IF we invite attention to the concluding verses of Luke 10 it is not to draw an invidious comparison between Martha and her sister Mary. We have often heard this done. Poor Martha has suffered many things at the hands of many interpreters, and her character has been sketched in dark and dismal colors. As we have looked upon the picture we have been almost tempted to regard her as a black sheep, in whose company we should scarcely care to be — a beacon to warn us off the rocks on which she, dear soul! had come to grief. But is this just and right? True, she was cumbered about much serving. She thought of our Lord’s needs rather than of His mission. But who casts away a choice apple because it chances to have a speck upon it? And is there not something to be said for Martha? We believe there is.
First, she had an ever-open door for Christ. She “received Him into her house.” What was that but a fearless confession of His name in the face of friend and foe? And it possibly cost Martha much. Not many―we may be sure of it —were ready to throw open their door to One who was scorned, despised, and rejected, whom the rulers of the people sought to destroy. This is what Martha did. Are they who see nothing but her faults equally courageous? Do they confess His name with the same boldness, always and everywhere? Oh, that every Christian had the courage of this dear Bethany sister! A whole-hearted avowal that we are on the Lord’s side is a fine thing, and just what is wanted in many quarters. Is it known in the home, business, and social circle that if a thousand doors are closed against Christ ours is not? And are we ever ready to confess Him with a courage that falters not, nor fears the face of man?
Look at the epistle to Laodicea in Revelation 3. What is the question that rings out there? Have you an open door for Me? In that sphere of Christian profession all were rich―rich in truth, rich in doctrine, richer than ever they had been before, growingly rich. They needed nothing. This was their estimate of themselves; it was not His, for in the midst of that vainglorious assembly Christ had no place. He was outside of it and the door was closed against Him. These Laodicean Christians, whose successors are still among us, were living in dreamland, in a paradise of their own, wherein were new theologies, higher criticisms, and all manner of illusive objects, ever-changing clouds and mirages of the desert which they mistook for real and substantial things. They were better off than others in having more light and more knowledge (so they believed); which, like a rolling snowball was ever growing greater; this was their boast. It was but a delusion, for, in fact, they were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. At their door He knocks and of these He asks, Is there one who has an open door for Me? It is indeed a great thing to have an, open door for Him. This Martha had.
It was from the standpoint of His temporal needs that Martha for the moment thought of Jesus. To her He was the Good Samaritan of the parable that immediately precedes this story of the Bethany sisterhood. He it was who walked that the object of His saving pity might ride all the way to the inn. “Wearied with His journey” was said of Him as He sat down by the well-side of Sychar. Wearied with His journey He might have been when He entered Martha’s house, and she was anxious to do her best for the Master’s comfort. Who would not? Were He now on earth would not we do our very best for Him? Her service then was right, and not to have rendered it would have been to her reproach. And there is still abundant room for service after Martha’s kind if it be without distraction. He is not here. He is beyond the need of loving deeds. But He is here in the person of His saints and servants. Anything done to the least of these He counts as done to Himself. And He has said that a cup of water given to one of His own, because he belongs to Christ, shall have its sure reward. Let us mark those words well. The cup of water is given, not because the recipient “worships in the same church,” or sits in the same meeting-room, and sings out of the same hymnbook as we do. We serve him for no such sectarian reason; we give him the cup of water gladly, joyfully, because he belongs to Christ.
Martha was cumbered about much serving. That was her mistake. Her household plans for the Saviour’s entertainment were on too large a scale — larger than she could carry out alone, larger than met the Master’s mind. A thousand pities she had not curtailed them! Instead of which she earnestly appeals to the Lord to bid her sister help her — as if her service was the only thing to be considered, and all else should give way to that. In this she greatly erred, and some might fall into the same mistake today; but not so very many, at least among those whose eyes are likely to scan these lines. Our danger possibly lies in another direction. But Martha’s blunder led the Lord to say, “One thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
And one thing is still needful. Without it our service will suffer in quality if not in quantity; our growth in the divine life will be at a standstill, and the boundaries of our spiritual vision will not be enlarged. Things which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” will be hid from our knowledge. We may have the activities of a giant, but they will be coupled with the understanding of a babe. What is that one thing needful? It is to sit at Jesus’ feet and hear His word. Mary sat there.
For Mary viewed the Lord with other eyes than those of her sister Martha. She saw in Him the One who had “the words of God,” words of eternal life they were — things that He had received from His Father and which He loved to make known to His friends (John 15:1515Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:15)). The words of the Lord Jesus were the revelation of Himself and of the Father whose name He had come to declare. To listen to these, to drink them in to feed upon them, to make them the subject of her heart’s meditation, this was the good part which fell to Mary’s choice. And her choice should be ours. Some of us may lead busy lives. In these days of growing competition and of doubtful practices, the claims of business are more exacting than ever. We have to be first in the field and the last to leave it. Household and family duties have not to be neglected, and there is scant leisure and scarcely a moment to call one’s own. Yet, somehow, if we would not suffer great loss — greater than words can tell — we must it “at Jesus’ feet,” and hear His word. Is it possible amid all the rush of daily duty to have an ear attentive to what the Lord may wish to say? Is it possible to hear His voice, not simply in the way of direction, but as telling us something about Himself, about His God and Father, an opening up to our souls of some passage of Holy Scripture which He will make to shine and sparkle as stars in the clear night sky. We think it is possible. We are sure of it. Mary’s part is not beyond our reach, no matter how busy our life may be.
Oh, that we could emphasize this a little more, and impart to your soul a sense of its unspeakable importance. The heavenly communications which He will bring will bring life and health and strength to the heart that is ready to receive them. They will separate from the world and its things by opening up to the soul another world in which the things of the Spirit lie. They will give tone and color and beauty to our Christian life that cannot be had without. They will fill the heart with praise and ever-growing wonderment as God Himself becomes thus better known.
And they will give a richer tone to our corporate worship. For the worship offered to God and the Father in the assemblies of His saints is intimately connected with the condition of the worshippers. It cannot be set in a higher key by the most faultless rules and regulations. No words telling us what worship should be are of the least avail. They are no more than vain and empty sounds. The one way to elevate assembly worship is to raise the spiritual condition of those who offer it, and this can only be done by each one sitting “at Jesus’ feet.” There is no other way.
And the truth of this is shown in that other Bethany story in John 12. There this selfsame Mary is seen bringing her box of ointment, “very costly,” wherewith to anoint her Lord and Saviour. Precious fruit of her former happy choice! Her tribute, poured upon His feet, was but the ungrudging offering of a loving and devoted heart that had been enriched from His boundless treasury. It is only as we receive that we are able to give. It is when His words are eaten, and become the joy and rejoicing of our heart, that we are constrained to worship and adore.
In conclusion, while avoiding the mistake into which Martha fell, let us not overlook, much less despise, the service in which she was engaged. At the same time may we never forget the place that Mary took. To give a cup of cold water to a needy soul because he belongs to Christ shall have its abundant recompense. Such deeds the Lord appreciates. May we not also say that He regards with peculiar pleasure the soul that esteems His words to be sweeter than honey and of greater worth than much fine gold? This was Mary’s part. May it be ours also!
“O that we may forever sit
With Mary at the Master’s feet;
Be this our happy choice!
Our only care, delight and bliss,
Our joy, our heaven on earth, be this,
To hear the Bridegroom’s voice!”
W. B.