Luke 10:38-42, Are You Missing the Point?

Luke 10:38-42 and the Danger of Missing the Point

Please open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 10, Luke chapter 10, verses 38 to 42. 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 to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you were anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, ever totally missed the point? I mean, two years ago, I realized that I couldn't drink Coca-Cola in moderation.

And so I needed to cut it out completely if I wanted to lose weight. So I did. And then that one resolution changed my whole all my eating habits, because, you know, if I was eating fast food, I didn't want to order the combos because that came with fries and a drink.

And I just brought my own water. So I wouldn't order. I just ordered the burger or the sandwich or whatever. And so that means I ended up not getting the fries, too, which I wasn't expecting that. But that's what came with the territory.

And so my weight started to come off dramatically. And then I discovered kind of recently I've discovered, you know, in most of these places, you can order the milkshake in place of the drink. Do you know that a little extra price, but you can get a milkshake with a combo and then you get the fries, too.

And so I started doing that. I still drink water when you're drinking Coke. So that's my rationalization in my mind. I'm not drinking the Coke anymore. And I have the milkshake for dessert. But as the weight slowly started to come back on, I realized, man, I missed the point.

I have to take in fewer calories. You know, it's not just Coke. It's not the problem. Now, people miss the point all the time. The last couple of weeks, we've seen, you know, how the quote red letter.

Christians miss the point of what Jesus actually says in the red letters, you know, about they miss the point. When they ignore the Old Testament that Jesus said in the red letters that not one jot or tittle will pass away.

And when they ignore the apostles that Jesus said in the red letters that if you ignore them, you ignore him. Now, out in the world, missing the point is just rampant. You know, from the school boards that ban Huckleberry Finn or to kill a mockingbird, both of which were written, at least in part to expose and combat racism.

They will ban them because they say they're racist, because they have a racist word in them. And you think, yeah, you're right. The N word is racist. But you totally miss the point if you think those books are racist.

Sometimes missing the point is funny. A lot of times it's funny. Like on a CarMax commercial, I think it's hilarious, where this man with a chainsaw is carving this big statue of a tiger. And he begins, you're probably wondering why I just carved a giant wooden tiger.

Well, the answer is that a real one would maul me. I just love that. One cartoon shows, I saw this cartoon shows a conspiracy theorist, you know, always on the Internet looking for information to support their conspiracies.

And he's trying to explain to his friend these new facts that he's uncovered on the Internet that supports what he's always suspected about Hitler, that Hitler never really died. And he exclaims to his friend, aha, the only evidence we have of Hitler's body is this busted skull.

And they just found out it's actually from a young woman. Wow. His friend is amazed and says, I can't believe it. Hitler was a chick. Or maybe this by Elwood Dowd in his book, Harvey. I started to walk down the street when I heard a voice saying, good evening, Mr. Dowd.

I turned, and there was this big white rabbit leaning against a lamppost. Well, I thought nothing of that. Because when you've lived in a town as long as I've lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name.

We could go on like that, fill the whole time with missing the point. But as a pastor, I see people missing the point all the time. You know, for church itself, people often miss the point of what church is to be about.

It's supposed to be you hear the word of God. This, by the way, we heard it excellent at Sunday school. Lesson on that this morning. Made a great preface to what we're talking about in this very passage.

But you hear the word of God, and you are built up by it. But some people think, you know, church is to be a place where you have the stained glass and the pews and all the proper sort of holy-looking stuff.

And that somehow elevates you. So they come in here and look at a gym and basketball markings on the floor. No, I'll go elsewhere. You know, they've missed the point. Some apparently think it's just to hear the doctrines they like.

Even some Reformed people are like that. They want to hear their own doctrines they like and hear the words, but never to be changed by them. They've missed the point. Others want to make the church about doing.

They always got to be doing something, whatever there is to do. So they're manning the nursery or they're leading the children's church, which we appreciate if you volunteer to do that occasionally. By the way, just a side note on this.

Actually, as a pastor, there's two people to be careful of. One is those who never volunteer to do anything, won't help to do anything. And two is those who are always volunteering to do everything and take every excuse they can to get out of the main service.

Watch out for those people because they're missing the point for some reason. But for those of you who do the children, that's great. I like to say if you're doing that every six weeks or every month or whatever it is, but if it gets to the point where you have to do it every Sunday, don't do that.

