The Good Portion
Luke 10:38-42 ·October 29, 2023· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke
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All right, kids are in the worship service, so kids of all ages, I got a question for you to start. Halloween is a couple days away, weather forecast is not looking good, but I want to hear somebody shout out if you have a costume picked out for Halloween, somebody shout it out. What's your costume? Hermione? Oh, that's cute, yeah. Anybody else have a costume picked out? Samus, like from Metroid, the video game? Yeah, okay, all right, nice. Anybody else have a costume?
Well, if you're still thinking about a costume and you haven't decided yet, kids, I got a really scary one that will just scare the pants off adults, all right? It'll make them terrified. It's something you probably haven't thought of before. If you dress up as a to-do list, it'll just really scare any adult that you see.
Adults, imagine you hear the doorbell on Halloween and you get up from watching something and you go to the front door, you open the front door and you hear trick or treat and you look and you see a kid dressed up as a piece of paper, a long piece of paper, filled with tasks, tasks, and none of the boxes are checked. Terrifying, right? That's the stuff that nightmares are made of right there. Many of us are haunted by to-do lists. They haunt us all the time.
Our responsibilities are always breathing down our neck like a monster lurking in the shadows. It's hiding underneath our bed. We wake up and we think, what needs to get done today? There's books and apps and techniques that are all intended to help you be more productive. Maybe one of the worst things you can say about a weekend sometimes is, oh, I just wasn't productive. Um, this, this obsession with being productive, it's not really unique to our time.
I mean, we, we might think, well, can't we just get back to a simpler time when people didn't care about being productive? But we're going to look at a passage today where somebody is thinking about getting some stuff done, being productive. Um, busyness did not begin in the, in the 20th century. So, we're going to see that today and we're going to see Jesus there with that person. And he speaks a good word to them. So, turn with me, please, to Luke 20, Luke 10, verse 38.
This is God's word for us today. Let's receive it as completely without error, as from him, as something that we should not just hear, but respond to with our hearts and our minds. Starting in verse 38. 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, Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you that episodes like this are in your word, that we can learn from them, and not just learn what to do, but learn your heart. We can see you for who you really are, see the truth, and be drawn into greater worship and greater love for you. Thank you for your care for us. Thank you for your word. Lord, make it profitable today. Bear fruit in each one of us. And we pray this, Jesus, in your name.
The good portion. This passage tells us that time with Jesus is time well spent. Pretty easy. I didn't even need two lines for that one. Time with Jesus is time well spent. Last week, the parable was, it was the parable of the Good Samaritan, and it taught us about loving our neighbors. Today is about loving God, that part of how we're supposed to live faithfully as God's people. So let's look at this scene. We're going to start with Martha's complaint.
Jesus comes into a village with his disciples, hoping for some hospitality. I wonder sometimes what this was like, to just be traveling around and to just stroll into a town. No reservations, no plan. You haven't used kayak or something like that to, you know, to book an inn. You just come in, and you just hope that someone is going to provide for you. And that's how God provides for you and your people. And they find this hospitality in a woman named Martha.
This family comes up a few times in the Gospels. You may have heard of Martha's brother, Lazarus. But for right now, the scene focuses on just the two sisters. So Martha welcomes Jesus in. Probably a lot of his disciples, too. Remember, he's traveling with a big group. Probably welcomes them in. When Mary hears that Jesus has arrived, she makes a beeline for him, right to him. She comes as close as she can. She sits at his feet. And she listens to him.
This is how a student would approach a teacher. When you hear this story, you might think of the word worship to describe what Mary does. And that's a good word. That's an apt word to describe what Mary does. But notice, this form of worship is not talking to him. It's not praying to him. It's not singing to him. It's listening to him. It's the kind of worship where we listen to him. That's what Mary's doing. She's not saying anything. She's listening.
She's taking in. Now, meanwhile, Martha is distracted. She's feeling a weight, a weight of responsibility for that house. There's guests in her house, probably as much as it can hold, if not more than it can hold. We hear nothing of a husband. We don't really know any part of that story. So the cultural expectation of being an excellent host would be resting on her and her alone. She's probably pulling out all the stops, just running herself ragged to do it well, to host really well.
At some point in doing all this work, Martha starts to get irritated at her sister. She's moving around the house. She's carrying things. She's going to and fro. She looks over and she sees Mary sitting there, doing nothing.
