with.
II. Turn we next to THE CHOICE that Mary made. She chose the good part. Now, what is it that our Lord Jesus Christ here calls the good part Mary had not chosen the riches of this world; she had not chosen the honour, or the rank, or the learning of this world: she had chosen none of those things that the world commonly thinks good. She sat at Jesus feet; she heard the words of Jesus; she drank in the instruction that the Lord Jesus Christ is ever ready to give to those who listen. Because she did this--because she so gave evidence of the state of her heart--the Lord saysof her here, She hath chosen the good part. That good part was the good of her everlasting soul; a knowledge of God, as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. How many things, my brethren, are called good that do not deserve the name! How many things are said to be for mans good, and yet how little do they avail! How little comfort they can give him I and how short a time he is able to enjoy them! How many things are called good that will not last! They will not wear. Who that has eyes to see, who that has mind to observe, can fail to know, that what the world calls good does not give perfect happiness? Do those that have the most of them really enjoy what they possess? Like the two boys, Passion and Patience, spoken of in The Pilgrims Progress, to are the children of this world and the children of God. Passion must needs have his best things now; he has them, and lavishes them away. Patience waits for his best things, and when he has them keeps them. So the children of God may endure hardness for a season; they may seem to fail to prosper for a time; but they look forward, they wait, they know that their good things are yet to come, and that when their good things come, they shall not be taken away from them.
III. Pass on, finally, to THE CHARACTER OUR LORD GIVES TO THE PORTION THAT MARY CHOSE. He says it is that good part which shall not be taken away from her. That favour of God which Mary sought, that peace of God which Mary longed for, that indwelling of the Holy Ghost which Mary craved, that spiritual wisdom after which Mary hungered and thirsted--all these abide for ever; he that has them shall never lose them; they are riches and treasures that shall never fade. In the time of health they are a mans best companions; in the time of sickness they make all his bed. And now, in concluding, I would ask you all to take heed to make a right choice. And put not off that choice to a future day. Shall I not call on all the young persons that I see here in such numbers, to follow the example of her whose conduct we have this day been considering--to choose that good part which shall not be taken from them? I call upon you, as knowing that I may not meet you all face to face in this church again, to seek that peace with God that she sought after--that favour of God for which she longed. (Bishop Ryle.)
One thing is needful
What we want to bring about in ourselves is the due balance and equipoise between the principle of faith and the principle of action, so to pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal; to be in such a way convinced that but one thing is needful as not to destroy all stimulus and interest for the many things in which we find ourselves of necessity involved. First, then, it must be observed that the inward harmony of soul which is proposed must not be sought by the means of partitioning off the one province from the other, and fixing limits between them, by concluding a peace between the world and God, and giving part of our day to one, and part to the other. What we want, then, is a piety that shall be energetic and efficacious through our whole life, through every act we do, every word we speak, every breath we draw. We should not distinguish our day into one part given to God, and the rest to ourselves, but it should be all of one colour and texture. The one thing needful which we want to secure is a penetrating and all-powerful motive, universal in its extent to apply to our every act, minute, special, practical, to ensure its being brought out into our conduct, not lodged as a dormant creed in our understanding. We should not have any worldly employments, for our whole life should be a religious act. This is the inward and outward harmony which constitutes a sound being, when all our movements flow naturally from one central governing thought. Such a character is not a compound of two tendencies ill at ease in one anothers neighbourhood, and subsisting by a forced compromise, but a uniform whole in which one pure aim informs each separate impulse. Life is then not a state of rest or equilibrium produced by opposite forces, but a sustained motion towards a fixed point. This habitual reference of everything we do to a single ruling motive is absolutely necessary for any thing like consistency of action and of character. See the strength of will and steady power which a man derives from consistent adhesion to any, even the lowest purpose. Even obstinacy, which is more perseverance without a purpose, and is more often mischievous than useful, has something about it respectable. Much more does the steady persevering pursuit of an object of importance, whatever it be, command the esteem of men at large. When the various talents are united with the single mind, they give their possessors a moral weight and mastery which is instantly recognized, and to which all around pay a willing homage. (M. Pattison.)
On unity of effort in the service of God
We will, therefore, in this chapter offer some remarks on the principle of spiritual policy which we should adopt, if we desire successfully to meet that discouragement which results from distraction of mind. The principle is thus given us by our blessed Lord--One thing is needful. Let there be one idea at the foundation of your spiritual character, round which that character forms itself: let one single principle be the foundation of all your obedience to Gods commandments. You will never succeed while you are paying equal attention at one and the same time to every department of the Divine law. Again, it is the law of the natural characters of all of us that one particular feature or class of features stands out prominently, and gives its complexion to the whole character. We may be quite sure that our spiritual characters will form themselves in the same way. They will have a pervading colour, they will manifest a particular leaning, whether we wish it or not. Our minds are so constituted that each feature of them cannot be equally developed. Nor, indeed, is it consistent with Gods design in regard to His Church that it should be so. But again, and this has a most important bearing on the question at issue--all growth proceeds upon the principle which we are recommending. Natural growth means the gathering together of particles of matter round a single nucleus, which nucleus appropriates and assimilates those particles. If we take a small fragment of the blossom of a flower, and examine it with a powerful microscope, we shall see that it consists of a series of colour-cells, ranged in perfect order (like the cells in a honeycomb, or the stones in a tessellated pavement), which contain the pigment of the flower. Originally there was but one single cell, containing the vital principle of the whole flower; but as the germ was fed by the dews and rains of heaven, and by the moisture of the earth, it gathered to itself particles from the elements which surrounded it, and gradually formed a neighbour cell, and then another, and another, until the whole resulted at length in this magnificent mosaic of cells, so far superior to any pavement which King Solomon had in his palace, or even in his temple. Well, spiritual growth proceeds by the same rule as natural; it is for the most part a development out of one sentiment, an accretion round the nucleus of one idea. It is our part to watch this law of our minds, and to endeavour by prayer and forethought, and wise effort, to turn it to account. Now, practically, how is this to be?
1. There can be no doubt that the besetting sin, or fault, if any one is prominent, should be the first quarter in which the Christian should turn his thoughts, and prayers, and efforts. His particular shortcoming is an indication by God in what part of the field his work lies. At all events it is certain that the one thing needful for those beset with any moral and spiritual infirmity, is to rid themselves of it, rooting it, as far as possible, out of their hearts, with loathing and abhorrence. Until this is achieved, there is no business for them of equal importance.
2. But supposing that, on a survey of our character, it should not appear that any one fault or sin has a greater prominence than another (though this will rarely be the case), we may then set ourselves to choose, according to our own inclinations, some broad Scriptural principle which may be made the foundation of our own spiritual character. Or we might attempt to make poverty of spirit--the subject of the first Beatitude--the leading thought of our religious character. We might set ourselves to cultivate this grace as the one thing needful. Having chosen our principle, whatever it bet it will be part of the business of every morning to anticipate the occasions on which it may be brought into exercise. It will be well to say, in conclusion, one word of advice as to the sort of principle which it is desirable to choose for the purpose of building upon it a holy life. Choose not, then, too narrow a principle--by which I mean one which gives no scope for exercise or trial, except on rare occasions. Suppose, for example, that submission to the will of God under the loss of friends were chosen as the principle. There is not here room enough for every-day practice. Bereavement, much as it behoves us to conduct ourselves well when it does come, is of rare occurrence. On the other hands too broad a principle will destroy the unity of aim and endeavour, which is recommended. Too broad a principle is in fact more principles than one, and so defeats the end. Finally, choose a principle to which your mind is naturally drawn when in a right frame. We are all attracted by different lines of thought in religion, and no man has a right to impose upon his neighbour his own line. (Dean Goulburn.)
Love at home
I. LOVE AT LEISURE. When the evening comes on, and all the members of the family are around the fireside, then lave rests and communes, forgetting all care, happily at home, oblivious of the outside world, and of time itself. Like Mary--
1. We would feel ourselves quite at home with Jesus our Lord.
2. We would be free from worldly care--leaving all with Jesus.
3. We would even be free from the care of His service, the battle for His kingdom, and the burden of the souls committed to our charge.
4. We would sweetly enjoy the happy leisure which He provides for us, as we muse upon the rest-giving themes which He reveals so clearly, and makes so true to us.
(1) His work for us, finished, accepted, abidingly effectual, and perpetually overflowing with priceless blessings.
(2) His great gifts received, which are greater than those to come.
(3) All other needful and promised benedictions of grace, sure to come in due season (Rom_8:32).
(4) All our future, for time and for eternity, safe in His dear hands. Let us, without fear, enjoy leisure with Jesus--leisure, but not laziness--leisure to love, to learn, to commune, to copy. Leisure in a home where others are cumbered (see Luk_10:40-42). Leisure to sit, and to sit in the most delightful of all places.
II. LOVE IN LOWLINESS. At Jesus feet. In this let each one copy Mary. Let me be, not a busy housewife and manager, which any one may be, and yet be graceless; but
1. A penitent, which is an acknowledgment of my unworthiness.
2. A disciple, which is a confession of my ignorance.
3. A receiver, which is an admission of my emptiness.
III. Love LISTENING--And heard His word. She could not have heard if she had not been at leisure to sit, nor if she had not been lowly, and chosen to sit at His feet. Be it ours to hear that love-word which says, Hearken, O daughter, and consider (Psa_45:10). Listening to what Jesus says in His Word, in His creation, in His providence, and by His Spirit in our soul. Listening to Himself. Studying Him, reading His very heart. Listening, and not obtruding our own self-formed thoughts, notions, reasonings, questionings, desires, and prejudices. Listening, and forgetting the observations and unbeliefs of others. Listening, and bidding all cares lie still, that they may no more disturb the reverent silence of the heart. How sweet! How instructive! How truly the good part!
IV. Love IN POSSESSION.
1. In full enjoyment.
2. In perfect satisfaction.
3. In full assurance. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Reflection and action
This was scene at Bethany. It precedes the other accounts. If I mistake not, at is the earliest notice of this remarkable household.
1. Let us look at the scene itself. Martha, full of gladness and alacrity, and such affection as she had, was serving Him. It was household service. I do not suppose that she was without any sensibility of His loftiness and nobility; but her way was not in the interchange of soul qualities with soul qualities. She was practical. She was entirely domestic. She took a worldly view of this adorable personage, and felt as though the best thing she could do was to minister to His comfort. As she was thus, with anxious household cares, ministering, Mary was sitting still, at the feet of Jesus. Martha, seeing her sitting there, had not the least idea that anything was going on. Marys feet were still, her hands were quiet. She neither sewed nor knit. She wove no flowers into wreaths or bouquets. She said nothing. She was not doing anything. There are a great many persons who do not suppose that there is anything going on unless there is some buzz and bustle, unless there is some outward show and development. Of the method of the soul they have no insight. Their whole brain-life expends itself in a rushing forth of intense activity. They have no idea of the lake that is hid far up in the mountain recesses, on which the day shines and the night sends down its starry beauty, and which does nothing except reflect the heavens. Ask the mill-brook that comes tearing down the gorge, and wipes the sweat off at every mill-wheel, what it is doing, and what it is, and it says, I am working, working, working; I am an enterprising brook; but that lazy old lake up there in the mountain-top never did anything In the world for its living. And yet that lake in the midst of the mountain has some beauty and some merits to the poet. Now, Martha, in her soul, loved her sister, but she did not know much of that higher experience of the soul to which her sister had attained; and, instead of saying, Mary, why do not you come and help me? she said, Master, see, she doesnt help me; tell her to come and help me. Christs reply is significant.
2. Look for a moment at these two women as types of human society. Martha ticked and kept time; she talked all the while; she was a very useful person. Hers was a valuable character. There is room in all the world for such persons. On the other side, Mary was reflective. She was full of thought, and of various thought. Above all things she was hungry for the food of thought. Doubtless, in her own quiet way, she fulfilled the daily duties of practical life: as a sleep-walker, or as one sunk in a reverie, with all the absent-minded mysteries that fall to the lot of such persons. And when Christ came her thought was, Now I shall receive; and her heart lay open in His presence as a flower to the dew, or as the grass to the rain, that she might live and grow by the feeding of her soul.
3. The perfect person is one who combines, in suitable degrees, both of these elements. There is the workshop of life below, and there are the serene hills, the crystal domes above. They have their hours for meditation; they also have their hours for labour and for communion with men.
4. But there are very few perfect people in the world; and the lineage of those who are born with a high moral endowment joined to an active temperament seems almost at times to have run out. Those, then, that are all activity, and those that are recluse, silent and meditative, ought to have enough in themselves to form an easy intercommunication, so that they shall accept one another.
5. The Church should also have precisely the same thing. No Church has any perfect members in it, and too often Church people associate themselves together, the intensely zealous with the intensely zealous, and the extremely intelligent with the extremely intelligent; but we are all of us so imperfect that we need somebody else here and there, for it takes about ten or fifteen persons to make one, and fill up all his deficiencies. Receive ye one another. The imaginative are to take the practical, the practical are to take the imaginative, and both are to rejoice in the rich-souled silence of others; and let those who are given to a life of meditation look with toleration upon persons who have the art of developing and giving out into life. God receives them all and uses them all.
6. Let those who mourn because they have been set apart to be thinkers, and to dwell in the solitude of their own genius, remember that perhaps they are more active than they know. The largest and best work that ever is done in this world is done in silence. Go into the meadows over which birds sing, and out of which grass and all flowers spring. The silent attraction of all those roots is a greater power than all the steam engines on the face of the earth. Or go into the forests. There is no measure of gigantic power which is comparable with the strength which is developed in their internal tubes. It is not measurable by all the machinery on earth. And yet it is silent. Activity? Yes. There is the buzzing factory. It has turned out its thousands of yards of cotton every day, and is a very noble thing, doing a great deal of good. But yonder, off against the rocky shore, on the dangerous reef, stands the lighthouse. It neither spins nor turns a single wheel. All day long the lazy thing suns itself; and all night long it simply stands shining. But far off, beyond its own vision, are ships that come toward the shore; and they see its light; and they know where the rock, the shoal, and the danger are; and they pass on and make their port in safety. It has no trumpet, it does not speak, it sends out nothing but simply a light; and 10,000 ships are blessed by it. (H. W. Beecher.)