Just say, no, the kids will have to stay in the service. I've got to be in there, at least some. But some will get caught up in that because they've got to do, do, do. And if no one else will do it, they'll do it every week, and then they'll complain, of course, about how no one else is stepping up to do what must be done for worship because we all know how horrible it would be to have children in the worship service.

What an atrocious thing that would be. No, it wouldn't be so bad. They might miss the sermon, they think, but they haven't missed the point of church, have they? But they have. We come not to do, but to hear what God has done.

This right here is the point of worship, that you sitting quietly to listen to what God has done. Or you can sit and say amen, too, occasionally. That's fine, too. But you're listening. That's the point.

The activist kind of just cringes at that. There has to be something I can do, says their ego, to add to God. Is that the point, they ask? Yeah, there is something you can do. Listen. So are you missing the point?

Preoccupation: Good Works, Hard Work, and the Best Portion

Well, here we see two people, two sisters, approaching Jesus in very different ways. One of them totally misses the point. And we see that here in five parts. The preoccupation. Second, there's the practicalities.

Third, there's propriety. Fourth, there are principles. And finally, there are priorities. First, preoccupation. The activists are preoccupied. There are things for me to do. There has to be something I can do.

Whatever it is, the activists will do it. That's the point of being a Jesus follower, isn't it? Didn't Jesus just teach that in the parable of the Good Samaritan? Do? Here Jesus is at the home of Mary and Martha.

And he's probably with some retinue, almost certainly at least with his disciples. And Martha, it says, is distracted. Think of what distracted means. There's something else that's taking your mind, your attention away from what you should really be on.

She's preoccupied with being a good hostess. All the food and the drinks and the seating and the lighting and everything that is needed. And she welcomes them into her house. And so she gets to work getting everything right.

She's busy with frenzied service. She's industrious. She's just bustling with activity. And the point of the story, be careful, the point of the story is not that Jesus is just telling us to chill. That he doesn't care about hard work.

Jesus teaches elsewhere about the hard working servant who is to be commended because he kept himself busy. He didn't just sit on his talents, but he made the most of them. Jesus commends hard work. What's the point then?

This is not a story of good versus evil, but of good versus the best. What Martha did was good, usually. She just missed the point. A preoccupation means that you're missing the best because of something that's less good.

This is not an invitation to laziness. You know, just sit around and chat and text and message on Facebook. Say, well, I'm a Mary. No, you're not. You're just being lazy. When there is a lot of work to do.

And when we were in Ethiopia, Mary had a conversation with an Ethiopian there about how much people in Singapore worked. Usually about 50 hours a week. You know, Americans are known in a lot of places around the world as pretty hard working people.

You go to Singapore, compared to them, maybe not so much. But Mary was talking about, you know, Singaporeans would often work 50 hours a week, maybe more. Then there may be classes at night after they get out of work.

And they'll get home late and get a little bit of sleep. And they'll wake up early again to start all over again. And the Ethiopian thought, well, if that's the way life is, it's not worth living. But that's the kind of hard work that has made Singapore from a desperately poor country, like Ethiopia.

Not quite as bad as that, but it was poor about a generation ago. To what is now a very prosperous one. And that's given people longer lives, better medical care, so children don't die unnecessarily. And it's that kind of industriousness, that hard work.

You know, that's not a preoccupation. Just a distraction. Just something we shouldn't care about. It's not a distraction unless you forget why you're working so hard. What life is all about. Now here, Martha is preoccupied because she's forgotten what it means to have Jesus in her house.

She's forgotten the point of having Jesus there. She sees mouths that need to be fed instead of the mouth that brings her the word of life. What's the point? I mean, you've got to be practical, right?

I mean, come on. That's what Martha's thinking. I've got to be practical. Someone has to be sure that we have enough breadsticks. Right? Someone's got to look after that. Mary's not doing it. It's got to be me.

And these guys, they're useless. She's scurrying about, getting everything in order, keeping the breadsticks coming. She's grating enough cheese on your salad until you say enough. And on and on. And the point of this story is not to condemn practicality.

You know, we usually need to be practical. Sometimes kids need to be told that mom and dad can't play with you, little kids, all the time because we've got to take care of your practical needs. You know, we've got to put the roof over your head and the food on the table and clothes on your body.