Martha glimpses over as she walks by. She's hoping to kind of catch Mary's eye and give her a look. You know that look that you can give your siblings sometimes? But Mary is enthralled by Jesus. She won't take her eyes off Jesus. As the dishes pile up, so does her resentment. Doesn't she notice what I'm doing? This is just like her. She never helps me. Kids, do you ever feel this way towards your siblings if you have them? A little bit resentful?
Maybe you think you're pulling more of your weight than they are? And then she starts to get frustrated at Jesus. Surely he sees what's happening. Why isn't he doing something? He knows he should do something. He doesn't care about me because he's not doing anything. Finally, it wells up in her and there's an outburst. Lord, do you not care? Do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. She accuses him of not caring and she demands action.
So let me just pause here. The scene is very simple. It's very relatable. Let me just stop here and ask, what do you think about the situation? What do you think about Mary's choices? What do you think about Martha's complaint? Which side would you take? Be honest. I'll say what many of you are probably thinking. Martha seems to have a point, doesn't she? I mean, come on. There was a lot of work to do. Mary wasn't doing any of it. It wasn't Mary's house, but she was family.
I mean, come on. Help a sister out. The least she could do was just pitch in until the dishes are done. Right? It's completely understandable to see Martha as responsible and put upon here and to see Mary as negligent and selfish. If that's what you're thinking here, if you're feeling sympathetic towards Martha, I want to tell you you're not alone. Jesus was sympathetic towards her.
So let's keep going and look at Jesus' sympathy and his response towards her. So Jesus' response, the first thing to see is how gentle he is with her. How tender he is with her. He says her name twice. Martha. Martha. In our language, in our culture, to repeat a name, it can often be a way of, like, verbally wagging your finger at someone. You know? Tsk, tsk. That's not it at all here. In this culture, in this language, this would convey tenderness, compassion.
She accused him and she demanded of him, but he's speaking peace to her. Peace, Martha. Be at peace. Along with his gentle, gentle demeanor comes an insight to her. Martha thinks that he's overlooked her, that he doesn't really care, but nothing could be further from the truth. And he shows it by speaking to her real need. He says you are anxious and troubled about many things. Underneath her busyness is a restless heart.
You know how it goes. How am I going to get all this done? What if I mess something up? What will people think of me? We all have responsibilities and commitments. That's just a fact of life. Some of them come out of necessity. We have to pay our bills. We have to feed our families. We have to feed ourselves. Other things, they come from good, spirit-led decisions. Ways that you want to serve. Ways that you want to serve people and get involved and contribute to kingdom work.
But there's a couple factors at play. We have a natural inclination to define ourselves by what we do. Roles and duties become how we feel significant and secure. We look at the things that we've done and we say, ah, I've done it well. I'm important. I'm significant. I've made a difference. The result is an anxious and a troubled heart because there's always more to do. There's always more to do. When our identity, our significance, our worth, our value gets bound up in the things that we're doing, it leads to an anxious and a troubled heart.
Martha was serving people. Remember that. She was trying to help. She was serving people. She had a house full of guests, but she forgot that one of them was the one who provides. The one who calms storms. She welcomed him in, but he's the one with something to offer. Not her. Listen to what author, scholar, and speaker Rebecca McLaughlin says. She says this. Martha thinks she's serving Jesus by giving him a meal, but Jesus clarifies that he's the one serving the real food, and Mary is right to sit at his table.
He was there teaching, speaking words of life about the kingdom of God, the dishes, and the food. It could wait. It could wait. This was the time to sit and listen.
And it turns out this is exactly what troubled and anxious hearts need. The treatment for restlessness is not finishing the list. The treatment for restlessness is not finishing the list. It's resting in Christ.
That's what Mary is doing, and she's affirmed by Jesus. Now, we're going to get to what Jesus says and unpack that. That's going to be our application for today, but I just want to pause again and say, however you answered that question in your mind about how you view this situation, whatever point of view you have about Mary and Martha, I urge you to pay attention to what Jesus says here. It's okay to admit that what Jesus says and how he responds bothers you.
If deep down you would rather him take Martha's side, just admit that. Go to God and admit that, right? But, are you willing to consider what he says? Are you willing to consider what Jesus says? It may not be the way you expected him to respond, it may not be the way you respond, but it's the Lord Jesus. You have ears today to hear how he responds and maybe consider his point of view on it. He is our creator after all. He made us and he loves us.
We look at Martha and we say, gosh, I know how she feels. I'm trying so hard, God, every day, every week, I'm trying so hard. But Jesus is speaking to you tenderly. He wants to lighten our hearts to make them less anxious, less troubled. That's why he talks to Martha. Not to scold her, but to lighten her heart.
