Martha, Martha...

This is the talk I gave at the athlete's Bible study tonight. Hope you enjoy and the Lord speaks to you through it!

Throughout this semester we’re going to be talking about different people who interacted with Jesus. Doing some case studies and learning about who Jesus is from their interactions with him. I’m really excited about who I’m going to be talking about because I really relate to this woman. 

Ok so Martha… She’s the oldest child of 3 which is like my family. I’m not the oldest. I’m actually the baby of the family with two older brothers. Now I don’t know how much you read into birth orders, but oldest children have the tendency to be very strong personalities. Take my oldest brother Matt for example. I love him. He is his own person... definitely a typical oldest child. I brought a picture of him to show you guys which I did not get permission to show but I’m the baby sister and our goal in life is to embarrass the crap out of our older siblings. So here he is in all his chunky glory. 

My poor parents. I mean he was probably one of those babies you totally have to lie to the parents about. You’re supposed to say nice things about how handsome he is but you’re thinking he looks like an overweight alien. So you say, “Oh he’s so cuuuuute” and your eyes get big and your voice gets really high and awkward. That’s my brother and the good news is he’s gotten a lot better looking. But my favorite strong personality/ typical first born story about my brother is when he was about 7 years old. For some reason he got really mad at my parents. Not sure why they probably made him turn off the video games or something. So he goes in his room… packs up his stuff in one of those typical running away from home packs. You know the stick with the red bandanna. He wraps up his precious belongs, throws it over his shoulder and “runs away.” What that actually meant is he hid in the bushes 10 feet from our front door. At my house you walk out the front door and look to the left there is a row of bushes. Meanwhile my mom walks into the kitchen and stuck in the cutting board with a knife is a note and all it says is MOM. I think at that point my mom was at her wits end and was probably thinking how did this chubby baby turn into a rebellious little turd? So eventually he comes back in the house. My parents were so mad at him and he had so much explaining to do. So maybe not all first borns are strong and rebellious like that, but we’re going to look at Martha tonight who was definitely strong personality. Maybe not quite as rebellious, but definitely a typical oldest child.

Let’s jump in to God’s word. We’ll start in Luke 10 tonight verses 38-42. To give you some background Martha has two younger siblings. A sister named Mary who is different Mary than Mary Magdelene a disciple of Jesus and different that Mary the mother of Jesus. Apparently Mary is a super popular name.  Martha also has a brother named Lazarus who we’ll read about in our next section of text. That’s the background. Here’s the story:

“As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.’ But the Lord said to her, ‘My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

Right off the bat I notice a few things about Martha both good and bad. First she welcomes Jesus into her home. That’s great. Very hospitable, wants to serve Jesus, obviously loves God and wants to honor him. But she’s also way uptight. Rushing around constantly working on things and missing quality time with Jesus. And her baby sister is doing exactly opposite. She simply sits and spends time with Jesus. So not only does Martha lose out on time with Jesus she also tries to tattle on her sister. She tells Jesus, “Um do you see what Martha is doing? She isn’t helping me. She’s just sitting with you. Tell her to do her part.” And Jesus says to her, “My dear Martha, stop getting so wrapped up in the details. There is one thing worth being concerned about.” I wish Martha’s response was recorded here. I mean I wonder what she said to that. Or what she did. 

We don’t get to see it, but let’s jump ahead and see Martha’s next interaction with Jesus.

In John 11, Lazarus, Martha’s younger brother dies. And he doesn’t just die suddenly and unexpected. He was very sick and his sisters knew it so they sent for Jesus saying in verse 3, “Lord, you dear friend is very sick.” So then Jesus says to Mary and Martha, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So if I’m Mary and Martha I’m thinking, “Cool! Lazarus is going to be fine. I know Jesus performs miracles and heals the sick so it looks like we’re in the clear here.” And then Jesus decides to wait 2 days which is no big thing right because Jesus told them Lazarus isn’t going to die. So he waits 2 days before he starts traveling and then spends more days getting to the family. When he finally gets there Lazarus has already been dead for four days. And this is where we’ll pick up this story:

“When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.’ Jesus told her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ ‘Yes,’ Martha said, ‘he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.’ Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this Martha?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told him. ‘I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.’ Then she returned to Mary.”

Let’s jump ahead a few verses when Jesus goes to raise Lazarus from the dead. Verse 39:

“’Roll the stone aside,’ Jesus told them. But Martha the dead man’s sister, protested, ‘Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

Now I’m sorry but I’m with Martha on this one. I’m thinking a dead body after 4 days? I don’t even like opening the fridge when there’s rotten food in there. Like if I have to decide to wash out the Tupperware container with the 3 week old spaghetti in it (with the mold and juices all at the bottom) or avoiding the kitchen altogether I'm definitely going to choose avoiding the kitchen. The point is I’m not washing that thing out. It smells. I’ll just avoid opening the fridge until one of my roommates decides to take care of that. 3 week old refriderated spaghetti is one thing… a dead body that’s a whole different story.