And sometimes we guess we've got to relax, too, you know. Sorry, we can't play chutes and ladders, you know, on and on and on every day. Our video game is with you hours and hours every day. Not because we don't love you, but because we have to practically provide for the things you need.

And that's not unspiritual. That's not unchristian. Some Christians today insist that we should sacrifice the practical for a greater good. Usually it's the greater good of at least the mother staying home with the kids all day.

Maybe. But you know the noble woman of Proverbs 31? Ever read that? What was she like? Is she staying home with the kids all day? She was a working woman. She's practically providing for her family. Just going out of the house.

Providing for her family. Her work wasn't a distraction from being a mother. Maybe what the kids need then, at least sometimes, is to be taught, you know, Hey, I'm sorry that we can't entertain you all the time.

But we have to practically provide for the things you need. Maybe they need to be taught that the world is a revolve around them. What's the point? What Martha is doing isn't usually bad. It's usually good.

You'd like to have a Martha around. Keeps the place clean. Puts good food on the table. She's nice to have. Keeps the house in order. It's practical. To be practical means you've taken a serious look at what needs to be done.

And you're doing it. Even though you'd rather relax. I mean, right, Martha would probably rather be just sitting around too. Like Mary would. At least part of her. Wouldn't she? Now some Christians have a false spirituality in which they think being practical is carnal.

That it's unbelieving. That living by faith means you're supposed to ignore the real world with its practical needs. You could pray for it, but you don't need it to have anything to do with what it needs.

So if the projector isn't working, you just pray. You don't get up and try to fix it. If you're hungry or you need a place to live, you just ask God for it. And then you stop there. You just hope it falls into your lap.

You don't pray and then also get a job and earn money and find a house and buy the groceries. That last part shows you're too carnal. The world of practicality, they think, and the world of spirituality are never to be mixed.

That's what it's the way they see the world. The Bible doesn't teach that at all. You know, and Thessalonians, Paul says, you got these people that they thought they were so spiritual. Jesus is coming any moment now.

I'm going to be. That's all I care about. And so I'm not going to work. Practical work that earns money, they think, is for those of little faith. I'll mooch off of them. And Jesus and Paul told them if they're not going to work, don't let him eat.

Don't feed them. That'll get through to them. Martha is just being practical, she thinks. And she looks down at her lollygagging sister and thinks, you know, not only is she wasting her time, but she's putting all the practical needs on me.

And if this were any other guest, that might be true. The practical person looks at the real world, sees things as they really are, and does what must be done. The problem here is that Martha doesn't see the real world truth.

That she's hosting the truth in person. What's the point? Is it that propriety, that good manners, doesn't really matter? You know, Martha is being proper here. She's the proper one. Mary's not supposed to be sitting down with guests at her home.

That's improper. Anyone hosting visitors wants to make a good impression, have the food available, you want to have the drinks flowing. And especially in that culture, where they especially honored hospitality.

Propriety demanded putting out an impressive spread. And we know from other parts of the Bible that people would go to neighbors to get help if suddenly a visitor arrived. You just have to supply well for whoever's visiting.

Get the neighbors to help. And so they could have everything for a comfortable and enjoyable visit. Here, Martha is intent on being the best host for the best guest. And verse 40 said that she was busy with much serving.

Anyone's cup getting half empty? She's right there with a refill. The bread's getting low? She's putting a new batch in the oven. Feet are being washed. Pillows are being laid out to lean on. They're getting first class service, or at least as much as Martha can provide all by herself.

It's impressive! She's desperate to leave a good impression on all the visitors about how proper she is. Again, the point of the story isn't that we shouldn't care. You conclude, well, I'm going to follow Mary's example.

I'm just not going to care whenever a visitor comes by. I'm just going to sit down and chat. You know, you just tell them, hey, go get your own food at the local McDonald's. I'll watch TV. No, that's just, no.

Being a proper host or properly here, properly greeting visitors at the door. I mean, people come here. They don't know where we sit. They don't know why things are as they are. You need to greet visitors at the door because it's putting yourself in their position.

You be polite. You be caring. You show that you care about other people's feelings and their needs. It's a way of loving your neighbor as yourself, right? Just what Jesus taught in the earlier parable of the Good Samaritan.

And our culture teaches us how to properly attend to other people's needs. Now, the Chinese would say, our Western culture doesn't do that as well as theirs. But that may be the truth. But ask them if they've eaten, right?

