Hello everyone. When the demands of life increase, what you most need is quiet time with the Lord. That’s our topic as we visit the ancient town of Bethany very close to Jerusalem and enter the house of a woman named Martha, who is in a stew. You’ll find that story in Luke chapter 10.
Greater Jerusalem currently occupies about one hundred square miles, at the heart of which sits the Old City. Whenever I’m in the Old City, I feel transported back in time. There are four quarters. The largest is the Muslim Quarter, colorful and chaotic. The Jewish Quarter has an ancient elegance to it. The Christian and Armenian Quarters are smaller and filled with quaint shops. Bustling about are pilgrims, tourists, residents, children, animals, and vendors selling falafels and shawarmas, antiquities and jewelry, and all sorts of paraphernalia. The evocative Muslim call to prayer wails from minarets at the appointed hour.
The Temple Mount covers thirty-seven acres on the eastern side of the Old City. It’s the ancient site of the Jewish Temple, the modern site of two Muslim holy places; and when I walk across it I feel I’m walking across the powder keg of history. The lower retaining wall of the Temple Mount dates to the days of Herod the Great and is called the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall where Jews and others from around the world come to pray.
Just to the east of the Temple Mount and the Old City is the deep ravine known as the Kidron Valley, and its eastern slopes rise upward to form the dramatic ridge known as the Mount of Olives. The town of Bethany is about two miles away, to the southeast. Today it’s a Palestinian town called Al-Azaria (“The Place of Lazarus”). It should be a short walk, but that’s no longer possible.
I visited there two or three times in the 1970s when Bethany became part of the West Bank territory under Israeli control. But in 1993, the Oslo Accords took effect and Bethany fell under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. In 2002, a separation wall was built on the route, making it very difficult to visit, especially for groups. As of today, visitors have to take a detoured route and pass through security checkpoints.
What I remember most about visiting Bethany in the 1970s is a woman who would beckon us through the gate of her small one-room dwelling. In the courtyard was a small wood stove, and inside the house were mattresses stacked up in the corner. Children of all ages were everywhere, and the woman told us that at night they spread out the mattresses and sleep together in that room. In the morning, they stack the mattresses in the corner and use the room for living space.
It reminded me of the man in our Lord’s parable in Luke 11, whose neighbor came knocking on the door at midnight. The man inside whispered back, “Don’t trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise…” (Luke 11:7 NKJV).
In the days of Jesus, Bethany was a busy little town, sitting on the main road from Jericho to Jerusalem, and Jesus often stayed there with His friends, Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, who were siblings. Simon the Leper also lived there, whom we’ll visit in a later episode. Nearby was the cemetery where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and the tomb of Lazarus is still there. Is it actually Lazarus’ tomb? It’s quite possible. It was identified as such in the early 300s, according to Eusebius of Caesarea, and archeologists have confirmed the site as being in a first-century graveyard with caves and tombs.
The problem is that today’s street level is higher than it was in the first century, and when I visited I had to walk down a long flight of steep, narrow tunnels of steps into a dark hole. This isn’t the original entrance to the tomb. Centuries before, a church was built over the tomb, and the church later became a mosque. Since Christian pilgrims can’t go through the mosque, a new entrance was cut down through the rock into the tomb. So there’s no longer any kind of graveyard look to the place. Only a lot of shabby buildings, one of which had a door that opens to the deep tunnel of stairs leading to the tomb.
Nearby are ruins of ancient houses, which are said to be the houses of Mary, Martha, and Simon the Leper, although we can’t authenticate that. All we can say is that these piles of rubble made up ancient Bethany. But somewhere among the ruins of these timeworn sites was a house belonging to a woman named Martha. And that’s the house we’re going to visit today.
The New Testament heroine, Martha, reminds me very much of my mother, Edith Palmer Morgan. Both were hardworking women who cared deeply for others and wanted everything just right. Both loved the Lord Jesus and wanted to serve Him. Both often wore themselves out with work and worry.
In the case of Martha, she almost overdid it, and the Lord issued a mild and loving word of correction to help her recalibrate and rehabilitate her life, so that it became even healthier and more balanced. “One thing is needful,” He told her.
Let’s look at the story in Luke 10:38-42:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 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!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
If I were to ask you to tell me Martha’s problem, what would you say? I don’t think she had one single problem. I think it was a series of five overlapping problems that we can uncover by a careful reading of this text. Luke gives us clues here as to Martha’s nerves and state of mind.
The first was distraction. Look at the passage again: As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
Of course she was distracted. If Jesus were coming to your house, you’d be distracted, too. When he was president, Jimmy Carter, in his travels to various cities, would sometimes stay in someone’s private home. He said that spending the night with a typical American family helped him stay in touch with what was really happening in the nation. He would sit in their living room and talk with them after supper, then sleep in the guest room. It was always a circus, with hundreds of reporters and secret service agents and the like, but it wasn’t a bad public relations idea.
