The writer is trying to tell us to keep the main thing the main
thing. We tend to stretch ourselves too
thin and busy ourselves with many things physically, mentally or
spiritually. When we do this, we don't
attend to anything at all very well. For
someone like me, who tends towards attention deficit disorder it is a
particular problem but rather than make excuses for it, I need the discipline
of attending to a thing. Not very many
people can multi-task very well, one thing gets more attention and the other
things are slighted. Jesus says that we
are to seek first the kingdom of God and everything else the writer mentions
here will be added to us. We aren't to
concern ourselves with the peripherals but that requires us first to know the
main thing. When we look around us at
the lives of others what do we see their preoccupations to be? Ask someone you trust today to tell you the
truth, even if it hurts, what they believe the most important thing in your
life to be and see if it matches what Jesus said it should be.
Martha was doing what was expected, serving her guests,
while Mary sat with the men taking in all that Jesus was teaching. In life under the law, there are frequently
conflicts that have to be resolved. Which
law is more important when two are in play at the same time is something many
rabbis were compelled to address. Hospitality
was and is an important law. We see it
in Abraham's reaction to the appearance of the three men at his tent in Genesis
18 and we see it in the way the Israelites are to treat strangers in the
Land. It is a high duty and yet here,
Jesus says that there is only one necessary thing and Mary, not Martha, has
chosen that thing and it will not be taken away. Not only does He say that learning from Him
is of paramount importance, it is so even for a woman. This redefines gender roles
dramatically. Women didn't learn from
anyone, particularly a rabbi, they were taught by their husbands and were under
his authority, he could cancel a vow she had made. The necessary thing, for all people, is to
attend to Jesus.
Is there a more terrible sentence in the New Testament than,
"So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the
month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind." The only thing worse in the entire Bible is
in Genesis 6 when God said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the
face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens,
for I am sorry that I have made them.” The
troops are a frightening thing to imagine and they complete their allotted task
with alacrity. Even then, John tells us
that the survivors refused to repent of the works of their hands, their idol
worship, their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality or their
thefts. When we deny that He is the main
thing, when we deny His existence, when we deny Him as creator, we fail to
understand even the most blatant revelation of Him.
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