So let's examine this last verse and see how to live. Mary's example. Mary comes close to Jesus and listens to him. She eagerly receives his word. That's the example. And just stated basically. Now, Jesus is not here physically anymore, but he's here spiritually. He's spiritually among us, in us, with us, when we gather. So, when does he speak? When can we listen? Well, he speaks when his word is taught, when his word is preached, when two or more are gathered in his name to study and to talk about the things of God, he's there speaking.
Through the Holy Spirit, we can draw near to him anytime, in prayer, in meditation. So, in broad brushstrokes, that's how we come close to Jesus and listen to him today. That's the basics there. But let me be more specific. And I'm going to assume, just to focus in here, I'm going to assume that you all agree that gathering for worship on Sunday is important. And this is a place where God's word is read and sung and preached. So, this is a pretty obvious and clear way to be like Mary.
To come sit at Jesus' feet and listen. So, rather than talk about that, I think where it gets trickier is the other days of the week, Monday through Saturday. That's where it gets trickier. How do we be like Mary then?
How can we live like Mary with responsibilities and full calendars? I want to say right off the bat that God knows we live in the real world. He knows we live in the real world. He knows we have families to feed, we have errands to run, we have work to do, and yes, we have dishes to clean, just like Martha did. We should always be open to the Spirit challenging us, challenging our busyness, but being like Mary doesn't mean zero responsibilities, zero commitments, just walking away from all of them.
It doesn't mean that. I'm sure eventually at some point Mary did do the dishes with Martha, right? It doesn't mean having no responsibilities, it means living like Jesus speaks the truth here. So we're going to focus on what Jesus says, and we're going to be challenged about can we believe that, can we lean into what Jesus says about spending time with him, and live a little bit more like we actually believe it this week. So, that's my caveat. I want to be clear, this sermon, this was on my mind this week, because this sermon would be, it would be easy to walk away with a totally bruised conscience from this text, right?
You can spend time with Jesus 24 hours a day if you wanted to, you have the spirit in you, you have the Bible, you can pray, right? Are you just supposed to do nothing and spend time with him all day? I don't think that it's just that easy, right? We can't live our lives that way, and so if we live like that's the expectation we're going to be guilty and guilty and guilty and we're just going to feel beat up. I don't think that's the way forward.
So I don't want to bruise your consciences today, I want to offer you something from the word that Jesus says to give you a practical way forward and it comes through changing our minds on a couple things or maybe just reminding us of some things that we tend to forget. Okay, so here it is, here's the first one. Time with Jesus is essential. It's essential. In contrast to the things that Martha was doing, Jesus says one thing is necessary. It's non-negotiable, it's essential.
Sometimes I'll get up in the morning and I'll say to myself, if all else fails, I will get this done today. That's a way of like force ranking everything in my whole day, all the things that I could do and say, I really have got to get this done, I've been putting it off or whatever, I've got to get it done. And so I'm force ranking everything I have to do and focusing on that most important thing. It keeps me focused. So what do you consider to be necessary?
If somebody looked at your day, looked at your week, what would they say that you consider necessary based on how you live your life? More importantly, do you agree with Jesus? One thing is necessary. One thing is necessary. do you believe that time with him, sitting with him, listening to him, it's essential.
It's necessary because Jesus is so great he deserves our attention, but that's not actually what he's getting at here. He's saying that time with him is necessary for us to live as his disciples. Think about someone competing in a triathlon. The goo and the little packets they keep with them and the water stations that they run by, those things are essential. They're necessary. They cannot finish that race without those things. Sam, am I right? You've got to have those things.
It's necessary to finish the race. All the things on your calendar, the responsibilities you have, the commitments you've made, the people you care for, the projects you do, you can't do any of them without spending time with Jesus.
Now you might say, well, Pastor Joel, what? I do them all the time without spending time with Jesus. What do you mean I can't do them? Well, you can't do them as spirit infused, salty, light bringing disciples of Christ. You lose your distinctiveness as disciples of Christ if you try to do them without spending time with Jesus. You will lose energy. You will lose hope. You will get anxious. You won't smell like Jesus. You won't look like Jesus. You've got to get close to him over and over, listening to him, learning from him, letting him shape you.
You need to let him rub off on you. Make you smell like him again. Look like him again. Be salty like him again. Be light like he is. You need your eyes lifted up to him, the one that he can do far more than we ask or imagine.
Jesus said that it's essential. One thing is necessary. So the most simple application of this passage in your life is to make it a priority. Make it a priority. Act like what Jesus said is true. Set aside time in your day every day to spend some time with him. I'm not going to tell you how long is enough. Let the spirit guide you there. But spend time with him every day in his word and prayer. He wants to meet with you. There's no substitute for time with Jesus.
