A lesson from Mary and Martha
Let me take you to the Gospel of Luke for a second, Luke 10:38-41
"As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him in her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the feet of Jesus and listened to His teaching. Martha was upset over all the work she had to do so she came and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me!"
The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing and it will not be taken from her”
This is one of my favorite Bible stories. When I was younger, it had me conflicted though as a part of me felt Jesus was a bit unfair to Martha. It was her after all, who went out of her way to welcome Him to their home, she went further to probably cook, clean, arrange, etc just to make Him comfortable. Mary on the other hand didn’t lift a finger to make him comfortable, she simply chilled at His feet. I felt Jesus should have at least reprimanded Mary to help her sister out, then probably when they’re done with the work, they can both sit at his feet and listen to the Gospel. I felt Martha’s displeasure was justified because really, who nor like easy life?
Growing up however, after putting some thought to it, I have come to appreciate the story as a valuable lesson on working smart as against working hard. Martha chose to work hard but Mary chose to work smart instead. Mary realized that Jesus was a Preacher and He obviously had a lot of wisdom to impart in her, what was there to gain from cooking/ sweeping/arranging(i.e the work Martha was doing). She realized it was probably a once in a life time opportunity because let’s face it, how many times does Jesus of Nazareth appear at your doorstep. You do house chores every day, so there was nothing new to learn from that, but here was a Goldmine (Jesus) at her front, so she tried her best to gain as much knowledge as she could from Him within the short period of time. She wanted to utilise this rare privilege to the best of her ability.
Often times in life, we see people progressing with what we consider little or no effort while we work super hard and don’t seem to get anywhere. Then you feel like God is being unfair. Pause for a second and analyze things and you’ll discover that people who do better than you with little effort, simply apply more wisdom. Nobody forced you to choose the hard way out. Jesus didn’t ask Martha to do all that work, He was just evangelizing and all He probably wanted was listening ears. Martha did every other thing but she didn’t give Him what He wanted the most at that point i.e. Listening ears. No matter how hard you work, if you put your energy on less important things and ignore the most important one, your efforts will be futile and you’ll end up with RESENTMENT.
Martha was resentful and that was why she expressed her displeasure. She did all the work but there was no appreciation, all she got instead was:
“Martha, Martha. You are worried and troubled about so many things but just one is needed” Poor Martha, can’t imagine how she must have felt at this point. Worse still when Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the right thing and it will not be taken from her”. The approval/validation she so desired from Jesus was given very easily to Mary who didn’t lift a finger. Not only did Mary gain Jesus' approval so easily, she also gained knowledge from Him by listening to Him speak. Martha on the other hand gained nothing despite all her hard work.
The work Martha did was useful yeah, but it wasn’t the most important thing to do at that point. She worked hard when she should have worked smart instead. Let’s try our best to apply wisdom when it comes to choosing the right manner to approach things. You don’t have to work yourself to death to have good things come your way. Instead of being resentful when you see people gaining more than you with less effort, take a step back and analyze their methods so you can apply them and do better. Some people will always choose the easy way to get things done and it will always work for them because they simply apply one thing -WISDOM. Let’s learn from Martha’s mistake and not waste our time worrying over irrelevant things but rather put our efforts in the relevant areas.
I’m not quite sure if I articulated my thoughts well enough but all I’m saying in essence is: Learn how to work smart!
PS, I know there are other lessons you can gain from the story but I just chose to focus on this one. Feel free to share your thoughts below!
"As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him in her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the feet of Jesus and listened to His teaching. Martha was upset over all the work she had to do so she came and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me!"
The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha! You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing and it will not be taken from her”
This is one of my favorite Bible stories. When I was younger, it had me conflicted though as a part of me felt Jesus was a bit unfair to Martha. It was her after all, who went out of her way to welcome Him to their home, she went further to probably cook, clean, arrange, etc just to make Him comfortable. Mary on the other hand didn’t lift a finger to make him comfortable, she simply chilled at His feet. I felt Jesus should have at least reprimanded Mary to help her sister out, then probably when they’re done with the work, they can both sit at his feet and listen to the Gospel. I felt Martha’s displeasure was justified because really, who nor like easy life?
Growing up however, after putting some thought to it, I have come to appreciate the story as a valuable lesson on working smart as against working hard. Martha chose to work hard but Mary chose to work smart instead. Mary realized that Jesus was a Preacher and He obviously had a lot of wisdom to impart in her, what was there to gain from cooking/ sweeping/arranging(i.e the work Martha was doing). She realized it was probably a once in a life time opportunity because let’s face it, how many times does Jesus of Nazareth appear at your doorstep. You do house chores every day, so there was nothing new to learn from that, but here was a Goldmine (Jesus) at her front, so she tried her best to gain as much knowledge as she could from Him within the short period of time. She wanted to utilise this rare privilege to the best of her ability.
Often times in life, we see people progressing with what we consider little or no effort while we work super hard and don’t seem to get anywhere. Then you feel like God is being unfair. Pause for a second and analyze things and you’ll discover that people who do better than you with little effort, simply apply more wisdom. Nobody forced you to choose the hard way out. Jesus didn’t ask Martha to do all that work, He was just evangelizing and all He probably wanted was listening ears. Martha did every other thing but she didn’t give Him what He wanted the most at that point i.e. Listening ears. No matter how hard you work, if you put your energy on less important things and ignore the most important one, your efforts will be futile and you’ll end up with RESENTMENT.
Martha was resentful and that was why she expressed her displeasure. She did all the work but there was no appreciation, all she got instead was:
“Martha, Martha. You are worried and troubled about so many things but just one is needed” Poor Martha, can’t imagine how she must have felt at this point. Worse still when Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the right thing and it will not be taken from her”. The approval/validation she so desired from Jesus was given very easily to Mary who didn’t lift a finger. Not only did Mary gain Jesus' approval so easily, she also gained knowledge from Him by listening to Him speak. Martha on the other hand gained nothing despite all her hard work.
The work Martha did was useful yeah, but it wasn’t the most important thing to do at that point. She worked hard when she should have worked smart instead. Let’s try our best to apply wisdom when it comes to choosing the right manner to approach things. You don’t have to work yourself to death to have good things come your way. Instead of being resentful when you see people gaining more than you with less effort, take a step back and analyze their methods so you can apply them and do better. Some people will always choose the easy way to get things done and it will always work for them because they simply apply one thing -WISDOM. Let’s learn from Martha’s mistake and not waste our time worrying over irrelevant things but rather put our efforts in the relevant areas.
I’m not quite sure if I articulated my thoughts well enough but all I’m saying in essence is: Learn how to work smart!
PS, I know there are other lessons you can gain from the story but I just chose to focus on this one. Feel free to share your thoughts below!
Awesome post
ReplyDeleteInteresting and inspiring piece
ReplyDelete