Sermon: July 20, 2025
Reading: Luke 10:38-42
Imagine what it would be like to invite Jesus into your home, and now you are tasked with providing a meal for him and the disciples. To say the least, it would be a bit overwhelming, but that’s the task Martha faced in today’s gospel passage. And it’s not like she had a fridge or a stove. She couldn’t just run to the grocery store, call a restaurant, or use DoorDash and have food delivered.
Cooking and preparing meals in the first century was a very time-consuming process, especially for a large group of people. So, when Martha looks around for help and realizes that her sister is in the other room, just sitting there listening to Jesus, she loses it.
But rather than going to her sister and asking for help, Martha goes to Jesus and says, “Lord, don’t you care that she’s not helping me?” Then she tells Jesus, who is her guest, to tell Mary to go out and help prepare the meal.
But Jesus doesn’t reprimand Mary as Martha demanded, nor does he recognize Martha’s efforts to be an excellent host. But He says to her, “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Jesus’ words to Martha were not intended to be harsh. He was not saying that she makes bad choices, and Mary makes good ones, but Mary was taking the time to focus on Jesus. His words to Martha were filled with love and compassion, inviting her to release the things that overwhelmed her, guiding her to focus on God’s love.
For Jesus, discipleship encompasses both doing and listening, serving our neighbors and receiving God’s word. But it begins and ends with our focus on God and allowing God to nurture and love us.
We don’t know how the story in Luke’s gospel ends. We don’t know if Mary suddenly felt the urge to help her sister and serve the guests. We don’t know if Jesus and the disciples helped with the preparation of the meal. We don’t know if Martha accepts Jesus’ invitation to breathe deeply and release her worry and anxiety that distracted her from focusing on the one thing she truly needs: Jesus Christ.
The ending of the story is left up to us. Because what we do know, is that Jesus invites all of us who are worried and troubled by the many things we feel and experience in this world, to take a moment to sit and rest at his feet, to hear his words of grace and mercy, to know that we are loved and valued children of God, so that we may be renewed in our faith and spirit, so that we able to release those things that distract us from His love.
