The sermon at my church today focused on the difference between hospitality and discipleship from Luke 10:38-42, about the actions of Martha and Mary during a visit by Jesus… take-aways I noted:
1.) Jesus was invited to dinner in their home.
2.) Martha sought to leverage influence of Jesus to coerce her sister into helping her with meal preparation, implying also Jesus’ lack of concern for her work.
3.) Jesus rejected Martha’s attempt at leveraging Him with a firm response and clear boundary.
4.) Jesus affirmed Mary’s choice to sit at His feet to listen and learn.
5.) Since Mary’s response of solitary focus was on Christ’s presence and purpose, her choice of obvious discipleship is, also, more demonstrably hospitable in making Him feel seen, heard, valued, and welcomed.
6.) Our efforts at serving may become more about our work, our opinion of its urgency or value, and our own desire to be acknowledged and our felt-need met
7.) Only one thing is necessary….attention to the person and purpose of Christ. Spiritual nurture is more necessary than physical appetite.
During our Sunday School hour, our little round table group discussed another interesting aspect of this scripture: Jesus’ use of Martha’s name two times in verse 41-42: “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.
Our leader, Vince Stevenson, had found Jesus’ double use of Martha’s name interesting and researched other scriptures where one’s name had been used twice. It was an enlightening discussion and led to realization of how repetition signals urgency or significant emotional emphasis of various kinds that call attention to the text and reveal ways in which the moment is creating a potential reorientation of thinking by the person being addressed, even perhaps alerting the person to the significance of the moment or identity of the speaker. The references found, in addition to this one with Martha in Luke 10 are:
Genesis 22:9-12: “Abraham, Abraham…”
Genesis 46:1-4: “Jacob, Jacob…”
Exodus 3:2-8a: “Moses, Moses…”
1 Samuel 3:1-11: “Samuel, Samuel…”
Luke 22: 34-34; “Simon, Simon…”
Acts 9: 1-9; “Saul,Saul…”
We read each citation in its context and observed how many insights were gained!
Two additional citations, both exclamations by Jesus during His final week, were:
Matthew 23;47: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…”
Mark 15: 34: “My God, My God….”
CBB 7/21/25
As God would have it, my Monday morning devotional included this meditation from Dottie Wilson, an Emmaus Friend, on the same topic of the “one thing” priority….
“There is “Only One Thing” that is enough, and that will bring satisfaction and fulfillment. David, in Psalms 27:4 says, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.” Prioritizing God above all else and finding ultimate fulfillment in abiding and residing in His presence was the central focus and the deepest, most urgent longing, desire of David’s soul. David sought God‘s face not His hand by actively pursuing His presence through prayer, worship and constantly seeking His guidance. One of the dangers in life is when you allow the “urgent things” to crowd out the “Main thing,” the “One thing” that is the most important thing in life.”
Then, as if God had not thoroughly made the point pointedly enough, I turned to check email and found this little “dainty” from Boundaries author, Henry Cloud:
Cloud offers advice on what to do when we don’t meet other’s expectations. The question in the summary of his emailed newsletter again pointed me to Martha’s expectations of Mary and Jesus, as well as herself, Mary’s expectation in sitting with Jesus, Jesus’ expectations of us and how he identified that as only one necessary thing, which seems to align well with Mary’s conduct and David’s psalm “One thing I ask of the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.”