Thought and activity
We read in the biography of old Dr. Lyman Beecher that the young lady he married, Roxana Foote, had thought herself converted at five or six years of age, though far from satisfying the exactions of an apostle of absolute election; but at least she was the Mary among the three granddaughters of General Andrew Ward, who used to say that when the girls first came down of a morning, Roxana would put some thoughtful question, suggestive of study and meditation, while Harriets voice could be heard briskly calling out, Here I take the broom; sweep up; make a fire, make haste. Harriets namesake, Dr Beechers celebrated daughter (Mrs. Stowe) is fond, like other American lady-novelists, of referring to the Bethany sisters, as often as not in a vein of humour; where, for instance, Mrs. Twitchel characteristics her indispensable help, Cerinthy Ann, as one of the most master-hands to turn off work. Deacon was a-saying, if ever she was called shed be a Martha, and not a Mary. (F. Jacox.)
MARY TO JESUS IN THE HOUSE.
O Master! when Thou comest, it is always
A Sabbath in the house. I cannot work:
I must sit at Thy feet, must see Thee, hear Thee!
I have a feeble, wayward, doubting heart,
Incapable of endurance or great thoughts,
Striving for something that it cannot reach,
Baffled and disappointed, wounded, hungry;
And only when I hear Thee am I happy,
And only when I see Thee am at peace.
Stronger than I, and wiser, and far better
In every manner is my sister Martha.
Thou seest how well she orders everything
To make Thee welcome; how she comes and goes,
Careful and cumberd ever with much serving,
While I but welcome Thee with foolish words l
Whener Thou speakest to me I am happy;
When Thou art silent I am satisfied.
Thy presence is enough, I ask no more.
Only to be with Thee, only to see Thee
Sufficeth me. My heart is then at rest.
(Longfellow.)
CUMBERED ABOUT MUCH SERVING.
Christ never asks of us such busy labour
As leaves no time for resting at His feet;
The waiting attitude of expectation
He ofttimes counts a service most complete.
He sometimes wants our ear--our rapt attention,
That He some sweetest secret may impart;
Tis always in the time of deepest silence
That heart finds deepest fellowship with heart.
And yet He does love service, where tis given
By grateful love that clothes itself in deed;
But work thats done beneath the scourge of duty,
Be sure to such He gives but little heed.
Then seek to please Him, whatsoeer He bids thee,
Whether to do--to suffer--to lie still;
Twill matter little by what path
He leads thee, If in it all thou seekst to do His will.
(Anon.)
Activity and rest
I noticed once that in the ocean there was a beauty and power quite peculiar to its rest, as well as its motion. Once in a while there would come a day when the waters would leap into white foam in their strife with the great calm cliffs; and then a day when the blue waters would melt into the sky full of innocent dimples, which made you feel as if the tides were laughing with content. But this was what I noticed besides: that in the clear waters rested the full sun, while in the unresting waters you saw only broken lights. There was shining on the edges, but not in the deeps; a stormful grandeur, but no mirror of the quiet heavens. It was in a summer vacation, when I was glad enough to find reasons for lounging all day long on the sweetest bit of land I ever found west of the heathery Ramalds Moor, where I wandered a quarter of a century ago. And so I said to myself, Beautiful is the activity that works for good, and beautiful the stillness that waits for good. Blessed the self-sacrifice of the one and the self-abnegation of the other. Martha gives up everything that she may be hospitable, and is cumbered with much serving; and Mary sits still. But still the voice of the Lord tells her, and tells us through her, that she hath chosen the good part. I would like, then, if I could do it, to include both in their turn in the sum of my life. We cannot help believing in work; but there are days when we should be glad because we are quiet. When both the strong motion and the strong emotion of existence should be done with for a while, and all things be as naught to us except the pure stillness, which, like the still sea I saw, only drank in the sun and glassed his clear shining through its whole heart. (R. Collyer.)
Variety in Gods works
There is astonishing variety in Gods works. What different creatures, plants, and other objects there are in the world; and probably not two of them precisely alike. One star differed from another star in glory. How the forms and faces of human beings and various animals vary in appearance and expression. And, it is said, no two blades of grass, nor leaves of any tree, are exactly similar. Then, as to dispositions, some creatures are bold and fierce, others are fearful and timid; and even in any single family we find diverse tempers and inclinations. In a well-appointed army and navy there are many regiments, ranks, services, ships, &c., and probably all are necessary in order to greatest efficiency. In a large house, or place of business, or manufactory, there are individuals filling different posts, who have separate duties. In a flower garden, or nosegay of any pretensions, we find flowers of various forms, colours, and perfumes. In the grand and gorgeous sunrise or sunset, the most lovely tints, wonderfully blended, produce pictures, in comparison with which mans most admired paintings appear mean and paltry. Thus in Gods Church and family, for beauty, utility, and perfection, we find the greatest conceivable variety. Take the characters referred to in our lesson. Martha was a good woman, diligent in business, a careful housewife, an excellent manager, and we suppose a model mistress of a family, only she was probably too anxious, and perhaps rather bad tempered; Mary was quiet, devout, thoughtful, one who might be in danger of spending too much time in her closet, or about good things, as her sister would spend too little. Could they have been blended, Rom_7:11 would have been perfectly observed. Lazarus was probably an amiable, easy man, who would lovingly and simply believe in Jesus. But Thomas was a doubter. He was thoughtful cautious; one who would count the cost before he would commit himself to any enterprise, and who would not take anything for granted, but would require irrefragable evidence for his faith. (H. R. Burton.)
Cumbered about much serving
Domestic cares
I. THE TRIAL OF NON-APPRECIATION. This is what made Martha so mad with Mary. The younger sister had no estimate of her older sisters fatigues. As now, men bothered with the anxieties of the store, and office, and shop, or coming from the stock exchange, they say when they get home: Oh, you ought to be over in Wall-street in these days; you ought to be in our factory a little while; you ought to have to manage eight, or ten, or twenty subordinates, and then you would know what trouble and anxiety are. Oh, sir! the wife and the mother has to conduct at the Same time a university, a clothing establishment, a restaurant, a laundry, a library, while she is health officer, police, and president of her realm! She must do a thousand things, and do them well, in order to keep things going smoothly; and so her brain and her nerves are taxed to the utmost. If, under all this wear and tear of life, Martha makes an impatient rush upon the library or drawing-room, be patient, be lenient. O! women, though I may fail to stir up an appreciation in the souls of others in regard to your household toils, let me assure you, from the kindliness with which Jesus Christ met Martha, that He appreciates all your work from garret to cellar; and that the God of Deborah, and Hannah, and Abigail, and grandmother Lois, and Elizabeth Fry, and Hannah More, is the God of the housekeeper.
II. THE TRIAL OF SEVERE ECONOMY. This is what kills tens of thousands of women--attempting to make five dollars do the work of seven. How the bills come in! The woman is the banker of the household; she is the president, the cashier, the teller, the discount clerk; and there is a panic every few weeks! This thirty years war against high prices, this perpetual study of economies, this life-long attempt to keep the out-goes less than the income, exhausts millions of housekeepers. Of my sister, this is a part of the Divine discipline. If it were best for you, all you would have to do would be to open the front windows and the ravens would fly in with food; and after you had baked fifty times from the barrel in the pantry, the barrel, like the one of Zarepath, would be full; and the shoes of the children would last as long as the shoes of the Israelites in the wilderness--forty years. Beside that, this is going to make heaven the more attractive in the contrast.
III. SICKNESS AND TROUBLE.
IV. OVER-RESPONSIBILITY. (Dr. Talmage.)
Over-carefulness
Did you never see persons that are kind-hearted and good-natured but that are continually anxious? Not that they are peevish; not that they are cross; but they are filled with anxiety. Did you never see a boiler that carried just enough steam, so that there was no sound in the machinery? And have you never seen a boiler that carried a little too much steam, so that it hissed at every rivet, making a disagreeable sound day and night? There are persons that carry a little more steam than they can work, and that sing and hiss all the time; and Martha was one of those. Where this anxiety is brought suddenly in collision with those that are associated with us, and expresses itself with sharpness, it is called chiding if you are charitable, and fretfulness or peevishness if you are a little cross yourself. And so it seemed to be in Marthas case. When Christ came, nothing must be left undone that could be done for Him. Every room must be set aright. (H. W.Beecher.)
Marthas interference
Is Martha a little offended, and a little jealous? Has she often tried to reclaim her musing sister from what she thinks vagrancy of mind, and now considers that she has an opportunity to get her effectively reproved? How tyrannous may we become by the excess of our temperament, even towards those whom we best love! If Martha has her special opportunity of serving, and wisely employs all her active shrewdness, may not Mary have her special opportunity of listening, and wisely employ her meditative intelligence? Why should Mary be Martha any more than Martha Mary? Lord, bid her that she come and sit at Thy feet with me, and hear Thy word. Would not such an invocation have been as proper a one as Marthas? They who are careful about many things must take care of this too: that, encumbering themselves, they be not burdensome to others also. Our excellency may become the occasion of our fault. We may be fussy because kindly busy, when only by being busy, but not fussy, can we provide a comfortable meal, as well as a sufficient one. (T. T. Lynch.)
Worry
When the English lost the town of Calais in the reign of Queen Mary, she is said to have declared that at her death the name Calais would be found engraved upon her heart. The loss of the French town was the sorrow of her life. Most of us, my friends, have some name or another which sorrow has graven on our hearts, and printed in deep lines upon our faces. It may be a disappointment which will last all our lives; it may be the remorseful memory of a fault which cannot be atoned for here, or the name of one long dead and gone. It is not of these great sorrows of which I would speak now. Do you know what makes the stones on the sea beach so smooth and polished? They were rough fragments of rock once, and they have been smoothed and shaped into what they are, not by a furious tempest, when the waves rose mountains high, but by the constant action of the tide day after day, year after year. The deep furrows and channels in the face of the cliff were not formed by a flood, but by the continuous falling of a tiny stream of water. So, my brother, those grey hairs of yours, and those lines and furrows in your face, were not caused by some terrible, crushing calamity, but by the daily action of little troubles and anxieties which we call worry. These worries are some of Gods teachers in the great school of this world. Properly met, they help on our education; if misused, they simply lead us into sin. How then shall we meet worry? First, I would say, dont meet it half-way. Dont torture yourselves with the thought of what may happen; dont neglect the sunshine of to-day, because it may rain to-morrow. It is simply want of faith in God to be always fearing what has not, and never may, come to pass. Excellent was the advice of the wise American President, Never to cross the great and big muddy creek till you come to it. When the worry does come, try to look beyond it, try to see the land over the troubled waves, and to find the dawn after the dark night. There is a bright side to every trouble, if we would but look for it. There are some who love to shut themselves up in a dark room, as it were, with their troubles, and they will tell you that there is no sunshine outside. My advice to you is, keep out in the sunshine as much as you can, and the troubles will not seem half so dark or threatening.
2. Next, think less of self, and more of others. When things come to vex and annoy you, turn your thoughts to the troubles of others. Go and look at the real sorrows of your neighbour, and in helping them you will find your own burden easier to carry.
3. Lastly, yet above all, pray about your worry. Take it to Jesus Christ, tell Him all about it in plain language, ask Him to help you, so that your trouble may not drive you into sin, but lead you to your Saviour. Take up your cross, my brothers, you who are careful and troubled about many things. Bear with the crooked tempers, and the sharp tongues, and the ill-kept homes, and the narrow means, and the thousand worries of life, and these crosses shall one day bud and blossom for you into palms of victory. (H. J.Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)
One thing is needful
The essential thing
While the one thing needful may have had reference to the immediate matter of Marthas anxiety, it is also applicable to her own spiritual need, she being deficient in that element of inward life out of which all orderly methods and untroubled activities proceed. Thus, both fact and symbol lead us from those many things about which Martha was too careful, to the contrast of that good part which was Marys choice.
I. ONE THING IS NEEDFUL, AS A MOTIVE POWER. Love for God, for Christ, for all that is good. Only this can keep the appetites in their place.
II. ONE THING IS NEEDFUL AS A PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. The love of goodness for its own sake.
III. ONE THING IS NEEDFUL AS AN ELEMENT OF LIFE. The souls communion with God. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.)
Marys better choice
I. THE CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS CHOICE--Shall not be taken away. Earthly goods are all transitory; but this is abiding.
II. THE COMMENDATION OF THE CHOICE.
1. Good in itself--its effect.
2. Good in its substance--Jesus.
3. Best in its association. Christ is more than the property; He is the joint possessor. Partakers with Christ.
III. THE CHANNEL FOR ALL THIS COMFORT. Chosen.
1. No violence done to our freedom.
2. Sweet consciousness that we gave ourselves to Christ. (S. H.Tyng, D. D.)
The one thing needful
However far apart the streams may appear to flow, there is in the life one great ocean where they all meet, and in which they are all absorbed. Now, the Saviour, who was so entirely consecrated to one great object, would teach us an important truth in these words, and it is this--That it is a mistake to divide oneself among many cares and troubles. The great secret of life is to seize upon one thing, which will determine all else, and in the light of the context this one thing seems to be--a personal interest in Jesus Christ.
I. THIS IS THE ONE THING NEEDFUL TO GIVE LIFE A WORTHY AIM. If We would start aright, we must start at the feet of the Great Master. Here alone can we find reliable direction how to live. This is the way: walk ye in it. Bat who will set our feet upon that path? Jesus will. It is Jesus alone that teaches us to live so as to attain the object which God Himself had in creating.
