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 calledMary, 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 areanxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42, ESV)
The passage above details a danger we are all susceptible to. The danger comes when our missional focus is on activity for Jesus before intimacy with Jesus. Basically, it’s idolatry of how we do mission over why we do mission. It’s easy to fall into thinking we need to do something for Jesus rather than allowing our activity to overflow from our intimacy with Jesus.
Martha is doing good work, but it’s not the best work because it doesn’t flow out of the right motivation, which is intimacy with Jesus. Mary, on the other hand, has placed a priority on intimacy with Jesus. This is the basis for Mary’s future activity. Her activity overflows from the intimacy she has prioritized rather than the activity validating her intimacy. Jesus declares that the “good portion” is intimacy with Him and from that, our love will overflow into activity. If we get the priorities reversed, then we will have plenty to do…but no connection to the One who is glorified in our “doing”.
What are you doing that isn’t an overflow of your love for Jesus?
Wes Stecker 