If someone famous were coming to spend the night with me tonight, I’d be a nervous wreck trying to get everything ready. I have preschoolers living with me—great-grandchildren—and my house stays tidy only in rare one-minute increments. Well, what if the most important, the most famous, the most admired man in the history of the human race were coming to your house? Jesus Christ?
Now wonder Martha was distracted. The word used here in the New International Version—”distracted”—is translated “cumbered about” in the King James Version. The Greek word that Luke used is peristao (per-is-ta’-o), a compound of two smaller Greek words, the verb to draw or to pull, and the word around or away. It is the idea of being pulled in every direction. Verse 40 literally says that Martha was pulled in every direction. Some translations use words like “over-busy” or “over-occupied.”
Most of us can identify with that. We allow ourselves to become too busy, busier than God intends, busier than is necessary, busier than is wise. We feel pulled in all directions. That’s why so many people are tired today. It’s a problem I’ve never solved in my own routine. I don’t want to be bored; I want to be busy. But I’m usually too busy, and that brings on fatigue. The hardest thing in the world is for me to say “No.”
Kevin DeYoung wrote about a woman who came from another country to the United States and began to introduce herself as “Busy.” It was the first thing she heard from everyone she met. “Hello, I’m busy.” She thought that was part of our traditional greeting, so she told everyone she met that that’s who she was. He told that story in his book, Crazy Busy, which is one of many recent books addressing this subject. Other titles are…
- Busy: How To Thrive in a World of Too Much
- Too Busy for Your Own Good: Get More Done is Less Time
- Breaking Busy: How to Find Peace and Purpose in a World of Crazy
- Effortless Anger Management for Busy Parents
- The Busy Leader’s Handbook
- Busy is a Four-Letter Word
I’m not recommending any of these books because I’ve been too busy to read them, but it does speak to the pace of life today. Yet it’s not new. Diligent people have always been busy, and that’s why Marthy was distracted.
Martha’s second difficulty was doubt. Look carefully at what she said to Jesus in verse 40: Martha was distracted (pulled in all directions) by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care…”
That was a little bit reproachful. She was casting a bit of blame on Jesus. Don’t you care? How often, while being pulled in all directions, do we momentarily doubt God’s power and presence and concern. If God really loved me, why would he let this happen? Does He care? Does anyone care?
Let me tell you about a song written by evangelist Charles F. Weigle, who was born in Indiana in 1871. For years he was an itinerant preacher who enjoyed traveling and preaching despite the rigors of the road. His wife, however, grew disillusioned with her frequently absent husband, and one day Charles returned home to find this note: “Charlie, I’ve been a fool. I’ve done without a lot of things long enough. From here on out, I’m getting all I can of what the world owes me. I know you’ll continue to be a fool for Jesus, but for me it’s good-bye!”
Charles was stunned, for he deeply loved his wife. He found her with relatives, but despite his desperate appeals she would have nothing to do with him. Depression swept over him like a tidal wave, and one day, sitting on the porch of a cottage in Florida, he contemplated suicide. “Your work is finished,” said an inner voice. “No one cares….”
But another voice suddenly pierced his mental gloom: “Charlie, I haven’t forgotten you… I care for you—let not your heart be troubled.” Instantly Charles was on his knees, rededicating himself to Christ. He soon resumed his ministry. Five years later, his wife died under tragic circumstances. As Charles wrestled anew through his mixed feelings, the Lord so comforted him that he began writing the words of that wonderful song, which is one of my favorites. It’s also a favorite of my friend, Babbie Mason, who sings it beautifully.
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus,
Since I found in Him a friend so strong and true.
I would tell you how He changed my life completely;
He did something no other friend could do.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus;
There’s no other friend so kind as He.
No one else could take the sin
And darkness from me;
O how much He cares for me.
A couple of years ago, I was feeling down in the dumps, and I looked up this word “care” in the Bible and wrote several verses down in my notebook. Let me share them with you. They come from various passages, here and there in the Bible:
No one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. ≈ The LORD your God cares… The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him. ≈ After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church. ≈ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you. ≈ Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you. [Psalm 142:4; Deuteronomy 11:12; Nahum 1:7; Ephesians 5:29; 1 Peter 5:6-7; Psalm 55:22 (NIV)].
Martha’s third difficulty was self-pity. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me?” Martha was clearly irritated. She gave her Lord and her sister “what-for,” and it was motivated by this feeling of: “I have all this work to do. The floor needs sweeping, the feet of the guests need washing, the bread needs slicing, the stew needs stirring, the table needs setting, the lamp needs oil, and I just cannot do it all by myself. No one is helping me.” Martha stewed and brooded about it until she snapped.