II. THIS IS THE ONE THING NEEDFUL TO GIVE LIFE ANY REAL VALUE. The alchemists of old, who paved the way for the modern science of chemistry, were, it is said, searching for a substance which contained the original principle of all matter, and had the power of dissolving all things into their primitive elements. Here was the one thing needful to give value to all material objects brought into contact with it. We do not suppose this was ever discovered by them, or that it ever existed save in their wild imagination; but there are many present, I trust, who have found in effect a spiritual equivalent--that one thing needful which gives value to all brought into contact with it, that philosophers stone which turns everything into glittering gold in the eye of Heaven itself. Even all the life becomes consecrated--the ruling of nations, the regulating of households, obeying monarchs, obeying parents, obeying masters, even what often seems trivial, eating and drinking. This one thing needful can set value to all.
III. THIS IS THE ONE THING NEEDFUL TO SUPPORT US UNDER THE TRIALS OF LIFE. We may glide easily, in virtue of a slight external impulse, along the levels of our life, we may go down the slopes ourselves, but if we mean to climb triumphantly over the rugged hills, we must link ourselves to a mighty Saviour.
IV. THE ONE THING NEEDFUL TO FACE THE GREAT HEREAFTER. (T. Nicholson.)
True religion exemplified in Mary
There can be no doubt as to what our Lord means by the one thing and the good part He here commends. They are both of them true religion. It does more, observe, than praise this blessed thing; it partially describes it.
I. We will begin with the latter of these two questions, and look at this Scripture as DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN CHRISTIAN AND CHRISTIAN. Both these sisters were undoubtedly sincere followers of our Lord; they were both converted, holy women. But yet we see here a great difference between them, and such a difference as natural disposition will not of itself account for. The main source of it lay elsewhere--one was high in spiritual attainments, the other was a learner in the same school, but as yet had learnt much less in it. We may discover in Mary two marks of a highly spiritual mind.
1. Notice, first, her composure; her composure, I mean, as to worldly things.
2. Observe in Mary another thing--an earnest desire of spiritual instruction. She sat, we read, at Jesus feet. But love for Him, we say, might have placed her there. She wished, perhaps, to be near her holy Guest and enjoy His society. No, says the evangelist, she sat at His feet, and heard His word. Warm-hearted as she was, she forgets or half forgets the friend in the teacher. Martha, on the contrary, had no such feelings. She appears to have turned aside altogether from our Lords instructions at this time, and to have done so almost without regret. She let the stream of heavenly wisdom flow by her untasted and unheeded. And indifference like hers is by no means uncommon now. There are some really Christian persons, who manifest a frame of mind exactly similar to it. They know very little of Divine things, and seem almost indifferent whether or not they ever know more. It is mournful that a dying sinner should be a thoughtful, inquiring man among his goods and merchandise, his sheep and cattle, shrewd and penetrating, taking nothing on trust, and sifting to the bottom everything that concerns him; and yet the same man put his mind to sleep as he opens his Bible or enters a church. Worldliness of heart only can account for this. Much serving leads us away from our great Teacher. Our low degree of knowledge is the result of a low degree of piety. We are not growing in grace, therefore we are not growing, nor desiring to grow, in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Knowledge and grace are as closely connected as the day and the light. If any of you should think I have laid too much stress on the two things I have noticed in Mary, and made too much of them, mark this--they are the exact points in which at this moment she most visibly resembled our Lord. He was quiet in a house of bustle; so was Mary. He made much of heavenly wisdom, for He began to teach it at soon as He entered that house; she made much of it also, for she sat down at His feet to learn it. You know what follows--the more we resemble Christ, the holier we are; the more like Him, the nearer we are to Him.
II. We are now to view this Scripture as DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE REAL CHRISTIAN AND ALL OTHER MEN.
1. It tells us that, with the real Christian, religion is a needful thing; it is known and felt to be such. The question is, be it what it may, has it this feature of sound piety--do you feel it to be absolutely necessary for you? Do you find that you need it at all times and in all things? Is it in your estimation of supreme importance?
2. But further--our Lord tells us here that true religion is something that is chosen; it is a matter of deliberate and serious choice. The religion that saves the soul, lays hold of the soul before it saves it, and the whole soul. It commends itself to the judgment, it wins the affections, it captivates the heart. It is first seen to be a necessary thing, then felt to be a blessed thing, then determined on as a thing which above all others shall be chosen, and followed, and held fast. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The choice of Mary
I. Our Saviour in the text speaks of true religion as ONE THING; and He appears thus to represent it in contradistinction to those many things which harassed and distracted the mind of Martha. True religion is something more than bearing the name of Christ, making an outward profession of religion, using with diligence the means of grace, supporting an external decency of conduct, or being kind and charitable to the poor. What is it? It is a conformity of heart and life to the will of God as made known to us in holy Scripture; or it is a compliance with it both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls. And in this view it is fitly represented as one thing. This one thing, however, consists of many parts--repentance, faith, holiness, &c.
II. Our Saviour in the text represents true religion as a NEEDFUL THING.
1. What He means is, that it is so much more needful than other things, that our chief care and attention should be directed to it; and that nothing else ought to be allowed for a moment to come in competition with it. Other things pertain to the body, and to the life that now is; whereas religion regards the soul, and the life which is to come. And as the soul is more precious than the body, and eternity more important than time, so is true religion infinitely more needful for us than every earthly blessing whatsoever.
2. Nor is true religion a blessing we need only occasionally. We want it at all times and in all circumstances, whether we are in prosperity or adversity, in sickness or in health, in trouble or in joy.
3. Nor will the time ever come when true religion will not be needful for us. It will be as needful for us in death as it is in life, as necessary in eternity as it is in time. It will then indeed, if possible, be unspeakably more needful for us than ever. Death and eternity will stamp on it a value and an importance of which we can now form but a faint conception.
III. It is still more. Our Saviour here represents it as a GOOD PART OR PORTION.
1. It insures a supply of our temporal wants. St. Paul tells us that it is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, no less than of that which is to come.
2. True religion enriches us. It puts us in possession, not indeed of the unrighteous mammon, but of the true riches While those who have no religion are represented in Scripture as poor, and blind, and naked, and ready to perish, those who have it are described as possessing all things. It is expressly said to them, All things are yours, and ye are Christs.
3. True religion contributes in a most essential manner to our contentment and happiness.
IV. True religion is A LASTING PORTION. It is a good part, which shall not be taken away from us. This cannot be said of any worldly portion. Our earthly possessions are only for a time, and that often a very short time. (D. Rees.)
The one thing needful
The mere posture of sitting down and listening to the Saviours word was nothing in itself: it was that which it indicated. It indicated, in Marys case, a readiness to believe what the Saviour taught, to accept and to obey--nay, to delight in, the precepts which fell from His lips. And this is the one thing needful. He that hath it hath the spirit of grace and life. To sit at Jesus feet implies submission, faith, discipleship, service, love. We must not learn of Christ like unwilling truant boys, who go to school and must needs have learning flogged into them; we must be eager to learn; we must open our mouth wide that He may fill it, like the thirsty earth when it needs the shower, our soul must break for the longing it hath towards His commandments at all times. We must rejoice in His statutes more than gold, yea, than much fine gold. When we are moved by this spirit, we have found the one thing needful.
I. To begin, then, here is a word of CONSIDERATION, which, as I have already said, is interjected into the middle of our Lords brief word to Martha. Shall I say a word that should discourage your industry? I will not; but, but is there nothing else?--is this life all? Is making money everything?
II. Our text speaks of NECESSITY--one thing is a necessity. If this be proven, it overrides all other considerations. We are nearly right when we say proverbially, Necessity has no law. If a man steal, and it be found that he was dying of hunger, he is always half forgiven, and charity has been known to excuse him altogether. Necessity has been frequently accepted as a good excuse for what else might not have been tolerated; and when a thing is right, and necessity backs it, then indeed the right becomes imperative, and pushes to the front to force its way. Necessity, like hunger, breaks through stone walls. The text claims for sitting at Jesus feet that it is the first and only necessity. Now, I see all around me a crowd of things alluring and fascinating. Pleasure calls to me; I hear her syren song--but I reply, I cannot regard thee, for necessity presses upon me to hearken to another voice. Philosophy and learning charm me: fain would I yield my heart to them; bur, while I am yet unsaved, the one thing needful demands my first care, and wisdom bids me give it. Not that we love human learning less, but eternal wisdom more. Pearls? Yes. Emeralds? Yes; but bread in Gods name--bread at once, when I am starving in the desert! What is the use of ingots of gold, or bars of silver, or caskets of jewels, when food is wanting? If one thing be needful, it devours, like Aarons rod, all the matters which are merely pleasurable. All the fascinating things on earth may go, but needful things we must have. If you are wise, you will evermore prefer the necessary to the dazzling. About us are a thousand things entangling. This world is very much like the pools we have heard of in India, in which grows a long grass of so clinging a character that, if a man once falls into the water, it is almost certain to be his death, for only with the utmost difficulty could he be rescued from the meshes of the deadly, weedy net, which immediately wraps itself around him. This world is even thus entangling. All the efforts of grace are needed to preserve men from being ensnared with the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this life. The ledger demands you, the day-book wants you, the shop requires you, the warehouse bell rings for you; the theatre invites, the ball-room calls: you must live, you say, and you must have a little enjoyment, and, consequently, you give your heart to the world. These things, I say, are very entangling; but we must be disentangled from them, for we cannot afford to lose our souls. In order to enter heaven, it is necessary that our nature should become like the nature of Christ. By sitting at His feet, and beholding Him, we become changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Some things in this world are necessary, after a measure, but this is necessary without measure; infinitely needful is it that you sit at Jesus feet, needful now, needful in life; needful in life for peace, in death for rest, and in eternity for bliss. This is needful always. Many things have their uses for youth, others come not into value till old age; but one thing, the one thing, is needful for childhood, and needful for palsied age; it is needful for the ruddy cheek, and the active limb, and needful upon the sick bed; needful in the world, and in the Church, needful everywhere, and always. In the highest and most emphatic sense, one thing is needful.
III. Thus much about the necessity, the next word is CONCENTRATION; One thing is needful. I am glad it says one thing, because a division of ends and objects is always weakening. A man cannot follow two things well. Our life-blood suffices not to fill two streams or three; there is only enough water, as it were, in our lifes brooklet, to turn one wheel. It is a great pity when a man fritters away his energies by being everything by turns, and nothing long; trying all things, and mastering nothing. Oh, soul, it is well for thee that there is only one thing in this world that is absolutely necessary, give thy whole soul to that. If other things are necessary in a secondary place, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these shall be added unto you. One thing is needful, and this is well arranged, for we cannot follow two things. If Christ be one of them, we cannot follow another. It is an unspeakable mercy that the one thing needful is a very simple one. Little child, thou couldst not climb the mountain, but thou canst sit down at Jesus feet; thou canst not understand hard doctrine, but thou canst love Him.
IV. The last word is IMMEDIATENESS, and there is no need that we say much upon it. One thing is a necessity, a necessity not of the future only, but of to-day. It is not written, it shall be needful, on certain coming days, to sit at Jesus feet; but it is so now. Young man, one thing is necessary to you while yet young; do not postpone it till advanced years. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The one thing needful
I. THAT THERE MUST BE ONE PREDOMINATING INTEREST IN THE LIFE--not a multiplicity of interests, swaying the mind by turns--Thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful. Variety seems to you to be an essential element of happiness; and the systematizing of life, by reducing its component actions to one and the same principle, appears to exclude variety, and to involve such a repetition and recurrence of the same idea as cannot fail to be dull. Is this your view? Then let me address myself to answer it; for it admits of an answer most satisfactory and conclusive. We fully admit that, as human nature is constituted, variety is an essential element of happiness. In our present state of existence, a continual recurrence of one action, however exciting, or of one strain of thought and feeling, however interesting, could not fail of becoming tedious and wearisome. Our nature, moral and intellectual, needs change. But in what has been said we have not been advocating uniformity of occupations, whether mental or bodily, but only the pervading of all occupations, diversified as they may be, by an unity of principle. Occupations the most various may be engaged in with one leading design. Business the most trivial and commonplace may be executed with a ruling aim and in a lofty spirit. Is it not evidently feasible to reduce our life from an unconnected series of movements, flowing from whatever impulse is at the time uppermost, to a system, composed, indeed, of divers parts, and exhibiting divers operations, but actuated by a common principle, and working towards a common end? And what we assert is that, without such organization, life is destitute of happiness, and destitute of dignity. Busy and bustling it may be--chequered with many incidents it may be; but it will always be agitated by an instinctive restlessness.
II. THAT THIS PREDOMINATING INTEREST MUST NOT BE OF A TRANSIENT NATURE--must have reference not to time, but to eternity. Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Every worldly interest must one day recede. If it have no reference to eternity, it must one day be taken away. If it be an interest which we are unable to carry with us beyond the barriers of the grave, the consistent prosecution of it may indeed impart a fugitive dignity to our few brief years of existence, but will never adequately develop the energies of our moral nature, and will never confer happiness--a boon unattainable, wherever the insecurity and precarious tenure of the object of pursuit is continually recurring to the mind. What remains then, brethren, but that we should set before you the ruling principle which governs, and pervades, and communicates unity to, the various actions of the Christians life--the one good part which, when all objects of earthly interest are to our apprehensions dwindling into their native insignificance, shall not even then be taken away from him? This ruling principle, defined according to its motive, is the constraining love of a crucified Redeemer: defined according to its aim, it is the glory of God. (Dean Goulburn.)