But doesn’t phase Jesus. Verse 40:

“Jesus responded, ‘didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?’ so they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.’ Then Jesus shouted, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, ‘Unwrap him and let him go.’”

So I read this about Martha and I can’t help but think I’m looking in a mirror. I grew up in church my entire life. I’ve learned about Jesus from the time I was very a little kid, but for some reason I’d missed him until my junior year of college. I didn’t really understand who he was. Just like Martha missed him at dinner. She spent her time working away to serve him, to gain his approval… but she missed the point of their time together: to just be with him. To believe that he was who he said he was. It’s evident Martha didn’t quite get it. She tells him in verse 27 of John 11: “I’ve always believed you were the son of God, the Messiah” but when it comes down it she doubts his power. She turns right around and protests opening the tomb. And before that she’s working her butt off in the kitchen rather than soaking up his presence. 

Like I said I grew up in church but I didn’t understand until just a few years ago that God’s love and acceptance of me was completely free. I couldn’t deserve it or earn it or work hard for it. As athletes we have the tendency to be doers. Our performance dictates how much playing time we get, what our coaches and teammates think of us, and our win/loss record. So I think it’s easy to have that mentality carry over into other parts of our lives.  So often I felt like a failure because I wasn’t doing enough for the Lord or I kept getting caught up in that one sin. I thought, "Let me get this area of my life straight before I sit at the feet of Jesus." I was working in the kitchen of my life trying to gain God’s approval because I failed to recognize that God is who he says he is. He is Messiah and Savior and because he loves me grace is free through Jesus Christ. I don’t have to work and work and work. I can simply sit at the fit of Jesus which he tells Martha is the “one thing worth being concerned about.” Some of you are saying, “Yep that’s me… I’m a doer, 100%.”

Some of you see that, but a lot of you may not recognize you do it. A question someone asked me my junior year at Bible study changed my thinking about God. The Bible study leader asked me, “What does God’s face look like when he thinks about you?” Honestly I would have answered: disappointed because in my head I probably was not the Christian I should have been. I wanted to follow Jesus but I still messed up a lot. I had a lot of pride issues when it came to my sport. I had the inability to control how much I drank. I didn’t do the things Christians were supposed to do on a regular basis like read my Bible or pray.  In my head I wasn’t worthy of Jesus’ love. I had a wrong view who he was and what grace really was. 

Ask yourself that same question: when God thinks of you, what is the expression on his face? If the answer is anything but complete love and acceptance you’re probably a doer. You probably live by the mantra “try harder do better.” And you probably have a wrong view of God’s character just like I did and just like Martha did. I want you to know that your worth is not dictated by your hard work. You are fully loved and accepted by God because of Jesus. And when God thinks of you there is complete joy on his face because he loves you. 

So what does that mean for us Marthas? It means that we’re free from guilt when we screw up. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us." Not when we cleaned ourselves up or were super lovable. While we were still sinners. It means we can work hard out of a heart of love for God not out of a sense of obligation or guilt. It means that the good things we do can be to honor God and bring him glory rather than a box we check off in attempt to buy his love or get his attention. It means that you are unconditionally loved and sin doesn’t have to drive you away from God. It means that you don’t have to have your crap together before you come to Jesus. He wants you just as you are. And his love is going to change you. We get it backwards. We try to fix things in our life before we come to him. And he just wants us to come to him so he can help us fix it.

Some of you are saying “Yes, I’m a Martha.” Or are starting to realize your tendency to be that way.  But some of you may not be in that camp. I think there are 2 realities that exist here. And they BOTH stem from a false view of who God is. One, you could be a doer like Martha… performance oriented failing to see grace in your life. Or two, that false view could lead you to apathy. If you don’t believe Jesus is who he says he is why follow him at all? If he isn’t God, if he didn’t live a perfect life, die the death you and I deserved, rise from the dead 3 days later, and make a way for you to have a relationship with the God of the universe why follow him at all? But what if he did? If that was all true that has major implications for your life. If you really believed that the God of the universe wanted to have a relationship with you wouldn’t your life look different? 

So whether you’ve been a Christian for 10 year or 2 years or maybe you’re not sure about all that yet the big question remains: Matthew 15:16. “What about you? Who do you say that I am?” is a question we have to constantly keep asking ourselves because honestly most of our sin and brokenness have at its source a false view of who God is. I worry about my future because I don’t believe that God will do what is best for me. I seek approval from others because I don’t believe that God loves me unconditionally. I work myself into the ground because I don’t believe that I’m fully accepted by God by grace alone. I have to keep asking myself, “Who do I say that he is? Does what I believe about God line up with the Bible and am I living my life like that is actually true?” My prayer is that we would have an accurate picture of who God is and that we would let it shape the way we think and act in every situation of our lives.