“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.” (Luke 10:40)
Serving is part of the believers’ new nature. We want to serve. We especially want to serve our Lord. Matha served her guest Jesus because it was a privilege to have such a guest in her house. We serve Jesus because of our love and gratitude for His mercy and grace in our lives. And because of God’s love in our hearts, we serve others. We follow in the footsteps of our Savior Who came to serve man. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45, Matthew 20:28) The word that has been translated “minister” in this verse means to “wait on” or to serve.
God’s kingdom is the opposite of the world. “But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:” (Matthew 20:25-27; Mark 10:42-44) And before Jesus was crucified, He left us a commandment that He demonstrated by washing His disciples’ feet. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:14-15)
What was Martha’s dilemma? To fully understand what happened, one has to read the Scripture before this. “And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word.” (Luke 10:39) “But Martha was cumbered...” Martha’s problem was that she was “cumbered.” She was hindered and distracted by her much serving. It was not the serving. She was hindered and distracted from being at the feet of Jesus and hearing Him.
Serving is good, but one must also sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to Jesus. We must do both. Servers in the church get so busy serving that they don’t have time to sit at the feet of Jesus. They have become a Martha, hindered and distracted from being with Jesus because of their much serving. Jesus told Martha, “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42) Serving is good, but what is necessary and required of God is what Mary has chosen.
Serving is easy. Communion is harder. So, we tend to leave communion to later. And later there is no more time. It is always easier to choose the natural. It’s the world we live in. And there’s no resistance. Through our life as a Christian we must choose what is good, necessary and required. We first had to choose to leave what we know and what was comfortable and choose Christ. We chose to submit to Him, to give our lives to Him and to obey Him. Then at every moment we find we have choices to do what is easier or to choose a life of sacrifice. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
We choose to live a life full of God’s love and to love the unlovable, the sinner, the one who hates us, our enemy or the one who wounded us. “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27) We choose to walk in love. “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)
And we choose to love God. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” (Mark 12:30) If we truly love Him, we will like Mary choose to sit at His feet and listen to Him. We will want to be in His presence always. We will be a combination of Mary and Martha, a server at the feet of Jesus in communion with Him.
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