The single need
Christs words imply no disapproval of active service as against a contemplative or meditative life. It is not Marthas activity that He is rebuking, but her anxiety and distraction. He who went about doing good, and who said, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, was not the one to rebuke active ministry. The point of His rebuke lies in enforcing the pursuit of one thing as against many things. It may have been that the peculiar form of the expression grew out of the feast itself. Martha has provided, with much worry and care, many things to eat. To sustain life, only one thing is absolutely needful; or, as some read it, There is need of few things, or of one. Be this as it may, the lesson is plain: the life of the soul depends on one thing; the whole energy of the soul should be concentrated upon that. Suppose a man who had never seen a great machine-shop, and who knew nothing of the power of steam or water, were set down in a great hall full of lathes and looms and circular saws, and required to set the machinery in motion: how many men he would call in 1 how many separate contrivances he would apply to each machine! how he would bustle about from wheel to wheel, from lathe to lathe, now heaving away at a great trip-hammer, now cutting his fingers on a circular saw, now turning round the driving-wheel of a lathe! And at this point the experienced engineer comes in, and laughs as he sees the poor mans perplexity, and says to him, My friend, all this trouble is unnecessary; only one thing is needful; and he slips a belt over a drum, and pulls a lever, and behold I the whole hall is in a whirl--lathes, saws, trip-hammers, all in motion, without a hand on any of them. Or, here is a schoolboy with his arithmetic before him, and a whole page of examples to work out: and he takes each example by itself, and tries to think his way through it; trying all sorts of experiments, applying one method to one, and another to another, and getting more confused every minute. Presently the teacher looks over his shoulder at his slate covered with a chaotic mass of figures, and glances at the boys hot and troubled face, and says to him, You are taking a good deal of unnecessary trouble. This is not as hard as it looks: only one thing is needful; all these examples are illustrations of one law. And he sits down, and explains a simple principle to the lad; and then the work becomes a delight. The boy has a clue in his hand which leads him straight through the whole labyrinth of figures. He turns from the multitude of details to the principle, and finds that the details arrange themselves, and the answer comes right every time. So that there is nothing arbitrary or unnatural, or even unfamiliar, in the gospels summing itself in one thing, and concentrating mens attention on that. When a man buys an estate of so many acres, he does not ask for separate titles for the woodland and the pasture and the streams and the mines. He wants one title to the estate. He pays so much; and then, if there is gold or coal or an oil-well on the estate, that is his. The purchase of the estate gives him command of all its possibilities, whether apparent or latent. And so, when God would lead a man to spiritual power and riches by the most direct road, He leads him to Christ. He says: Receive Him implicitly. Only that one thing is needful; the rest follows, the rest is contained in Him, all things are in Him--all power, all grace, all wisdom, all spiritual possibilities of every kind; and, therefore, when you receive Him, you receive all these things with Him. The first thing with us all, the one thing, is to get home to Christ--not merely to read about Him or to speculate about His character, but to get face to face with Him. We contemplate too many things: we range all along the vast circumference of duty, instead of striking direct for the centre; we live by law, which takes up duty in detail, instead of by love, which masses and carries all details. We too often act as if God had merely recognized us as His children, and given us the freedom of His house, and then left us to ourselves to work out our life as best we could. That is not Gods way. When He makes us His children through faith in Christ Jesus, He assumes the care of our life in all its details. He not only turns us loose in His house: He goes with us into every corner, and shows us its treasures. He not only gives us the freedom of His domain: He assigns each of us His plot of ground, and stands by us while we try to sow the seed and water the growths, and teaches us how to be workers for and with Him; and as for our care, all that tends to distract and cumber and confuse us He bids us cast it all on Him. Christian life, I say, is simple. It may seem to us that there is a little support on which to cast such a burden and problem as life is to most of us, but we shall do well to try it. Day before yesterday I had occasion to go to the lower part of the city by the elevated railroad; and, as I got out at Hanover Square, I looked down upon the street far below, and a thought something like this went through my mind: Supposing that, without any knowledge of the existence and mode of working of an elevated railway, I had been placed on this train while asleep or unconscious, and had awakened at this station, and been told that I must get down to that street. I get out of the train, and find myself on a narrow platform. I look down on either side, and say, No way down there, except by being dashed to pieces. Instinctively I follow those in front of me. Steps, but the door is shut: no getting down there. I follow still. A door, but it opens into an enclosure. I follow still. Another door, and there are steps which lead me safely and easily down to the street. I might have stood still, and distracted myself with a dozen devices for getting down. I might have gone bustling about, looking for a rope or a ladder. There was only one thing needful, and that was, to follow those who knew the way.
So in our Christian experience, one thing is needful--the part which Mary chose, to hear Jesus words and to follow Him. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
The one thing needful
We learn from the text that true religion is needful, and is a good thing, and will never be taken away from those who possess it. We shall endeavour to show the excellence and necessity of Divine knowledge with its accompaniments, by several considerations.
I. This knowledge is necessary to our reconciliation with God. This is to him the good part which he has chosen for his heritage, and equally needful for all. Of this knowledge, Christ is the sum and substance.
II. The second consideration which serves to show the necessity and excellence of the knowledge of Divine truth, is, that in this knowledge, and the holy affections which flow from it, consists the highest dignity and supreme excellence and felicity of human nature. In proportion to our knowledge will be our love; and from this perennial fountain will flow uninterrupted happiness.
III. A third consideration which goes fully to justify the choice of Mary is, that the good part on which she had fixed her affections, should never be taken away from her. (A. Alexander, D. D.)
The one thing needful
1. The text reminds us that we are endowed with the power of choice, and are responsible for its exercise. Mary hath chosen the good part. It was her own act, and she was commended for it. This truth is perfectly consistent with the assurance that we are saved, not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Universally it is true that without Him we can do nothing. Yet it is also true that, as He does help us, we are able to do very much and are bound to do it.
2. Let me urge the importance of youth as a season for exercising this choice. A train of carriages once set in motion on the rails, easily goes forward on the same track. Most persons go through life as they first set out. If you, in youth, deliberately neglect the one thing needful, your wrong choice now may be your evil genius in old age, and your ruin eternally.
3. Let me then urge on you the great motive to a right decision which the text suggests. Many things on the one hand, the one thing needful on the other, solicit your preference. The world sets before you its various objects of desire--wealth, ease, learning, pleasure, fame, power, admiration. Let me remind you that, however desirable, they are not necessary. Moreover, all these many things are fleeting, as well as nonessential. They can only be for a little while. Beauty, riches, rank, admiration, health, life, will be taken away. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
Scriptural religion the one thing needful.
It is the one thing needful for--
1. The safety of man.
2. The usefulness of man.
3. The support and comfort of man.
4. The present and eternal well-being of man. (J. Smyth, D. D.)
The care of our souls, the one thing needful
I. WHEREIN THIS CARE OF OUR SOULS CONSISTS.
1. The due care of religion and our souls doth consist in the distinct knowledge, and in the firm belief and persuasion of those things which are necessary to be known and believed by us in order to our eternal salvation.
2. The due care of our souls consists in the frequent examination of outlives and actions, and in a sincere repentance for all the errors and miscarriages of them: in a more particular and deep humiliation and repentance for deliberate and wilful sins, so far as we can call them to our remembrance; and in a general repentance for sins of ignorance, and infirmity, and surprise.
3. The due care of our souls consists in the constant and daily exercise of piety and devotion, both in private and in public, if there be opportunity for it, especially at proper times, and upon more solemn occasions; by fervent prayer to God, and by hearing and reading the Word of God with reverence and godly fear; by frequenting His public worship, and demeaning ourselves in it with that solemnity and seriousness which becomes the presence and service of God.
4. The due care of our souls consists also in avoiding those things which are pernicious to our salvation, and whereby men do often hazard their souls.
5. The due care of our souls consists in the even and constant practice of the several graces and virtues of a good life; or, as the apostle expresseth it, in exercising ourselves always to have a conscience void of offence towards God and men. For herein is religion best seen, in an equal and uniform practice of every part of our duty; net only in serving God devoutly, but in demeaning ourselves peaceably and justly, kindly and charitably towards all men; not only in restraining ourselves from the outward act of sin, but in mortifying the inward inclination to it, in subduing our lusts, and governing our passions, and bridling our tongues.
III. proceed now, in the second place, TO CONVINCE US ALL, IF IT MAY BE, OF THE NECESSITY OF MINDING RELIGION AND OUR souls. When we call anything necessary, we mean that it is so in order to some end, which cannot be attained without it. We call those things the necessaries of life, without which men cannot subsist and live in a tolerable condition in this world; and that is necessary to our eternal happiness, without which it cannot be attained. Now happiness being our chief end, whatever is necessary to that, is more necessary than anything else; and in comparison of that, all other things not only may, but ought to be neglected by us.
1. That religion is a certain way to happiness. And for this we hare Gods express declaration and promise--the best assurance that can be. He that cannot lie, hath promised eternal life to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality.
2. It is certain also that there is no other way to happiness but this. We must be like to God in the temper of our minds, before we can find any felicity in the enjoyment of Him.
3. If we neglect religion, we shall certainly be extremely and for ever miserable. (Archbishop Tillotson.)
The one thing needful
But why is this concern which is so complex called one thing? I answer: Though salvation and holiness include various ingredients, and though the means of grace are various, yet they may be all taken collectively and called one thing; i.e., one great business, one important object of pursuit, in which all our endeavours and aims should centre and terminate.
1. It is also said to be one, in opposition to the many things that are the objects of a worldly mind.
2. It may also be called the one thing needful, to intimate that this is needful above all other things.
3. This is so necessary, that nothing else deserves to be called necessary in comparison of it.
This shows you also, not only why this is called one thing, but why or in what sense it is said to be necessary. It is of absolute and incomparable necessity.
1. However well you have improved your time for other purposes, you have lost it all, unless you have improved it in securing the one thing needful. The proper notion of time is, that it is a space for repentance. Time is given us to prepare for eternity.
2. Whatever else you have been doing, you have lost your labour with your time, if you have not laboured above all things for this one thing needful. A child or an idiot riding upon a staff, building their mimic houses, or playing with a feather, are not so foolish as you in your conduct, while you are so seriously pursuing the affairs of time, and neglecting those of eternity.
3. This is not all: all your labour and pains have not only been lost while you have neglected one thing, but you have taken pains to ruin yourselves, and laboured hard all your lives for your own destruction. We were far from having any such design. But the question is not, what was your design? but, what is the unavoidable consequence of your conduct, according to the nature of things, and the unchangeable constitution of heaven? Whatever you design in going on in sin, the wages of sin is death, eternal death.
4. If you have hitherto neglected the one thing needful, you have unmanned yourselves, acted beneath and contrary to your own reason, and in plain terms behaved as if you had been out of your senses. If you have the use of your reason, it must certainly tell you for what it was given to you. And I beseech you tell me what it was given to you for but to serve the God that made you, to secure His favour, to prepare for your eternal state, and to enjoy the supreme good as your portion? (President Davies.)
One thing is needful
1. In order rightly to employ the time of life.
2. In order rightly to enjoy the joy of life.
3. In order rightly to endure the burdens of life.
4. In order rightly to await the end of life. (Van Oosterzee.)
One thing only is necessary
Run to and fro in the world, and in that great emporium and mart of toys and vanities find out one thing that is necessary if you can, though you search it, as the prophet speaks, with candles. Is it necessary to be rich? Behold Dives in hell, and Lazarus in Abrahams bosom. Is it necessary to be noble? Not many noble are called. Is it necessary to be learned? Where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Everything hath its necessity from us) not from itself; for of itself it cannot show anything that should make it so: it is we that file these chains, and fashion these nails of necessity and make her hand of brass. Riches are necessary because we are covetous; honour is necessary because we are proud and love to have the pre-eminence. Pleasure is necessary because we love it more than God. Revenge is necessary because we delight in blood. Lord, how many necessaries do we make when there is but one? one, sine qua non debimus, without which we ought not, and sine quo non possumus, without which we cannot be happy; and that is our assimilation and being made like unto Christ, in whom alone all the treasures of wisdom, and riches, and honour, all that is necessary for us are to be found (Luk_14:18-20; Col_2:10). (A. Farindon.)
One thing is needful
The other day I stood outside of a church in my native county, in Scotland. I never was inside that church but once, and that was, I am afraid to say forty years ago, certainly thirty-five, at least, and I heard there a minister whom I had never heard before or since, and he preached from this text, One thing is needful, and although years passed before I was converted to God, I can say here to-night, as before Him, that word went home to my soul in power, and never left me. That one short sentence taught me that I was wrong, and that I should never be right until I came to Christ. It followed me for years, until God in His infinite mercy led me to put my trust in that blessed Saviour whom I hope I still love and seek to serve. (W. P. Lockhart.)
Need of both Martha and Mary
We need to combine the theoretical and the practical, the doctrinal with the experimental. Either extreme, exclusively, is to be avoided. Do not be ascetic when the world is full of work--good, honest, remunerative work, that requires the best wisdom for its performance. Three doctors of divinity were dining together. The character of the model wife was discussed. The first thought that Martha, of Bethany, filled the bill. The second, somewhat at a loss, thought he should prefer Mary. The third, when appealed to, immediately replied, Oh, I think I should choose Martha before dinner, and Mary after it. May we all sit at the feet of Jesus as learners, that we may become all the more useful and helpful as workers. (L. O. Thompson.)
The only thing of importance
In Whitefields Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road, is an inscription to a once celebrated sculptor, designed with the tomb by himself. It runs as follows: What I was as an artist, seemed of some importance while I lived; but what I really was, as a believer in Christ Jesus, is the only thing of importance to me now.
The good part best
St. Bernard, the son of a Knight of Burgundy, having devoted himself to a monastic life, persuaded four brothers, of whom the two elder were, like their father, stout fighting men, to follow his example. Only the youngest remained for a secular life, and he was but a child. As they were finally leaving the paternal castle, one of them said to the boy: Nivard, you are now owner of all our property. What? replied the boy, you have heaven, and I the earth; that is no fair division!
Realizing the love of God as the one thing needful
A little girl in Paris, seven years old was observed to read the New Testament continually. Being asked what pleasure she found in doing so, she said, It makes us wise, and teaches us how to love God. She had been reading the history of Martha and Mary. What is the one thing needful? asked her friend. It is the love of God, she replied, very earnestly.
