Luke 10:38-42: Don't Love Serving Jesus...Love JESUS!

Luke 10:38-42: The Story of Mary and Martha

"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 has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

The narrative above is without a doubt one of my favorite Bible stories. Even though it is only four verses long, each time I read it I am convicted. I cannot read this story without realizing how sinful I am (which is a good thing, by the way). Although there are many things we could draw out from this story, today we are going to look at what it looks like to not love our service to Jesus first and foremost, but to love Jesus himself first and foremost!

The story of Mary and Martha, quoted above, can be summarized like this: Jesus, who is on his way to Jerusalem, is invited by Martha to have dinner at her house. Jesus accepts the invite, but starts teaching as soon as he gets into the house. Mary, Martha's sister, sat at Jesus' feet and listened to him teach, but Martha was distracted with much serving. In response to this, Martha freaks out at Jesus and tells Jesus to rebuke Mary for not helping her. Jesus, in response, offers perfect words that Martha, as well as you and I, needed to hear: "Martha, Martha, you are 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."

Jesus' words here contain so much truth that we surely cannot dive into fully this morning. But in essence, what Jesus is saying is this: don't get distracted by your service. We are told earlier in the story that Martha was distracted by her service, which is what disabled her to fully obtain what God had for her in that moment, that is, the teaching of Jesus. However, Mary chose the "good portioin, which will not be taken away from her." In other words, Mary chose to neglect serving for a moment because she knew that it could wait. Mary knew that God's plan for her in this very moment of time was to listen to the Lord's teaching. Mary chose the good portion that Martha did not. But how often do we do the same?

The point of this story, as mentioned above, is to not love our service to Jesus, but rather to love Jesus! Will our service flow out of our love for Jesus? Most certainly! But don't get your priorities mixed up! We are to love Jesus first and foremost, and let our service to him flow out of that reality. However, if we get these two mixed up, we will fall into a type of service that attempts to gain God's favor instead of glorify God's name, as Martha did. We must love Jesus first and foremost, and let our service flow out of that reality, not the other way around.

So, how have you been distracted by your service for Jesus lately? Perhaps you haven't stopped in way too long because you're just so busy serving the one whom you say you love. May I allow the Word of God to drive a sword through your heart this morning by asking you the following question? Perhaps the reason why you can't stop serving Jesus is because you don't want the reality of the fact that you can't earn your own salvation catch up with you. This is where I was this morning. So often I run, run, and keep running to serve Jesus because I think that through my service, I can obtain salvation on my own, but this isn't the Gospel. The Gospel is that we serve him because he has saved us, not that we serve him in order that he might save us. So, stop serving Jesus in order that he might save you, but serve Jesus because he has saved you. Don't love serving Jesus; love Jesus, and let your service flow out of your love for him.