Today’s Gospel text teaches us about what is ultimately necessary in life. There are a lot of things in our lives that are necessary. Work is necessary. Providing for your family is necessary. Going to school is necessary. Housework is necessary. Eating, exercising, and sleeping are all necessary. And yes, even recreation and relaxation are necessary. Last week’s vacation for me was something that was necessary.
These and many more things in our lives are necessary, that is, they are things that must be done, things that we can’t live without, things that the Lord Himself lays upon us to do in our various vocations for the care of others. Then there are some things in our lives that really aren’t all that necessary, but we deem them necessary. Seeing the latest Twilight film may be deemed necessary by many teenagers. Surfing may be deemed necessary. Watching a certain program on T.V. or going to a certain sports event may be deemed necessary. Making a certain amount of money or achieving a certain level of success in life may also be deemed necessary.
In today’s Gospel text, Martha considered food preparation for her guests to be necessary. It was such a concern to her, that she got to the point where she was anxious and troubled by it. Perhaps some of you have experienced the same kind of anxiety, when guests come to your house for dinner. You prepare all day long, cleaning the house, deciding what to fix for the meal, putting it all together, and then pulling it off in such a way that you come across as the perfect host or hostess. Think how anxious you might be if the Lord were a guest in your house!
But Jesus didn’t chide Martha for her service. Martha wasn’t sinning by preparing food for her guests. The necessary things of life must be done. It’s just that they must not be done at the expense of the one truly necessary thing, which is taking the time to listen to the words of Jesus. Jesus chided Martha, because she allowed the necessities of this life to trump this one truly necessary thing. And for her to continue to do that would cut her off from the gift that this necessary thing gives - eternal life. The necessary things of this life give temporal life. If we were to let some of them go (like eating, for example), we’d die physically. Jesus knows, however, that if we let go the one necessary thing that trumps them all (the eating of His Word), then we’ll die spiritually. The lesson here, then, is a simple one, and that is, Do the things that are necessary, but don’t let them keep you from the most necessary thing - listening to the words of Jesus.
Everything has a time and place. There’s a time for preparing meals, and a time for doing the dishes. There’s a time for work, and a time for play. There’s a time for taking care of the kids, and a time for putting them to bed. Sometimes it seems that there are so many necessary things in life, that we don’t have time for listening to the words of Jesus. But it’s at those times when we need to remind ourselves, “Hey, all these things I deem necessary in my life are all temporary. They all have to do with life in this world, and they’re all going to come to an end when I die. None of them but this one of listening to the words of Jesus can give me eternal life. Everything else is a distraction compared to this.”
Mary realized this. Instead of going into the kitchen to help her sister (which at any other time would have been a good and necessary thing to do), she chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him. While He was in the house, listening to His words was the most important thing. As many necessary things as she may have had to do, Mary made the time for the most necessary thing - listening to her Lord.
And that’s what we’re doing here today. Here in this place the Lord is present among us speaking His Word to us. At least for this one hour a week we take the time to gather together to hear His words of peace and forgiveness, to hear of His sacrifice on the cross for our sins, to hear His declaration that we are righteous, that we are reconciled to the Father, and that we have His promise of eternal life. I don’t think we realize just how blessed we are to hear these words today. Just tune into any one of the many religious programs on T.V. sometime this week and see if you hear anybody talking about Jesus, let alone His words of grace, mercy, and peace to you for the sake of His atoning sacrifice on the cross. Here we are blessed to still hear Him speaking His words of Gospel to us, words that give us life and salvation.
The trouble is that during the rest of the week we tend to let the lesser necessities of life trump this most necessary thing. I’m sure we all have Bibles in our homes. But do we take time out of our busy schedules to read them? Do we take time out during the day to sit at the feet of Jesus as Mary did to listen to His words, or are we more like Martha, who was distracted, anxious, and troubled by all kinds of other things?
You know, we make time to do the things we really want to do. Think how much time you’d spend with someone you really loved and wanted to be with. How often would you take the time to read their e-mails or text messages? How often would you take the time to call or visit them? I think all of us here would have to confess that we are more like Martha than Mary. We often let listening to the words of Jesus slide in favor of doing other things, even things that aren’t really that necessary.
But the good thing is that the words that Jesus speaks to us are words of forgiveness, which He even speaks over your failure to listen to Him as you should. He didn’t castigate Martha in such a way that He wanted her to despair of His mercy. Rather, His intention was to encourage her to take the time to listen to Him, so that she might benefit from His words of Gospel, just as her sister was. It wasn’t that Martha wasn’t a believer. She trusted in Jesus as her Savior, just as Mary did. But like many believers, Martha was distracted from her Lord. Perhaps she felt that she’d heard all she needed to hear from Jesus, or that what He was saying was something that she’d heard before and already knew well enough. Many Christians today feel that way about coming to church. They’ve heard all that before. Besides, they believe in Jesus. What will it hurt to skip church today? Jesus will be there next week too. Who needs to have the Lord’s Supper every week? Who needs to hear their sins forgiven every week? Who wants to sit at the feet of Jesus listening to His words, when there are so many other exciting, not to mention necessary, things to do?
The last thing that the devil wants you to do is listen to the words of Jesus. You’ll find that the more you want to spend time sitting at Jesus’ feet like Mary did, the more distractions the devil will throw your way to try to keep you from it. Something will always have to be done. You will always have enough necessities to keep you busy up until the day you die. And again, there is a time and place for them. But the greatest of all necessities is the necessity of listening to Jesus, because His words give you life.
Jesus often said things that were difficult to understand. On one occasion many of His disciples left Him when He started talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood for eternal life. “This is a hard saying,” they said. “Who can listen to it?” So, Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” And Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus has the words of eternal life, sealed with the giving of His body and the shedding of His blood on the cross, and made certain with His bodily resurrection from the dead. These words of life are for you. They are spoken to you here today in the liturgy and in the sermon. They are spoken to you in the Scriptures. They can be spoken by you to others. How often do you need to hear them? How often do you sin?? “We preach Christ crucified,” writes the Apostle Paul. Hear that, and let all the other necessities of life take a back seat. Maybe the laundry won’t get done on time. Maybe the house won’t get dusted right away. Maybe a game will be missed, you might go hungry for just little bit longer, the children might just have to wait. But you will be refreshed, renewed, and enlivened as you listen to words of grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.