The better part
The preference which Jesus manifested for the character of Mary, has, I believe, been often esteemed more poetical than just. It has been accused as a romantic judgment, giving countenance to the mischievous belief that the qualities best adapted for this world are uncongenial with the spirit of the other. The passage has been read not without a secret pity for the good Martha; and many a worthy housewife has thought within herself, It seems rather hard that this is what we get for our pains. From the outside it looks so easy to sit still and gaze upon the face of heavenly goodness,--so pleasant to take in the lessons of holy truth, that those who see the attitude from amid the toil and heat of the common day, regard it only as a mental luxury, a coolness from the tree of life upon the grass of thought; more fit to be envied of men than applauded of the Son of God. And yet there is the deepest truth discoverable in this verdict of Christ; and the whole history of individual character, and of collective society, leads us to the same result. Those to whom life is a succession of particular businesses, however intelligent, energetic, and conscientious, must rank in the scale of human excellence below those to whom life is rather the flow of one spirit. (J. Martineau, D. D.)
The one thing needful
It is an unspeakable mercy that the one thing needful is a very simple one. To sit at Jesus feet in humble submission and quiet rest--He the Master and I the little child; I the vessel waiting to be filled and He my fulness; I the mown grass and He the falling dew; I the raindrop and He the sun that makes me glisten in life with diamond brilliance, and then exhales me in death to be absorbed in Him--this is all in all to me. Let love permeate everything and other virtues will grow out of it, as flowers spring from the soil. So when we say that sitting at Jesus feet is the one thing needful, we have not uttered a mere truism; it comprehends a world of blessing. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
I. I WISH TO SPEAK OF SOME THINGS WHICH ARE NEEDFUL IN A SECONDARY OR SUBORDINATE SENSE. Cultivation of the mind; care for the body; diligence in business; faithfulness as a citizen.
II. THE ONE THING WHICH OUR LORD HERE REFERS TO AS BEING NEEDFUL. She sat. She sat at Jesus feet. She heard His word.
III. SOME OF THE OBJECTIONS WHICH ARE MADE WITH REGARD TO DECISION FOR CHRIST.
1. It is a humbling thing.
2. Christianity is unmanly.
3. There are some very limp Christians.
4. There will have to be a very great deal of self-denial if I become a Christian.
5. It is such a difficult thing to live a Christian life. These objections will not bear examination. (W. P. Lockhart.)
One thing is needful
Write down a line of ciphers! You may add thousands, multiplying them till the sheets they fill cover the face of heaven and earth--they express nothing. Now take the lowest number of the ten, the smallest digit, and place that at their head; magic never wrought such a change! What before amounted to nothing, rises instantly by the addition of one figure, one stroke of the pen, into thousands, or millions, as the ease may be; and whether they represent pounds or pearls, how great is the sum of them! (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Mary hath chosen that good part
The good part of Mary
I. It would appear, on our Lords own authority, that there are TWO WAYS OF SERVING HIM--by active business, and by quiet adoration. And further, these two classes of His disciples do not choose for themselves their course of service, but are allotted it by Him, Martha might be the elder, Mary the younger. I do not say that it is never left to a Christian to choose his own path, whether he will minister with the angels or adore with the seraphim; often it is: and well may he bless God if he has it in his power freely to choose that good portion which our Saviour especially praises. But, for the most part, each has his own place marked out for him, if he will take it, in the course of His providence; at least there can be no doubt who are intended for worldly cares. The necessity of getting a living, the calls of a family, the duties of station and office, these are Gods tokens, tracing out Marthas path for the many. Let me, then, dismiss the consideration of the many, and rather mention who they are who may be considered as called to the more favoured portion of Mary; and in doing so I shall more clearly show what that portion is. First, I instance the old, as is natural, whose season of business is past, and who seem to be thereby reminded to serve God by prayer and contemplation. Next those, who minister at the altar, are included in Marys portion. Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and causest to approach unto Thee, says the psalmist, that he may dwell in Thy courts. And next, I may mention children as in some respects partakers of Marys portion. Till they go out into the world, whether into its trades or its professions, their school-time should be, in some sort, a contemplation of their Lord and Saviour. Further, we are told, on St. Pauls authority (if that be necessary on so obvious a point), that Marys portion is allotted, more or less, to the unmarried. I say more or less, for Martha herself, though unmarried, yet as mistress of a household, was in a measure an exception; and because servants of God, as St. Paul, may remain unmarried, not to labour less, but to labour more directly for the Lord. The unmarried careth for the things of the Lord, so as to be holy both in body and in spirit. And this I speak for your own profit, that ye may sit at the Lords feet without being cumbered. And, further still, there are vast numbers of Christians, in Marys case, who are placed in various circumstances, and of whom no description can well be given; rich men having leisure, or active men during seasons of leisure, as when they leave their ordinary work for recreations sake. Certainly our Lord meant that some or other of His servants should be ever worshipping Him in every place, and that not in their hearts merely, but with the ceremonial of devotion. And, last of all, in Marys portion, doubtless, are included the souls of those who have lived and died in the faith and fear of Christ. Scripture tells us that they rest from their labours; and in the same sacred books that their employment is prayer and praise.
II. MARYS PORTION IS THE BETTER OF THE TWO. Our Lords words imply, not that Marthas heart was not right with Him, but that her portion was full of snares, as being one of worldly labour, but that Mary could not easily go wrong in hers; that we may be busy in a wrong way, we cannot well adore Him except in a right one; that to serve God by prayer and praise continually, when we can do so consistently with other duties, is the pursuit of the one thing needful, and emphatically that good part which shall not be taken away from us. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
The worthy portion
I. THE ONE THING. This one thing is not one dish, as Theophylact; nor unity, as Augustine; nor one grace, whether faith, hope, or charity, as others. But this one thing is the Christian care that every one ought to have of his own salvation, because--
1. The cares of Mary and Martha are opposed.
2. This was the good part chosen by Mary, namely, a care how to be saved.
3. To this is perseverence promised, for as salvation is the good part of the elect, which shall never be taken away, so neither shall this care to attain that end by the means, for God preserves it by means.
II. How IS IT NECESSARY?
1. In order above and before all things. First seek the kingdom of God Mat_6:33), that is, to get into the estate of grace, as Israel must seek manna the first thing they do in the morning.
2. This one thing is simply necessary for itself, all other things for this.
3. It is transcendently necessary far beyond all things in the world, for this is alone sufficient for happiness and salvation, all they insufficient.
4. It is perpetually necessary while we live, lest beginning in the spirit we end in the flesh. The crown is set on the head of the conqueror.
III. BUT WHY IS IT SO NECESSARY?
1. Because this one thing neglected, all other things are unprofitable, yea, all other things are vile without it; what would the gain of the whole world profit him that loseth his soul? How doth the apostle esteem all things loss and dung in comparison of Christ in the means? All without ones self, authority, wealth, favour, honour; yea, and all within ones self, knowledge, wisdom, memory, discourse, and the most excellent gifts which the apostle had in abundance, all dung and loss.
2. All actions, words, thoughts, profession, and the whole course not accompanied with this care, do swerve and err, and being not of faith are sinful, idle, hurtful; everything is lossful that helps not toward heaven, or that hinders heaven from being still held in our eye.
3. God delighteth only in such as in whom He espieth this care.
4. This one thing and care affordeth a man the surest comfort in the world, yea, in the agony of death it cheers the heart to have had a care of the best things. The point is this. In the most earnest affairs of this life a Christian must never forget the one thing necessary; as here we see, the care of salvation must take place of the care of entertaining Christs own person.
And why?
1. The excellency of grace and glory, of Christ and His gospel, is such as should draw all eyes from off these shadows and vanishing contentments to the surpassing brightness of it. What is earth to heaven, earthly goods to heavenly grace? What is gold and silver but dust of the earth, and base things to enter comparison with the blessings of the gospel? What a sin and shame is it to set the moon above the sun, to prefer pottage before the blessing, swine before Christ, and husks before the bread in our Fathers house?
2. The dignity of the soul requires the chief care to keep and save it. It is a particle of Divine breath, called the precious soul of man (Pro_6:26), not made for the body, but the body to be the tabernacle of the soul, and the souls instrument to work by, so precious, as that the ransom of it must be beyond all corruptible things; not gold and silver can deliver it, but only the precious blood of Christ (1Pe_1:18-19). And the soul being lost, what recompense can be given?
3. The presence of grace makes a man serious in this care for the one thing necessary. It lets a man see the danger of the soul without it. It shows the means of recovery out of this woeful estate. It enables him to behold the worth of grace. Labour, then, to discern and conclude, that this is the one thing necessary.
To do which, we must do three things.
1. Inform our judgments aright, which are the best things. They are such as serve to the main end, to uphold and maintain Christian life.
2. Resolve to do that which rightly-informed judgment suggests.
3. Avoid the lets and hindrances by which this care of the one thing necessary is usually put off; two specially.
First, carnal and proud conceits. Martha must be counted a good housewife, and may not disgrace herself now at such a time, and Christ may be heard another time, or if not, she is well enough; she hath given Christ entertainment. Oh, but he is the best husband and she the best housewife who provide best for their souls, who have care-that everything lie handsome and cleanly within, who hear Christ upon all occasions, and give Him not a meals-meat in their houses, or entertain His disciples and ministers at their tables, but give Him entertainment in their hearts; without which care the best entertainment is not worth a rush, no, not if Christs own person were at thy table; for many will say at that day, We have eaten and drunk with Thee, to whom He shall profess, Depart from Me, I know you not. Secondly, evil example. It was so common for women to bestir themselves at such a time, as Martha makes a complaint of Mary to Christ, because she did not help her, saying, Bid her come help me. But happy was Mary that attended Christ, though alone. If many run in byeways and see not the one thing necessary, yea, and account it the most unnecessary of all, we must not go in their way, but sit down (though alone) at the feet of Christ. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Marys choice
Nay, this whole life is a life of necessities, how then is there but one thing necessary? I answer, it is true these things are necessary in their compass and sphere for this present life, but this life itself is nothing without a better being, and we had better not be than be and not be translated hereafter to a better life, and therefore Christ applies Himself to these means, as to that which conducteth us to that better life, which is only absolutely necessary. But, it may be urged, is not Christs righteousness, faith, Gods Spirit, more than one; and yet are they net all necessary? I answer, though they be diverse, yet they run all to one end. Even as many links make one chain, so all these tend to make a man one, that is a Christian; and therefore a wise soul considers them as one thing, and runs over them all at one view. And first, consider in everything what reference it hath to this one thing, what reference it hath to grace and glory. So long as we neglect this, the devil cares not what we have, whither we go, in what company we are; all is one to him. Secondly, carry ourselves respectively according to the necessity of the things that we are to be busied about, whereof some are more, some less necessary, according as they have more or less good in them. Those that cannot stand with this main one thing, cut them off, for other things that are necessarily required for our well-being in this life, as our daily bread, our callings in these, and the like. Thirdly, take heed of faithless cares, and beg wisdom to despatch business so as they prejudice not the main, and look still how they aim at the main end. As travellers and warriors do unburden themselves of things less necessary, so let us take heed of entangling ourselves in the cares of this life (2Ti_2:4). Fourthly, in all business we should observe what the main end is, and labour to direct them to that main end. All other things are temporal, and death buries them, but grace and glory are in extent equal to our souls, extending to all eternity. Grace and the fruits thereof is our own; all other things are not ours. Grace brings us to the greatest good, and advanceth us to the true nobility of sons and heirs of God, and grace makes us truly wise. It makes us wise to salvation; it makes us truly rich with such riches as we cannot lose. Grace is so good, it makes ill things good, so as afflictions with the word and grace are better than all the pleasures in Pharaohs court in Mosess esteem (Heb_11:25). Seeing it is thus, let us be animated by this example of Mary; and to that end, first, beg the Spirit of revelation to open our eyes to see the high prize of our calling, the happiness thereof; and to get a sense and taste of the pleasures thereof, that we may judge by our own experience. For the meanest Christian out of experience knows this to be the good part; and this it is which the apostle prays for (Php_1:10), that the Philippians may approve the things that are excellent. The word signifies in all sense and feeling, to approve the things that are excellent, or do differ. Secondly, let us endeavour to balance things, by laying and comparing them together. For comparison gives lustre; and thus shall we see the difference and the excellency of some things above others, and the sooner be able to choose. Thus did David; and the effect thereof was this, I have seen an end of all created perfection, but thy commandments are exceeding broad or large (Psa_119:96). Thirdly, labour for spiritual discretion to discern of particulars. This is, as it were, the steward to all actions, teaching what to cut off, what to add. In all particular affairs of this life, what time and what place fitteth best, tells what company, what life, what way is the best. And when we have done this--fourthly, proceed on and make this choice. If we do not choose it only, but stumble upon it, as it were, it is no thank to us. Though it be the fashion nowadays; men read the Word, and go to church; why? Not that they have, by balancing and the spirit of discretion, made choice of this as the best part, but they were bred up in it; and they went with company, and custom hath drawn them to it; they happen on good duties it may be against their wills; and this is the reason of those many apostates that fall off to embrace this present world, as Demas did (2Ti_4:10); for they not being grounded, must needs waver in temptation. Fifthly, in the next place, when we have made this choice, we must resolve with a deliberate resolution to stand by this choice. It is not enough to make an offer, or to cheapen, as we say, but come with resolution to buy, to choose. So David, I have chosen the way of truth, and have stuck to Thy statutes (Psa_119:30-31); and (verse 57), I have said, that is, set down with myself, that I would keep Thy words: for the will rules in our souls. If we be good, our will is good. There are many wicked men that understand and are persuaded what is best; but for want of this resolution and will they never make this determinate choice; and many rail at good men and persecute them. Let such know that God will not take men by chance. If they choose the worst part, they must look for to reap the fruit of their choice. Sixthly, in the next place, come we often, and sit at Christs feet, as Mary here came to the ministry. He that heareth you heareth Me, saith Christ. Live under a powerful plain ministry. Lastly, labour to draw on others to this choice. By so much the more earnest endeavour, by how much the more we have been a means to draw them to ill heretofore, and this will seal up all the rest, it being a sure sign of our perfect and sincere choice. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
Marys choice
As the head and the foot are both needful in the body, so Mary and Martha are both needful in a commonwealth; man hath two vocations, the one earthly by his labour, the other heavenly by his prayer. There is the active life, which consisteth in practising the affairs of this life, wherein man showeth himself to be like himself; and there is the contemplative life, which consisteth in the meditation of Divine and heavenly things, wherein man showeth himself to be like the angels; for they which labour in their temporal vocations, do live like men; but they which labour in spiritual matters, live like angels. A nurse which hath her breast full of milk doth love the child that sucks it from her; and Christ which hath His breast full of heavenly milk is glad when He hath children to suck the same; let us therefore, as the apostle willeth us (1Pe_2:12), laying aside all maliciousness, and all guile, and dissimulation, and envy, and all evil speaking, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby, to be perfect men in Christ Jesus. Let us breathe after the fountain of the living water, which springeth up into eternal life; and as the fainty hart desireth the water-brook to quench his thirst (Psa_42:1). (H. Smith.)