We’ve all felt that way, and I suppose all of us snapped at those around us. I confess I’ve done it many times. And, of course, Martha did need help. No one denies that. Many hands make light work. The running of a household and the entertaining of guests requires that every member of the family do his or her part.
But Martha’s agenda didn’t quite line up with the agenda of Jesus Christ. He wasn’t so concerned about the seasoning in the beans, the dust on the floor, or the way the napkins were folded. He was concerned that His life-changing Word got out, that those in the house hear what He had to say.
And that left poor Martha feeling abandoned in the kitchen where she fell into a very grudging mood of irritable self-pity: Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all this work by myself? Tell her to help me.
It reminds me of an incident in the life of a dear friend of mine who is now in Heaven, Mabel Willey, who served alongside her husband for many years in Cuba and Panama. While she was a student at Toccoa Falls Bible Institute, Mabel was elected president of the graduating class, a position that required a lot of time. As a parting gift to the school, the senior class voted to donate a gate for one of the entrances to the Institute, and Mabel found herself responsible for many details. In spite of her hard work no one else seemed interested, and all the other students were busy with their own concerns.
One morning she grew quite irritable, feeling sorry for herself. “Poor me!” she said, “I always have to do everything.” Knowing she needed a few minutes alone, she grabbed her Bible and hiked out to the falls. Arriving there, she complained to the Lord: “No one will help me, Lord. Please give me a verse just for me right now.”
She opened her Bible expecting to find a gracious verse of love and reassurance, but instead her eyes fell on Luke 17:10—So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”
Mabel said, “I walked back to the door with a changed attitude. As a result things began to fall into place and the project moved forward to completion.” It was a lesson she later recalled many times as a missionary to Cuba.
But there was a fourth problem in Martha’s attitude: Worry. Look at verse 41: “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried…”
Through the years, I myself have struggled with worry and anxiety, and I’ve found that it has helped me to collect definitions of what worry is. Let me read some of them for you.
- Worry is a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. —Anonymous
- Worry is putting question marks where God has put periods. —John R. Rice
- Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow’s troubles. —E. Stanley Jones
- Worry is a form of atheism, for it betrays a lack of faith and trust in God. —Attributed to Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
Finally, Jesus noted that Martha was upset about many things. “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things.” I have the feeling that the “many things” included more than just the preparations for a meal. I think Martha was encumbered by many burdens. I believe there were pressures and problems in her life that had been building for some time, and that vexed and fretted her. The pressure of entertaining the Lord Jesus just provided the proverbial “last straw.” Under that pressure, she gave vent to fears and frustrations that had been building for some time. She was upset about many things.
Are you? No wonder we identify with Martha: She was pulled in all directions, she was questioning God’s power and goodness, she was sinking into self-pity, she was worried, and she was upset about many things.
When We’re Like Mary
What did Jesus say to her? What was His prescription? What advice did He give for her nerves? He said: Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needful. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.
There is only one cure for the Martha-syndrome—learning to sit quietly at the feet of Jesus, listening to his words. When the demands of life increase, what you most need is time alone with the Lord. The great lesson of this story is that being occupied with Christ is more important than being occupied for Christ, and it is certainly better than being preoccupied with self.
We should never become so busy and upset that we neglect the cultivation of the soul, the time necessary in fellowship with the Lord.
How do we sit at Jesus’ feet? The phrase “at his feet” occurs sixteen times in the Bible, and it often implies an attitude of submission and trust. The first occurrence is in the book of Ruth when the maiden Ruth lies at the feet of her near-kinsman Boaz, indicating a position of submission and trust. When Queen Esther went to King Ahasuerus to plead for the survival of her people, the Jews, she fell at his feet. When the synagogue ruler Jairus came to Jesus to plead for healing for his little, dying daughter, he fell at Jesus’ feet. In the book of Revelation, when the apostle John was given a vision of the glorified Jesus, he fell on his face at the Lord’s feet in utter submission.
This is one of the reasons that we sometimes kneel when we pray. It is a sign of reverence and submission. Mary could have sat on the sofa next to Jesus and asked Him questions, but she had a quiet, trusting, submissive heart, and she expressed that by wanting to be at His feet. I love Henry Lyte’s classic hymn that says:
Praise my soul the King of Heaven
To His feet thy tribute bring
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Evermore His praises sing.
How do we learn to sit at our Lord’s feet and have daily fellowship with Him? In next week’s episode, I’m going to offer some very practical advice about that, so stay tuned! Some of it will come from my book Mastering Life Before It’s Too Late. If you don’t have that book within easy reach on your bookshelf, why not add it to your collection.