That's the typical Chinese greeting, by the way. I don't know it in Chinese. But the typical Chinese greeting when you greet somebody is, have you eaten? And, of course, if they haven't, you're supposed to supply that.

You provide them with food and drinks and you have a place to relax. Improperly ignoring what people need, that's just rude. Martha thinks Mary is being rude here because Martha has forgotten. Martha has forgotten what people most need.

Propriety, Confusion, and the Accusation Against the Lord

So because she's serving for the great cause of propriety, and here we get to the great irony of this story, because that's what's going through Martha's mind, right? She's doing the proper thing. This is the cause of propriety.

But look what it drives her to do in verse 40. She says, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. I mean, think about that. She's trying to host Jesus and she's complaining to him.

Notice three things about that. First, the confusion. Second, the accusation. And third, the presumption. First, think how confused all this service has made Martha. In her zeal for propriety, she ends up doing the most improper thing.

She complains to the guest that she wants to impress. She's so wound up in her goal. She's going to be the hostess with the mostess. She forgets the reason to be a good host. To serve the people you are hosting, right?

Put them at ease. Give them an enjoyable time. You don't complain to them. What a horrible thing that is. That's what she's doing now. She's complaining to Jesus. Her frenzy of activity has caused her to forget the purpose of her activity.

And this happens to Christians all the time, including in the church. They set out with a good goal, a mission, a purpose. Maybe for missions, for evangelism. Maybe to plant a reformed church or whatever it is.

And so with that, they then set out to serve for what they think is that purpose. And they get caught up in all that service and the things that become necessary. They've got to get chairs and they've got to get VCRs.

It used to be VCRs. TVs, projectors, and balls, and vans, and buses, and so on. And then as they're getting and arranging all this stuff as they're serving, they forget the purpose of it all. If a chair is broken in a youth meeting, they'll shut down the youth meeting to save the chairs.

If they're afraid that moving the VCR to show the Jesus film to the poor Ethiopian kids all around them, that that might damage the VCR, they'll choose to save the VCR. If we want to reach lost guys around here who wear those horrible fashion, where that came up with?

This is a horrible, horrible fashion of wearing sagging pants. But they want to reach them. But then they get so offended by the sagging pants that they, you know, they just make a fit about it and say, you can't do that here, end up driving them away.

Just this week, I read a major Reformed leader decrying drums in church. That's just one of the horrible things, have drums in church. Even though the Bible, what's it mean to be Reformed? It means sola scriptura.

And by the way, Scripture speaks of symbols. It doesn't speak of organs, right? This guy has an organ in his church. I'm not against organs. But, you know, Mr. Reformed guy, you're the one with something in your church the Bible doesn't talk about, not the people with the drums.

Now, in our confusion, we undercut the very purpose that we set out to serve. Here, Martha set out to impress Jesus and the disciples with her, you know, with her fine, fine service. Then she destroys that by complaining to the very one she meant to serve.

She just didn't make a complaint, but an accusation. Notice in verse 40. Lord, do you not care? You know, she's not just blaming Mary. She's blaming Jesus himself. Mary's failure to get up and help Mary, you know, put bread in the oven and clean up with it and do the dishes.

That wasn't just Mary's problem. It's Jesus' fault, Martha says. You know, he should be setting her straight. Doesn't he understand what I need? I'm slaving away and you don't care. And this happens to us when we set out to serve Jesus.

And the Lord Jesus doesn't quite seem to cooperate with our plan on how to do it. Lord, don't you care? So-and-so isn't doing what I want him to do. Don't you care? The crowds aren't flowing in and we're not just huge and big and successful and we're not building buildings.

Martha or us here is not just complaining about or trying to correct other people. We end up accusing the Lord himself of not caring about us. If our service doesn't turn out like we thought. Don't you care?

And we accuse God of being uncaring and callous and burdening us with more than we expected because we got caught up too much in doing and achieving in our grand vision of the greatest ministry, the best family, the most glorious dinner party, our expectations, whatever it is, of what we needed to serve him.

Lord, we're trying to serve you and you don't care. Imagine the presumption of that. Presumption. Martha or us, so full of what we think, that's presumption, of what we think that we know is the right way.

The dream we've had of the greatest ministry, the greatest family, the party, the meeting, whatever it is. So full of that. That's presumption. That we forget we're complaining to who? To the Lord. Martha should know here.