The service of rest
Here were two services, both earnest, both from loving hearts, both for Christ, both greatly to be emulated--the one active, the other passive--one doing for Christ, the other receiving from Christ, one toiling, the other sitting at the feet. But Christ had no hesitation which He preferred, and has left it beyond a question, that, in that instance at least, the service of work was inferior to the service of rest. But now, we must be careful before we proceed that we understand very accurately what rest is. Idleness and rest are two of the most diametrically opposite things in the whole world. Idleness is a selfish thing, done on no principle, to please nature. Rest is a holy thing, done measuredly, and with a purpose, to please God, and to fit to work. An idle man never rests. Who has not found the restlessness of inactivity, and that the hardest thing we ever do is when we do nothing? But what is rest? Rest, being a relative term, is essentially retrospective and prospective. It pre-supposes that there has been labour; for where there is no fatigue, there is no rest. And it is not rest worthy of a man unless it be preparatory to work which is to follow, and which is to be the better for the temporary intermission. But what is the present character of rest, and how are resting-times to be spent? I say generally, as Mary spent her opportunity in the house at Bethany, as David the solitude of his chamber, as Paul the desert, as Christ the mountain. Perhaps we should be right to say, rest is not so much a cessation from work as a change of employment. Whereas the work was outward, in rest it is inward; still, more rest than work. Never, brethren, are we better practising for heaven than when we are learning the service of rest. Do not be afraid, in your hours of sickness and weakness, to take the comfort of the thought. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The best dish
There is a touch of playfulness in our Lords reply to Martha. He takes an image from the very table about which Martha was so unnecessarily and unduly anxious: for the words rendered Mary hath chosen the good part, mean Mary hath chosen the good portion, the best dish, the Benjamins mess. It is as though He had said to the careful and fretted housekeeper: You are very kind, Martha; you are doing your best to please Me, and to give Me as good a dinner as you can: and yet it is Mary who has brought Me the best dish, the food I like most. She is nourishing and refreshing My spirit with her love and sympathy. She is giving Me an opportunity of feeding her with the bread of life and the wine of the kingdom. Our fellowship with each other is the true feast. And you, O you poor Martha, are so taken up with your dainties that you are losing the feast! Obviously, our Lord stoops to Marthas level, to the busy housekeepers point of view, and playfully rebukes her for her mistake. Her mind is full of dishes and dainties, so full, and so bewildered, that she is forgetting the best dish of all. She wants to serve Him and do Him honour; but she is pre-occupied with thoughts of how she may do her best for Him. And so He teaches her that she will best serve both herself and Him by casting aside her cares, and giving herself up to the joy of communion with Him. Now if you ask me to name this best dish, to tell you exactly what the one thing needful is, I am a little puzzled how to reply; not, however, because I do not know what it is. First, I will tell you what I think the one thing needful is. I believe it is that love for God and man which quickens and sustains the true life within us, and redeems us from all anxieties for the many things of our outward life. But if you rise into this pure, deep, and trustful love, you will be saved from all these base and vexing cares and fears. You will do your best in your several stations. You will be as diligent, as prudent, as skilful, as you can; and then you will leave the results of your faithful discharge of duty with God; fearing no evil, because you know there is no want to them that fear Him. And is not that the very best thing you can do, the best dish of which you can eat? What else has life to offer that is half so good? This is the dish of which Mary ate with Christ, and of which the young ruler refused to eat, at least for a time. And, last of all, it is the best dish, the best portion, because it can never be taken away from us. We lose much as life goes on, more than you can yet imagine. We lose health and energy both of body and of mind; the fineness of our intellectual perceptions is duiled, and the firmness of our intellectual grasp relaxed. We lose our very senses--not going out of our minds, I do not mean that, but--our eyes grow dim, and our ears hard of hearing, and our tongues trip, and our natural force is abated. We lose, or partly lose, our very memories, so that our own past grows hazy to us, or even dark. We lose the power to do much that we once loved to do, and to enjoy much that was once pleasant to us. We lose our friends, or at least the presence and use and enjoyment of our friends, losing at the same time the faculty of forming new friendships. And, at last, we lose life itself, and with it all that we have gained. But there is one thing we never lose, if once we have had it--the love of God. We never lose the one thing needful, the one only thing which enables us to bear all other losses, and even turns them into gain. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The one thing needful
Philip Henry left in his will the following important passage: I have now disposed of all my property to my family; there is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is, the Christian religion. If they had that, and I had not given them one shilling, they would be rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor.
The one thing needful
An Asiatic traveller tells us that one day as he was crossing a desert, he and his party found the bodies of two men laid upon the sand beside the carcass of a camel. By their side lay a small bag of dried dates, two leathern bottles, quite empty, and on further examination he noticed that the stomach of the dead camel had been cut open, as if to get at the water, which, as is well known, that animal can carry on its desert journeys for a considerable time. A further glance at the swollen lips and blackened tongues of the two men made it evident that they had died during the most agonizing pains of thirst. I was much stirred, says the traveller, when I found that both men had in the belt around their waist a large store of jewels of different kinds, which they had doubtless been crossing the desert to sell in the markets of Persia. I warrant the poor wretches would have bartered many a jewel for a few delicious draughts of water. (J. Jackson Wray.)
The good part
You have chosen the better part, and it shall never be taken from you (Luk_10:42); and therefore behave as bravely when you have little as when you have much. You shall be sure to enjoy all in God and God in all; and what would you have more? Seneca once told a courtier who had lost his son, that he had no cause to mourn, either for that or ought else, because Caesar was his friend. Oh, then, what little cause have the saints to mourn for this or that loss, considering that God is their portion! I have read of a company of poor Christians, who were banished into remote parts, and one standing by seeing them pass along, said, that it was very sad for those poor people to be thus hurried from the society of men, and made companions with the beasts of the field. True, said another, it were sad indeed if they were carried to a place where they could not find their God; but let them be of good cheer, for God goes along with them, and will enrich them with the comforts of His grace wheresoever they go. Would you not laugh to see a man lament bitterly for the loss of his shoestrings when his purse is safe? or for the burning of a pig-sty when his dwelling-house is safe? and why then should a Christian lament for the loss of this or that, so long as God is with him? (Thomas Brooks.)
What cannot be taken away
There is a story in Foxes Book of Martyrs of a woman who, when she came to be tried for her religion before the Bishop, was threatened by him that he would take away her husband from her. Christ, was her reply, is my husband. I will take away thy child, said he. Christ, said she, is better to me than ten sons. I will strip thee, said he, of all outward comforts. And again came the answer, Yes, but Christ is mine, and you cannot strip me of Him. (W. Baxendale.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v38 Chapter 20
Chapter 20
THE TWO SISTERS. - Luk_10:38-42
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AT first sight it appears as if our Evangelist had departed from the orderly arrangement of which he speaks in his prelude, in thus linking this domestic scene of Judaea with his northern Galilean journey, and to the casual glance this home-flower does certainly seem an exotic in this garden of the Lord. The strangeness, the out-of-placeness, however, vanishes entirely upon a nearer, closer view. If, as is probable, the parable of the Good Samaritan was spoken during that northward journey, its scene lies away in Judaea, in the dangerous road that sweeps down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, this road to Jericho lay through the village of Bethany, and in the Evangelists mind the two places are intimately connected, as we; {see Luk_19:1; Luk_19:29} so that the idyll of Bethany would follow the parable of the Good Samaritan with a certain naturalness, the one recalling the other by the simple association of ideas. Then, too, it harmonizes so thoroughly with its context, as it comes between a parable on works and a chapter on prayer. In the one, man is the doer, heart and hand going out in the beautiful ministries of love; in the other, man is the receiver, waiting upon God, opening hand and heart for the inflow of Divine grace. In one it is Love in action that we see; in the other it is Love at rest, at rest from activities of her own, in quest of further good. This is exactly the picture our Evangelist draws of the two sisters, and which might have served as a parable had it not been so plainly taken from real life. Perhaps, too, another consideration influenced the Evangelist, and one that is suggested by the studied vagueness of the narrative. He gives no clue as to where the little incident occurred, for the "certain village" might be equally appropriate in Samaria or Judaea; while the two names, Martha and Mary, apart from the corroboration of St. Johns Gospel, would not enable us to localize the scene. It is evident that St. Luke wished to throw around them a sort of incognito, probably because they were still living when he wrote, and too great publicity might subject them to inconvenience, or even to something more. And so St. Luke considerately masks the picture, shutting off the background of locality, while St. John, who writes at a later date, when Jerusalem has fallen, and who is under no such obligation of reserve, fixes the scene precisely; for there can be no doubt that the Mary and-Martha of his Gospel, of Bethany, are the Martha and Mary of St. Luke; their very characters, as well as names, are identical.
It was in one of His journeys to the south, though we have no means of telling which, that He came to Behany, a small village on the eastern slope of Olivet, and about three-quarters of an hour from Jerusalem. There are several indications in the Gospels that this was a favorite resort of Jesus during His Judaean ministry; {Mat_21:1, Joh_8:1} and it is somewhat singular that the only nights that we read He spent in Jerusalem were the night in the garden and the two nights He slept in His grave. He preferred the quiet haven of Bethany; and though we cannot with absolute certainty recognize the village home where Jesus had such frequent welcome, yet throwing the side-light of Joh_11:5 upon the haze, it seems in part to lift; for the deep affection Jesus had for the three implies a close and ripened intimacy.
St. John, in his allusions to the family, makes Mary prominent, giving precedence to her name, as he calls Bethany "the village of Mary and her sister Martha". {Joh_11:1} St. Luke, however, makes Martha the central figure of his picture, while Mary is set back in the shade, or rather in the sunshine of that Presence which was and is the Light of the world. It was, "Martha received Him into her house." She was the recognized head of the family, "the lady" in fact, as well as by the implication of her name, which was the native equivalent of "lady." It was she who gave the invitation to the Master, and on her devolved all the care of the entertainment, the preparation of the feast, and the reception of the guests; for though the change of pronoun in ver. 38 (Luk_10:38) from "they" to "Him" would lead us to suppose that the disciples had gone another way, and were not with Him now, still the "much serving" would show that it was a special occasion, and that others had been invited to meet Jesus.
It is a significant coincidence that St. John, speaking {Joh_12:2} of another supper at Bethany, in the house of Simon, states that Martha "served," using the same word that Jesus addressed to her in the narrative of St. Luke. Evidently Martha was a "server." This was her forte, so much so that her services were in requisition outside her own house. Hers was a culinary skill, and she delighted with her sleight of hand to effect all sorts of transformations, as, conjuring with her fire, she called forth the pleasures and harmonies of taste. In this case, however, she overdid it; she went beyond her strength. Perhaps her guests outnumbered her invitations, or something unforeseen had upset her plans, so that some of the viands were belated. At any rate, she was cumbered, distracted, "put about" as our modern colloquialism would have it. Perhaps we might say she was "put out" as well, for we can certainly detect a trace of irritability both in her manner and in her speech. She breaks in suddenly among the guests (the aorist participle gives the rustle of a quick movement), and in the hearing of them all she says to Jesus, "Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister did leave me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me." Her tone is sharp, querulous, and her words send a deep chill across the table, as when a sea-fret drifts coldly inland. If Mary was in the wrong thus to sit at the feet of Jesus, Martha certainly was not in the right. There was no occasion to give this public reprimand, this round-hand rebuke. She might have come and secretly called her, as she did afterwards, on the day of their sorrow, and probably Mary would have risen as quickly now as then. But Martha is overweighted, ruffled; her feelings get the better of her judgment, and she speaks, out of the impatience of her heart, words she never would have spoken had she but known that Inspiration would keep their echoes reverberating down all the years of time. And besides, her words were somewhat lacking in respect to the Master. True, she addresses as "Lord"; but having done this, she goes off into an interrogative with an implied censure in it, and closes with an imperative, which, to say the least, was not becoming, while all through an undue emphasis is laid upon the first personal pronoun, the "me" of her aggrieved self.
Turning to the other sister, we find a striking contrast, for Mary, as our Evangelist puts it, "also sat at the Lords feet, and heard His word." This does not imply any forwardness on her part, or any desire to make herself conspicuous; the whole drift of her nature was in the opposite direction. Sitting "at His feet" now that they were reclining at the table, meant sitting behind Him, alone amid the company, and screened from their too curious gaze by Him who drew all eyes to Himself. Nor does she break through her womanly reserve to take part in the conversation; she simply "heard His word"; or "she kept listening," as the imperfect tense denotes. She put herself in the listening attitude, content to be in the shadow, outside the charmed circle, if she only might hear Him speak, whose words fell like a rain of music upon her soul. Her sister chided her for this, and the large family of modern Marthas-for feminine instinct is almost entirely on Marthas side-blame her severely, for what they call the selfishness of her conduct, seeking her own enjoyment, even though others must pay the price of it. But was Mary so utterly selfish? And did she sacrifice duty to gratify her inclination? Not at all, and certainly not to the extent our Marthas would have us believe. Mary had assisted in the preparations and the reception, as the "also" of ver. 39 (Luk_10:39) shows; while Marthas own words, "My sister did leave me to serve alone," themselves imply that Mary had shared the labors of the entertainment before taking her place at the feet of Jesus. The probability is that she had completed her task, and now that He who spake as never man spake before was conversing with the guests, she could not forego the privilege of listening to the voice she might not hear again.