And here's the second thing. Time with Jesus is valuable. Substitute any synonym here. Precious. Jesus said that Mary has chosen the good portion. This makes me think of Saturday mornings when I was a kid. Some days if it was a really great Saturday morning I would wake up to the best smell ever. Pillsbury cinnamon rolls in the oven.
My brother and I would run downstairs and we would both be trying to get one particular cinnamon roll. Russell knows what I'm talking about. The middle one. You know that's the best one. There's no crusty edges. Every edge is soft and gooey. All the icing you know is kind of like sloughed into the middle.
That's the good portion and we wanted it. We try to be the first one downstairs. Now you can't just dig in and get the middle one. You know that's just obvious. You have to wait until a couple people have been served and you can go in for that middle one and get it out of there. So we both would be like mom you want one? Kind of trying to pawn off a couple. Now I can get in there and get that middle. We wanted the good portion. We wanted it. We went after it.
To Mary time with Jesus is like that delicious cinnamon roll right in the middle of all the others. I've got to have it. I've got to have it. She craves him. She agrees with the writers of Psalm 119 who says how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth. It's sweet because he's wise. He brings us understanding about ourselves about the world. It's sweet because he's true. He does not lie. He's always reliable. It's sweet because he is loving and he reminds us that he shelters us under his wings.
That he's our refuge. Now kids I want you to think of a food that tastes good. Maybe it's that cinnamon roll. Maybe it's the s'more that's up here on the screen. Think of a food that looks like a good s'more doesn't it? Think of a food that tastes good. Now I want you to think of a food that's good for you. Is it the same food? No it's not is it? The s'more yeah nice try Russell. It's not good for you. The s'more is not good for you. But listen what if there were a food that were both good and good for you?
That's what Jesus is. Okay? We need to get our heads around this and remind ourselves of that. It's good for us to spend time with Jesus. It doesn't just taste good. It's not just sweet like honey. It's good for us to spend time with him. that's what we were made for. That's what we were made for. When you come to Jesus like Mary seeking him and delighting in him you are fulfilling the highest purpose that you were made for. You're fulfilling it.
You're realizing it. If you ever walk around and you're just saying what's my purpose in life? You've got to remember that your highest purpose is to worship and glorify God and enjoy him.
So when you come to Jesus it's good and it's good for you. I like the way John Piper says it. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. That is a beautiful statement of truth. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Now we forget this. We get brainwashed by the world. We forget how good it is for us to be with him. So go towards him believing that that's true and taste and see that the Lord is good. Everybody forgets that.
Go to him again let him remind you how good it is for you to be close to him. When Jesus calls you to come close he is seeking your good. He is not making you a slave. He is making you into more like him. He is shaping you in his image as an time with Jesus is enduring. The good portion Jesus says will not be taken away from Mary. There is nothing in this life that you can gain that you can't lose. There's nothing in this life that you can gain that you won't lose except Jesus.
Every moment you spend with Jesus gives you something that you will never lose. Every moment it will not be taken away from you. Every moment every minute every second that you spend with Jesus gives you something you will never lose. Something of eternal value. The life that's found in him will never run out. You will never be separated from him because he endured the separation from his father on the cross paying for the sins of everyone who calls on his name.
He's paid for them. He endured the separation. You don't have to worry about separation any longer. He proved himself to be the faithful savior. The one who always has your good in mind. So now you can begin each day hearing him say to you these words why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy listen diligently to me and eat what is good delight yourselves in rich food incline your ear and come to me that your soul may live church time with Jesus is well spent I don't think it's an accident I know it's not an accident that God in his he had this passage for us on our first anniversary we're doing a lot of great things we want to come together to point each other to Jesus the church is going to continue to plan things but remember time with Jesus is the most important thing time with Jesus is time well spent so let's draw near to him today and every day and hear from him let's pray God thank you for your tenderness towards Martha because we all have Martha hearts it's just so easy God to the things that we have to do the commitments we've made the responsibilities we had Lord the colleagues that we have in our life because you gave us these callings our eyes just get fixed on them sometimes we forget that we can't do those things unless we spend time with you we can't do them in the way that you want us to do them we can't do them as your faithful people we lose strength and hope so Lord no matter where everyone is here
today I pray that we would all hear the call again to return to you to essential but also to know that it's good it's satisfying it's rich and that what we receive from you it won't ever depart from us it won't ever be taken away God we love you and we pray