She even calls Jesus Lord. That's the way she addresses him. Notice that. Lord means master. She should know that means master. He's the one in control. If she really understands he's the master, okay, he wants Mary to listen to him.

He must be right. But she doesn't think that way. She calls him Lord, but we can do the same thing, forget that he's in control. And so we forget that so easily, what him means to be the Lord, especially when we're full of our plans, we're distracted by all our activity.

Lord, tell her. Lord, you tell her what I tell you to tell her. Lord, it's presumption to think we know the best. We know better than the Lord himself. We know so much better, we can even tell the Lord what to do.

Lord, I need. Whatever that a spouse or money or health, whatever. You know, Paul learned better. Apostle Paul learned better than when he prayed. He prayed three times that the Lord would take away his thorn in the flesh.

Probably some ailment. He was praying to the Lord. I need to be healed of this to go on serving you. And the Lord responded, my grace is sufficient for you. In other words, I know better than you about what you really need.

Most of all. You need grace. People presume on the grandest scale when it comes to their salvation, when they think that they can tell the Lord that all their activity has saved them. They can tell the Lord what activity is going to save them and that they've done the activity that has saved them.

The Lord Jesus said that at the judgment, some people will be so presumptuous that they'll come up to him boasting about all that they've done. Lord, Lord, did we not do this and that that we decided should be done?

All the proper stuff. Did we not do it in your name? We did stuff we chose to do, but we did in your name. We slap your name on what we want to do. Jesus says he'll tell them away from me, you worker of lawlessness, lawless person who not under control of any law of the Lord does what he wants to do.

Presumptuous you people away from me, you people so presumptuous that you thought you could state the criteria for your own salvation. And then you can say that by doing this and that, you busy yourself presumptuously doing it, announce yourself saved.

Martha, in her confusion, presumptuously accuses the Lord of not caring because he's not doing this meeting in her house like she thinks it ought to be done. And so the Lord Jesus responds in verse 41, Martha, Martha.

You imagine the tone, but you can almost be sure it's still 2000 years later. You can hear the compassion, the tenderness echoing in his words. Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things.

You know, the food, the drinks, the cushions, the wash feet and hands, the oil, the lamps, the cleaning up on and on. But one thing is necessary. There are principles. In other words, principles determine what is really necessary.

What is secondary? What is even further down the list? What are the principles? Martha thinks she has principles. Practical needs have to be taken care of. You know, that artichoke dip, is it going to refill itself?

Being practical is a principle. She's proper. Guests have to be well looked after, especially such a prominent guest as Jesus himself. I mean, if Jesus were coming to your house, when you want to have the best of everything, sure you would.

Hospitality is a principle. All true. But what's the point? The point is that what Martha gets wrong is what so many Christians today get wrong. Their principles are all mixed up. What's wrong is that they lack the main principles, the chief principles.

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That's the point. What's the point? You know, this story is not what some commentators say. It's a clash of temperaments.

It's the contemplative Mary versus the activist Martha. That's not really the point of this story. The principle isn't just to tell us to learn to be quiet, to sit and to chill, to not be so busy. It's ironic how many of the interpretations of this story, which is about missing the point, miss the point.

Normally, Martha would be right. Normally, we need practical people caring for our needs. But the point here is about priorities. When it comes to Jesus, when it comes to the word of God, practicalities, principles, propriety, but even principles, lofty principles like family first, those take a back seat.

As a Puritan said, Christ cares not to be entertained delicately, but to be heard diligently. Here in verse 42, Jesus said, one thing is necessary. Now, he doesn't mean one thing, that's all. He doesn't mean chicken, just chicken, that's enough.

I don't need the beef and the mutton and the fish. No, that's not what he means. He means the word of God. That's necessary. Everything else is luxury. The chicken and the drinks and the cushions and the padded chairs and the projectors, the musical instruments.

Our priority must be the word. When the word is taught, listen. All else is secondary. Mary, Jesus says, has chosen the good portion. That's how you know the one thing that's necessary is the word, because that's what Mary chose.

She's chosen the good portion, listening to the word. That was her priority. Even over practicality, over propriety, even over her nagging sister. People today are preoccupied. Maybe they're preoccupied with making a living.

They can't come to church. They can't hear the word of God, because they've got to make money. We've got to be practical, they think. We've got bills to pay. Maybe later. Maybe when I'm more comfortable, the business is more established, then I can come back to church.