It is to Jesus, however, that we must go with our rivalry of claims. He is our Court of Equity. His estimate of character was never at fault.
He looked at the essences of things, the soul of things, and not to the outward wrappings of circumstance, and He read that palimpsest of motive, the underlying thought, more easily than others could read the outward act. And certainly Jesus had no apology for selfishness; His whole life was one war against it, and against sin, which is but selfishness ripened. But how does Jesus adjust this sisterly difference? Does He dismiss the listener, and send her back to an unfinished task? Does He pass on to her Marthas warm reproof? Not at all; but He gently reproves the elder sister. "Martha, Martha," He said, as if her mind had wandered, and the iteration was necessary to call her to herself, "thou art anxious and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
It is easy to see from this where Jesus thought the blame should rest. It was Martha who had taken too much upon herself. Her generous heart had gone beyond her strength, and far beyond the need. Wishing to do honor to her Guest, studying to please Him, she had been over-lavish in her entertainment, until she had become worried-anxious, troubled, as Jesus said, the former word referring to the inner disquiet, the unrest of the soul, and the latter to the outward perturbation, the tremor of the nerves, and the cloudiness that looked from her eyes. The fact was that Martha had misread the tastes of her Guest. She thought to please Him by the abundance of her provision, the largeness of her hospitality; but for these lower pleasures of sense and of taste Jesus cared little. He had meat to eat that others knew not of, and to do the will of Him that sent Him was to Jesus more than any ambrosia or nectar of the gods. The more simple the repast, the more it pleased Him, whose thoughts were high in the heavenly places, even while His feet and the mortal body He wore touched lightly the earth. And so, while Marthas motive was pure, her judgment was mistaken, and her eager heart tempted her to works of supererogation, to an excess of care which was anxiety, the fret and fever of the soul. Had she been content with a modest service, such as would have pleased her Guest, she too might have found time to sit at His feet, and to have found there an Elim of rest and a Mount of Beatitudes.
But while Jesus has a kind rebuke for Martha, He has only words of commendation for, her sister, whom she has been so openly and sharply upbraiding. "Mary," He said, speaking the name Martha had not uttered, "hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." He answers Martha in her own language, her native tongue; for in speaking of Marys choice as the "good part," it is a culinary phrase, the parlance of the kitchen or the table, meaning the choice bit. The phrase is in apposition with the one thing which is needful, which itself is the antithesis to the "many things" of Marthas care. What the "one thing," is of which Jesus speaks we cannot say with certainty, and almost numberless have been the interpretations given to it. But without going into them, can we not find the truest interpretation in the Lords own words? We think we may, for in the Sermon on the Mount we have an exact parallel to the narrative. He finds people burdened, anxious about the things of this life, wearying themselves with the interminable questions, "What shall we eat? or What shall we drink?" as if life had no quest higher and vaster than these. And Jesus rebukes this spirit of anxiety, exorcising it by an appeal to the lilies and the grass of the field; and summing up His condemnation of anxiety, He adds the injunction, "Seek ye His kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you". {Luk_12:31} Here, again, we have the "many things" of human care and strife contrasted with the "one thing" which is of supremest moment. First, the kingdom; this in the mind of Jesus was the summum bonum, the highest good of man, compared with which the "many things" for which men strive and toil are but the dust of the balances. And this was the choice of Mary. She sought the kingdom of God, sitting at the feet of Him who proclaimed it, and who was, though she knew it not as yet, Himself the King. Martha too sought the kingdom, but her distracted mind showed that that was not her only, perhaps not her chief quest. Earthly things weighed too heavily upon her mind and heart, and through their dust the heavenly things became somewhat obscured. Marys heart was set heavenward. She was the listener, eager to know the will of God, that she might do it. Martha was so busied with her own activities that she could not give her thoughts to Christ; Mary ceased from her works, that so she might enter into His rest, setting the world behind her, that her undivided gaze might be upon Him who was truly her Lord. And so Jesus loved Martha, yet pitied and chided her, while He loved and commended Mary.
Nor was the "good part" ever taken from her, for again and again we find her returning to the feet of Jesus. In the day of their great sorrow, as soon as she heard that the Master had come and called her, she arose quickly, and coming to Jesus, though it was the bare, dusty ground, she fell at His feet, seeking strength and help where she before had sought light and truth. And once more: when the shadow of the cross came vividly near, when Simon gave the feast which Martha served, Mary sought those feet again, to pour upon them the precious and fragrant nard, the sweet odors of which filled all the house, as they have since filled all the world. Yes, Mary did not sit at the feet of Jesus in vain. She had learned to know Christ as few of the disciples did; for when Jesus said, "She has done it for My burying," He intends us to infer that Mary feels, stealing over her retiring but loving soul, the cold and awful shadow of the cross. Her broken alabaster and its poured-out spikenard are her unspoken ode to the Redeemer, her pre-dated homage to the Crucified.
And so we find in Mary the truest type of service. Hers was not always the passive attitude, receiving and never giving, absorbing and not diffusing. There was the service before the session; her hands had prepared and wrought for Christ before she placed herself at His feet, and the sacrifice followed, as she brought her costly gift, to the astonishment of all the rest, her sweet and healing balm for the wounds which were soon to follow.
The life that is all receptive, that has no active ministries of love, no waiting upon Christ in the person of His followers, is an unnatural, an unhealthy life, a piece of morbid selfishness which neither pleases God nor blesses man.
On the other hand, the life that is always busy, that is in a constant swirl of outward duties, flying here and there like a stormy petrel over the unresting waves, will soon weary or wear itself out, or it will grow into an automaton, a mechanism without a soul. Receiving, giving, praying, working-these are the alternate chords on which the music of our lives should be struck. Heavenward, earthward, should be the alternate looks-heavenward in our waiting upon God, and earthward in our service for man. That life shines the most and is seen the farthest which reflects most of the heavenly light; and he serves Christ the best who now sits humbly and prayerfully at His feet, and then goes forth to be a "living echo of His voice," breaking for Him the alabaster of a self-sacrificing love. As one has beautifully expressed it, "The effective life and the receptive life are one."
"No sweep of arm that does some work for God but harvests also some more of the truth of God and sweeps it into the treasury of the life."
But if Mary gives us a type of the truest and best service, Martha shows us a kind of service which is only too common, She gave to Jesus a right loving welcome, and was delighted with the privilege of ministering to His wants; but the coming of Jesus brought her, not peace, but distraction-not rest, but worry. Her very service ruffled and irritated her, until mind and heart were like the tempestuous lake ere the spell of the Divine "Peace" fell upon it. And all the time the Christ was near, who could bear each burden, and still all the disquiet of the soul! But Martha was all absorbed in the thought of what she could do for Him, and she forgot how much more He could do for her, giving to her chafed spirit quietness and rest, even amid her toil. The Divine Peace was near her, within her home, but the hurryings of her restless will and her manifold activities effectually excluded that peace from her heart.
And how many who call themselves Christians are true Marthas, serving Christ, but feeling the yoke to chafe, and the burden to weight them! perhaps preaching to others the Gospel of rest and peace, and themselves knowing little of its experience and blessedness-like the camels of the desert, which carry their treasures of corn and sweet spices to others, and themselves feed on the bitter and prickly herbs. Ah, you are too much upon your feet! Cease for awhile from your own works, and let God work in you. Wait in His presence. Let His words take hold of you, and His love enthuse you: so will you find rest amid your toil, calmness amid the strife, and you will prove that the fret and the fever of life will all disappear at the touch of the living Christ.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv38–41 38. Entered into a certain village. Bethany, the home…
38. Entered into a certain village. Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It is probable that this incident is not related in its order of time. It may have occurred on the last journey.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v38 Luk_10:38. A certain village.—There can be no doubt that…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_10:38. A certain village.—There can be no doubt that this was Bethany, and that the persons mentioned were sisters of Lazarus. The names are not only the same, but the words and actions of both are characteristic of the two sisters described in John 11; John 12. Bethany was an hour’s walk from Jerusalem, and was a favourite resort of our Lord, when He was in the neighbourhood of the capital. Farrar considers that the phrases “a certain village” and “a certain woman” are obvious traces of a tendency to reticence about the family of Bethany which he thinks are to be found in the synoptic Gospels (Mat_26:6; Mar_14:3). Such reticence he attributes to the danger to which more special notice of the family might have exposed them—a danger which was probably long past when St. John wrote his Gospel. This idea seems, however, to be far-fetched and baseless. The notices in St. Matthew and St. Mark are definite enough; and here the vague phrase, “a certain woman,” is followed by her name and the name of her sister. Probably Bethany was not a name as familiar to Theophilus as it is to us. Martha.—The name is Aramaic, meaning “lady.” She may have been a widow or a married woman; but we have no information on the point.
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Luk_10:39. The character of Mary is suggested with wonderful skill and simplicity by this description of her. Sat at Jesus’ feet.—As a disciple; not while He was reclining at table for the meal was being prepared.
Luk_10:40. Cumbered.—Lit. “distracted,” drawn this way and that by a multitude of things needing her personal supervision. Came to Him.—The word implies “suddenly appearing before Him,” evidently coming from the room where the preparations were being made into that in which Jesus was. Probably the homely phrase “she flounced in” would best describe her action and mood
Luk_10:41. Martha, Martha.—Kindliness as well as reproof is indicated in the repetition of the name. Careful and troubled.—The one word indicates inward anxiety, the other outward bustle.
Luk_10:42. One thing is needful.—The food of the soul—feeding on the bread of life; this is “the good part”—the choice portion which Mary has chosen. A curious variation which is founded on good MS. authority is given in the margin of the R.V.—“but few things are needful or one.” This evidently arises from a misunderstanding of Christ’s words, as though by “the one thing needful” He meant one dish instead of Martha’s more bountiful provision; i.e. “there is need for few things, indeed one would be sufficient.” But apart from the evident mistake as to Christ’s words, any reference of the kind to the literal food seems trivial.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_10:38-42
Jesus in the Family Circle.—This is one of the few passages in the life of the Saviour in which we are admitted to view Him in the circle of His domestic life—in which we see Him as a guest and a friend, receiving hospitality, and by gentle words allaying the angry feelings which are so apt to spring up from the most trivial causes, and mar the peace of the home. He had arrived at Bethany perhaps unexpectedly, and evidently accompanied by some of His disciples, and thus occasioned some little stir in the household there. Martha was naturally anxious to provide fitting entertainment for such an honoured Guest. For a time, apparently, Mary had assisted her in making the needful preparations for the supper, but after a little had stolen away to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His words. Probably she felt that there was a reasonable limit to the work of providing for material wants, and that it was making good use of the precious time of Christ’s sojourn with them to allow Him to minister to them as well as to be ministered to by them.
I. Martha’s complaint.—She is angry and put about by being left to serve alone, and in her hastiness she falls into various mistakes.
1. She attaches an undue importance to the kind of work she was engaged in.
2. She regards her sister’s employment as mere waste of time.
3. She accuses the Saviour of unkindness in allowing her sister to shirk her share of the work. Specially censurable is her endeavour to get the Saviour to take her part in this difference with her sister. For it is always very embarrassing to a guest to be asked to take a side in a family dispute.
II. The reply of Jesus.—He reminded Martha that she was distressing and harassing herself about many trivial things, but that Mary’s attention was fixed upon the one thing of supreme importance. The slight degree of blame implied in the answer, and in the repetition of her name, was no doubt robbed of its sting by the gentle tone of voice and the kindly air of the Speaker. For this was not an occasion when anything like severity was called for. Both sisters were friends and disciples of the Saviour; and He was as considerate to the weaknesses and foibles of the one, as pleased with the pure and intense devotion of the other. We have here both a warning against allowing our minds to be distracted and worried by passing trifles, and a statement of the secret of a true and lasting peace. Those that pursue various aims are drawn hither and thither by conflicting cares and duties: those that have the one true aim in view rise above all that is superficial and trifling, and enjoy a peace which the world can neither give nor take away.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_10:38-42
Luk_10:38-42. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.—Let us regard this incident as illustrative of a few practical considerations. Observe—
I. The absence of all reference to Lazarus in this narrative.—Is this because he was younger than the sisters, and of least account in the household? In John’s Gospel, too, Lazarus brings up the rear. Many think that he was the young ruler who came to Christ and went away sorrowing. Whatever be the truth on this point, Christ loved this “weak brother.” He seems to have lacked force of character, decision, readiness to sacrifice for Christ’s sake. Such a man may certainly be saved, but he misses much.
II. The distinguishing character of the two sisters, and our Lord’s treatment of them.—We have the active Martha, who carries her peculiarities into her friendship with and her loyalty to Jesus Christ. This is quite right. Christ does not take from us our individuality. He does not want every one to be a Martha or every one to be a Mary. There was variety of character among the twelve. Varied services are needed. Jesus Christ needed food, and He needed willing learners. Martha was right in serving, Mary in listening. The danger is that one kind of worker thinks that the only service that should be rendered to Jesus Christ is the service he or she is rendering. Those who are active are apt to be hard upon those who are not so active as they are, or in the way which they approve. Christ taught Martha that all things are secondary to the one great thing—love to Himself. Let all learn the lesson of serving the Master in the sphere for which we are best fitted, and withal be tolerant, yea appreciative of those who serve Him in different ways.—Davies.
Three Faults of Martha.—Though the hospitality of Martha deserved commendation, and is commended, yet there were three faults in it which are pointed out by Christ.
