One thing

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41-42).

With this verse, translations vary, as always. Some say only one thing, others say few things. As best I can discern, Christ is pointing out that so few things in life are truly necessary, yet we busy ourselves in anxiety and worry over details that will simply pass away with the simple passage of time.

There is so much in life that is not eternal, but these things can be the bulk of our concern if we allow them to be.

Yet, truly One thing is needed in our lives. Christ is the One thing that will make clear the few things that remain important.

And if we choose Him, even though "many things" present themselves all around us, we will find ourselves in the center of God's will, and He will lead us to every other thing that He has for us or desires of us.

We must trust Him to do this. It takes great faith -- faith in what cannot be seen or quantified -- on the part of a zealous Christian servant to turn and become a zealous lover of Christ. It requires him to believe that in abandoning himself fully to Jesus, he will be poured out in service and love to the world in the deepest and most meaningful ways possible.

"Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment . . . Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6) . . . If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ . . . it is easy to explain the reason for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation -- just obedience."
-- Oswald Chambers

Martha had discerned a need. Her heart was to serve. And to serve Christ, nonetheless. To offer Him a glorious meal. Yet somewhere in the process of making her choice that evening, she missed the heart of Jesus Himself, which was to be with her . . . not to be served by her, but to be known by her.

As Ken Gire notes, "Here is a magnanimous gesture, but a mistaken one. Jesus doesn't want food. He wants fellowship."

And though Martha serves, at a deep level that finally surfaces in her comment to Jesus (Luke 10:40), she resents her choice and feels abandoned by those she most expected to come to her aide, particularly Mary.

Though she goes through the motions of service, her heart is without love because she thinks only of her sister's absence, judging Mary's heart to be childish and slacking, believing she has conveniently avoided the responsibility of providing a meal for Christ.

Martha judges herself mature and responsible, laboring intensely for her Lord. All the while, she looks at Mary and condemns her for taking the easy road of lingering at Christ's feet when there's so much work to be done.

But, Christ makes it clear that Martha misses one extremely important thing. In fact, she misses the most important Person who ever lived. That night, she missed Jesus. Tragic. Yet, we make Martha's mistake all the time.

How can we, then, be like Mary? Ken Gire expands upon Christ's answer:

"Fellowship with Him is a matter of priorities. And a matter of choice. It's the better part of the meal life has to offer. It is, in fact, the main course.

Jesus says something extraordinary about what Mary did: it would become a permanent part of her life; it would count for eternity. Quite a promise.

And what did Mary do? All she did was sit. It is where she sat that made the difference."