Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Comment: Is this a story about Mary or Martha? People tend to be one or the other of personality types – Do-ers or Ponder-ers! My computer tells me that I’ve made up two new words, but I think you get their meaning! I think that the story is more about Martha but we can learn from what is said about both of them and I suspect we are all meant to combine the two approaches to life! On the Mary side – a lesson for her to learn! Our church is a small one and we have difficulty to get volunteers to do the cleaning! There aren’t enough Marthas in the world! And Martha’s lesson to learn – although it is difficult to get people to do the mundane but necessary things, not enough sit at the feet of Jesus and take in, in depth, what He says! There are too many ‘cuckoo people’ in life. What do I mean? Wikipedia writes “Cuckoos do not build their own nests; instead, they practice brood parasitism, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds. A female cuckoo will secretly remove a host egg and replace it with her own, and the host birds will then raise the cuckoo chick as if it were their own offspring.” On the one hand ‘Cuckoo people don’t do their own deep thinking and research preparing their own minds for full development of both their thinking and their faith. They don’t prepare their well modelled mind nest. Looking at it from the opposite direction – they let other ‘cuckoo people’ place their thoughts and ideas (eggs) in their undiscerning minds. Wikipedia continuing on says about the cuckoo babies when hatched “The cuckoo chick’s loud and demanding begging cries help it secure more food from its foster parents, even potentially soliciting food from other adult birds.” Sadly many haven’t sat at the feet of Jesus often enough nor learnt the lessons well enough to be able to discern heresy and even totally anti-God ideas, as if they are Truth with a capital ‘T’. Cuckoo chicks need to be dislodged before they cause problems!
Colossians 3: 12-“Therefore, as God’s chosen people… clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
Prayer: Lord, there are some changes which I need to make in my life. Please help me.
As I read it! 