I. Martha carried her activity beyond proper bounds; for Christ would rather have chosen to be entertained in a frugal manner, and at moderate expense, than that the holy woman should have submitted to so much toil.
II. Martha, by distracting her attention, and undertaking more labour than was necessary, deprived herself of the advantage of Christ’s visit.
III. Martha was so delighted with her own bustling operations, as to despise her sister’s pious eagerness to receive instruction. This example warns us that, in doing what is right, we must take care not to think more highly of ourselves than of others.—Calvin.
Luk_10:38-39. Activity and Contemplation.—We find in Martha the type of a life busily devoted to externals, such as is frequently exemplified in this passing world; in Mary, the type of quiet self-devotion to the Divine as the one thing needful. To a certain extent both tendencies will be combined in each believer, but it is not to be overlooked that there are different vocations, and many are better fitted for busy outward labour than an inward contemplative life, although the most active must be from the depths of his soul given up to the Lord, and the man of contemplation must consecrate his energies to the advancement of God’s kingdom.—Olshausen.
Luk_10:39. An Answer to the Question as to inheriting Eternal Life.—This incident gives a clear and certain answer to the question of the scribe as to inheriting eternal life: it is to listen to the words of Jesus, and to choose by faith in Him “the good part, which shall not be taken away.”
“Sat at Jesus’ feet.”—This is a living commentary on the words, “Yea, He loved the people; all His saints are in Thy hand: and they sat down at Thy feet; every one shall receive of Thy words” (Deu_33:3).
Absence of Censoriousness.—Mary sits quiet and silent at His feet, and it never occurred to her to be discontented and to exclaim, “Master, tell my sister to come and listen too with me.”
“Heard His word.”—As the tender flowers love to open to the rays of the sun and silently absorb its light. Jesus had not come to be served, but to serve.
Luk_10:39-40. Characteristic Conduct of the Sisters.—The respective characters of the two sisters again come clearly into view on the visit recorded by St. John (Joh_12:2-3). There it is said that “Martha served,” and that Mary “anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.”
The Judge becomes an Advocate.—Mary commits her cause to the Judge, and He becomes her Advocate.—Augustine.
Christ defending His Disciples.—The Gospels record various instances of Christ thus taking the part of them who trust their cause to Him. Cf. chaps, Luk_6:2-3; Luk_7:39-40; Mat_26:10.
Pleasure of giving and of receiving.—With Martha the pleasure of giving much to Jesus is pre-eminent: Mary feels the necessity of receiving much.
Luk_10:41-42. “Many things … one thing.”—Note the contrast between carefulness about many things and the needfulness of but one. When we possess God in Christ, we have the one thing needful to
(1) a true life,
(2) a true growth,
(3) a true service,
(4) a true happiness.
Luk_10:42. “But one thing is needful.”—Needful for what? For rightly receiving the Saviour—the disposition which Mary was manifesting at this moment, the sitting at the feet of Jesus, the receptivity for hearing and laying up the words of eternal life.—Van Oosterzee.
“That good part.”—Why was Mary’s choice better? Because “it shall not be taken away from her.” From thee the burden of business shall one time be taken away; for when thou comest into the heavenly country, thou wilt find no stranger to receive with hospitality. But for thy good it shall be taken away, that what is better may be given thee. Trouble shall be taken away, that rest may be given thee. But in the meantime thou art yet at sea; thy sister is in port.—Augustine.
“The good part.”—Mary’s choice is commended. The object of her choice is characterised and commended as “the one thing needful,” “the good part.” True religion is—
I. Indispensably needful.
II. Perfectly good.
III. Absolutely inalienable.
Its claims are paramount. Heaven is gained; hell is avoided. It is not only “good” in name, but in reality. It wears, lasts, satisfies. It is the only possession that is inalienable. Honour, wealth, reason, health, home, friends, all may go. This abides.—Morris.
I. The essence of the Christian religion is that it is a religion of receiving.—Martha desired to give, Mary to receive. Mary was praised; Martha was reproved. The leading trait of a Christian is that he sits at Christ’s feet. Those please God most who take in most.
II. Mary’s spirit rested.—Martha worked anxiously. The difference between them was greatest, not so much in what they did, as in the spirit in which they did it. Drink in God’s peace. Be a little child.
III. Mary had learnt to concentrate her mind.—Martha could not do this. Mary gathered all to a single point, and that point was Christ. Martha was full of distracting and unnecessary cares. Too many of God’s dear children are the same. What vain solicitudes! What is the use of it all? What is the remedy? Simplify. Throw out what is wrong, what is trivial, what is underweight. “One thing” is all that will be left. To find, to love, and to enjoy the Saviour. There is nothing else. This is “the good part.”—Vaughan.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v38 Luk 10:38-42 “And it came to pass, while they…
MARTHA AND MARY
Luk 10:38-42 “And it came to pass, while they were going along, He came into a certain village, and a certain woman, by name Martha, received Him into her house; and there was a sister to her, called Mary, who indeed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, continued to hear His Word. And Martha was busy about much serving, and standing over her, she said, Lord, is there no care to You that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore say to her that she may assist me. And Jesus, responding, said to her, Martha, Martha, you are solicitous and troubled about many things; there is need of one thing. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” I have frequently been at Bethany, a village on the slope of Mr. Olivet, over the summit from Jerusalem, one and seven-eighths miles. The house occupied by Mary, Martha, and Lazarus is still there, but in ruins, as stone never rots. We conclude from this narrative that Martha was the elder of the two sisters, her seniority being here recognized by the proprietorship of the house. Methinks you already recognize an obvious contrast in these two sisters, Martha very vividly, illustrating the justified and Mary the sanctified experience. The former, having kindly received Jesus into their home, is deeply solicitous for His temporal comfort, doing her best to get Him a splendid dinner, working hard, and running herself out of breath; while the latter, listening to the words of wisdom, righteousness, holiness, love, grace, and glory, flowing from His eloquent lips, has actually become spellbound, so thrillingly edified, entertained and delighted that she has lost sight of domestic duty altogether, her eyes centered on the face of Jesus, her mind utterly absorbed, her intellect flooded with edification, her heart inundated with the rivers of grace flowing out of the heart of Jesus; but her older sister, feeling that she needs her help and must have it, and signally failing to catch her eye or command her attention, feels constrained to resort to the only surviving expedient — i. e., appeal to Jesus, that He may suggest to her to feel excused till dinner is over, when she shall enjoy ample opportunity to satisfy her voracious spiritual appetite for the heavenly pabulum which He is so richly dispensing. In this she signally fails, as Jesus, to her surprise, vindicates her younger sister in her utter inattention to domestic affairs, sitting down at the feet: Jesus, drinking in the wonderful lessons of truth which emanate, like honey-dews, as the words of heavenly beauty and glory drop from His lips. He now administers a kind and loving castigation to Martha for her undue solicitude and labor, as it is infinitely more important to feed the soul than the body, and he is caring nothing about her variety. What He wants is, that they all feast on angel’s food; and as to the dinner, they have plenty already on hand. So all that solicitude about temporal things was really out of harmony with the visit of the Prince of light. Pastoral visiting is frequently perverted and ruined in that way, the family wearing themselves out and wasting the precious time they should spend in prayer, praise, and hearing the precious Word dispensed by their faithful pastor. O what a waste of opportunities along this line! Every preacher should do like Jesus, spend the time in the home preaching, discouraging all that work and solicitude “about many things,” there being need of but one, and that is the grace of God, which would, in this connection, be very beautifully symbolized by one edible — a loaf of bread and a cup of sparkling water; as in the case of the circuit-rider, who, after preaching, received but one invitation to go and eat, and that was by an old woman, living in a smoky hut, down between two hills, who, escorting him into her humble home, dispensing with all Sunday cooking, set down a big cup of buttermilk on a three-legged stool in the middle of the cabin, and laid a big chunk of cold corn-bread by its side, and said, “Now, brother, sit down there and eat your dinner. If you are a good man, it is good enough; if a bad man, it is too good.” O that we may all so enter into the blessed soul-rest which Jesus gives as to be utterly disencumbered of all solicitude about temporal things, and sit down, like Mary, at the feet of Jesus, and let this old world, with its cares, emoluments, solicitudes, and vexations, pass along! While all earthly achievement and aggrandizement are transitory, Jesus assures us that if we will choose this good part, it shall not be taken from us.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v38 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXXXV. Martha and…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LXXXV. Martha and Mary].
LXXXV. JESUS THE GUEST OF MARTHA AND MARY. (Bethany, near Jerusalem.) cLUKE X. 38-42.
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c38 Now as they went on their way [he was journeying through Judæa, attended by the twelve], he entered into a certain village [It was the village of Bethany ( Joh_11:1), which was on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than two miles from Jerusalem]: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet, and heard his word. [Sitting at the feet was the ancient posture of pupils ( Act_22:3). Martha honored Christ as a Guest, but Mary honored him as a Teacher.] 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving [she was evidently preparing an elaborate repast, and was experiencing the worry and distraction which usually accompanies such effort]; and she came up to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister did leave me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. [Martha so forms her appeal to Christ as to make it a covert insinuation that Mary would not listen to her requests.] 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things [By thus repeating the name, Jesus tempered the rebuke. See also Luk_22:31, Act_9:4]: 42 but one thing is needful [I.e., one duty or privilege is pre-eminent. Bread for the body may be important, but food for the soul is, after all, the one thing needful]: for Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. [The expression "good part" is an allusion to the portion of honor sent to the principal guest at a banquet. Its use shows that Jesus had food in mind when he used the [478] expression "one thing is needful," and that he was contrasting spiritual nourishment with physical. The description of the two sisters here tallies with that given at Joh_12:2, Joh_12:3, for there Martha serves and Mary expresses personal devotion. Our Lord's rebuke is not aimed at hospitality, nor at a life full of energy and business. It is intended to reprove that fussy fretfulness which attempts many unneeded things, and ends in worry and fault-finding. It does not set a life of religious contemplation above a life of true religious activity, for contemplation is here contrasted with activity put forth with a faulty spirit. The trend of the New Testament teaching shows that a man must be a doer as well as a hearer of the Word.]
[FFG 478-479]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v38 Mary and Martha.
Mary and Martha.
v. 38. Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.
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v. 39. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.
v. 40. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.
v. 41. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; plain
v. 42. but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
It is interesting to see that Luke here again brings a story of women that were disciples of Jesus. As they went, in the continuation of their journey, they came to a certain village. In the opinion of many commentators, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus at that time lived in a village on the Samaritan border, moving to Bethany later; but this is immaterial. However, we are struck by the evident intimacy of Jesus with the members of this household. This serves as an excellent example for all Christian households. Jesus should be the Friend, the ever-welcome Guest in every Christian home. In the prayers before and after meals, in family worship, in the prayers at bedtime His gracious presence should be invited, and the affairs of the entire household should always be conducted in such a manner that the Lord will be glad to make His home in the midst of such a family circle. Martha seems to have been the elder of the sisters, since we find her directing the affairs of the home and assuming the part of the hostess. But her sister Mary found a better use for her time than busying herself with household affairs. Just as Jesus always taught the matters concerning the kingdom of God with great willingness, so Mary absorbed His teaching with extreme avidity. So absorbed was she in the words of eternal truth that came forth from the mouth of Jesus that she forgot all else. Martha, on the other hand, after the manner of housewives the world over, was over-busy to serve the distinguished and beloved Guest properly; she tried to discover new ways of serving the Lord in her work as hostess. Note: We have here two forms of service, each done to the Lord, each with the best of intentions, the one with the work of the hands, the other in listening to the words of eternal wisdom. They need not clash, but have their worth, if the relation of values is always regarded, and first things are placed first. This lesson Martha had not yet learned. It displeased her that she was obliged to do the work of preparing the meals and serving the Lord all alone. And so she finally stepped up and said: Lord, does it not bother Thee that my sister lets me serve alone? Tell her that she should take a hand in this service also. There is a certain amount of resentment even against Jesus noticeable in these words, as though she would indicate that the Lord might stop teaching for a while and not interfere with the household duties. Jesus, however, tells the harassed hostess patiently and kindly, but also firmly, that she was bothering and concerning herself about many things. "Here you see that Christ, although He is hungry, yet He is so anxious about the salvation of souls that He forgets the food and only preaches to Mary; and He is so careful and concerned about the Word that He even rebukes Martha, who on account of her work, about which she is worried, even neglected the Gospel. And especially should we give up all worry when the Word comes; then all work and occupation should be neglected. " There is only one thing that is needful in this world, which must be placed ahead of all other things, that is the Word of the Gospel, and faith in such Word and salvation. This good portion Mary had chosen. She had found in the Word the peace which passes all understanding; she was being trained unto eternal life. And that good part shall be taken neither from Mary nor from any other believer. The things of this world pass away, but the Word of the Lord abideth forever.
Summary.Jesus commissions seventy disciples as His messengers, utters a woe upon three Galilean cities, praises the blessedness of His disciples, tells the story of the Good Samaritan, and is a guest in the house of Martha, whom He instructs concerning the one thing needful.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv38, 40 General Information:
General Information:
Jesus comes to Martha's house where her sister Mary listens to Jesus with great attention.
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Now
This word is used here to mark a new event. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
as they were traveling along
"as Jesus and his disciples were traveling along"
a certain village
This introduces the village as a new location, but does not name it.
a certain woman named Martha
This introduces Martha as a new character. Your language may have a way of introducing new people. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)
sat at the Lord's feet
This was the normal and respectful position for a learner at that time. AT: "sat on the floor near Jesus" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
heard his word
This refers to everything that Jesus taught while at Martha's house. AT: "listened to the Lord teach" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Martha
Mary (sister of Martha)
lord
word
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv38–40 10:38-42 Martha . . . Mary and their brother…
10:38-42 Martha . . . Mary and their brother Lazarus were good friends of Jesus who lived in Bethany, east of Jerusalem (see John 11:1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.