But even if you do, even if you keep that, for now, you establish the business, you make it successful. Later on, you come back to church. You're still coming back with mixed-up priorities. Sure, you're coming back to church, fine.

But you're coming back because now you have a bunch of money in savings. But your priorities are still money first. They say, you're not being practical. I have a business to make profitable. Yes, and some prosperity teachers will promise you that God will bless you.

If you go to church, sacrifice a few hours. If you close a few hours on Sunday morning, you make it to church, God will bless you, at least if you come to my church. You'll make even more money than if you didn't.

You'll miraculously profit from closing. In other words, you can have your money first priority and the Lord. No, you can't. Jesus said you can't serve God and money. It cannot be done. And maybe He won't prosper you if you close a few hours on Sunday morning to go to church.

Maybe He'll challenge your priorities. Maybe He'll teach you that His grace is sufficient, that you don't live on bread or whatever else your money buys alone, but on the word of God. But I have principles, they say.

I got to provide for my family. Good. But don't you see what your family needs most is not new cars and big houses and luxury vacations, the newest gadgets, but the life that the word of God brings. Priorities.

Our priority must be the word of God. It's the one thing that is necessary. It's the good portion that Mary chose. It's what brings us faith. And so faith brings us a right relationship with God. And so all of God's blessings.

This is why this story comes immediately, I think, comes immediately after the parable of the Good Samaritan. Some activists could read that parable and think our priority has to be action. Preach the gospel at all times, they say.

And if necessary, you really have to use words. Ah, so clever, they think. You know, because it suggests we can preach the gospel just with our actions. We don't have to say anything, especially anything that might offend anybody.

We can preach the gospel by being a good neighbor, help the needy, making snacks, providing drinks, standing up for justice, going on marches. And some think that is the message of Jesus. But first, remember the context of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

What must I do to inherit eternal life? The first answer was love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and then your neighbor as yourself. And the love for God and for neighbor comes from God, it comes from his word.

And we love God by loving his word. And second, people do not see actions. No matter how charitable. You make them a meal and necessarily hear the gospel. You know, only if the Spirit's really working in their life.

They might think, right? They're hungry and you make them a meal. They might think, hey, I'm worth it. These people are rightly giving me what I deserve. It's only through the word of Christ. It's only through preaching and teaching and sharing about Jesus, about who he is, that he is the word of God incarnate.

About who you are. A desperately needy sinner. About what God has done. That he sent his son to take our punishment so we could be right with God. It's through the word of Christ that God gives us faith so that people can be saved.

It's through the word of God that we're built up and that our minds are transformed so that we're different from this world. So that we can then walk in the Spirit rather than in the flesh. It's the word of God that is our sword of the Spirit that we can use to take every thought captive to obey Christ so that the kingdom of God can come into our lives.

That's why preaching or teaching or sharing the word must be our priority. So Jesus says in verse 42 that what Mary has chosen, the word, will not be taken from her. Everything else people make a priority.

Everything else that takes them away from the word. The business they've got to keep going. The money, the cars, the houses, the relationships. The things that preoccupy them. The boyfriends, the girlfriends.

The iPhones and pads. The great stuff. Even good stuff like family. The noble duty to have supplied for your children the clothes and the food and the education they need. All of that can and will be taken away eventually.

All the things. Many of them good. What Martha is doing here are good things that she's supplying. Or maybe bad things. All the things that preoccupy people now will be lost. But the word of God heard still today in the Bible by the Spirit that will not be taken away.

If you listen to it it won't be taken away from you. Of course what Mary was doing, you know, she wasn't just attending. Like some people attend church services but with their minds, you know, floating off elsewhere.

What's coming for lunch? What are we going to eat after this? Hope he ends soon. She was, in verse 39, listening to his teaching. Now it was unusual for a teacher in that day, even just to allow a woman to listen.

And here Jesus shows that he'll allow anyone to listen if they're really listening. They're not only hearing Mary's not only, but maybe hopefully you are not only changing your minds because you're paying attention, being transformed by what you hear from the word of God, but also then changing how you live.

There are people, there are people though, who have been attending church services for decades. And yet in their old age they talk about how important it is. What's important to them, their priority, is for their husband to be buried next to them a husband who doesn't attend church, hasn't in decades, to be buried next to them in the church cemetery so that they'll be together in heaven.