38 As they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary. Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to him talk.
40 But Martha was upset about all the work she had to do. So she asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself? Tell her to help me.”
41 The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You worry and fuss about a lot of things. 42 There’s only one thing you need. Mary has made the right choice, and that one thing will not be taken away from her.”
Read Luke 10:38-42 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Have you ever wondered whether or not you made the right choice when faced with a difficult decision?
In this passage, I want to focus specifically on what we can learn from Jesus and His response to Martha that Mary has made the “right” choice.
The setting of this passage describes two opposite personalities: a detailed and task-oriented personality, and a relationship driven personality. Often, we look down on Martha because she was so focused on the details, but I don’t think that was what Jesus was talking about when He was making this statement. If this were the case, we could make the argument that God likes some personalities better than others – which is an argument that doesn’t sit well in my mind.
However, while we have two opposite personalities present in this scene, we also have a clear priority given by Jesus. Martha’s personality says that one shows love, respect, and appreciation through acts of service and by serving well. Mary’s personality says that one shows love, respect, and appreciation through quality time spent and by giving attention to the person.
Jesus didn’t tell Martha to stop serving; a response like that would have been counter to her personality. Instead He tells her to stop worrying about getting all the details perfect and to leave Mary alone. The priority Jesus makes clear for us is this: Relationships are more important than appearances. Loving/Helping people should be our priority.
Sure the details matter, and without people focused on getting the details right, we would waste a lot of unnecessary time, but when given the choice, a personal relationship should always come before the details of a task.
This comes easier for some people than for others. I can easily relate with Martha, because I have the task-driven, detail-oriented personality. God is helping me see the importance focusing on the relationship over my natural tendency to ignore relationships in favor of focusing on getting it right. I have come a long ways, but I know there is still a long way to go. What I do know though is that relationships are more important than details and people are more important than perfection.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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