Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World
HAVING A MARY HEART
IN A MARTHA WORLD
By Joanna Weaver
I buy a lot of second hand books to feed my reading
addiction. Last night I opened this one Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World
by Joanna Weaver. Yes it cost just £1 and there is an inscription and date from
someone on the first page so obviously it was a gift. As I read the first 30
pages I realised that whoever received this book started to read and highlight
various words and paragraphs. But then it stops. I am left wondering - did the
person stop at this point and decide not to read anymore?
Usually when I start a book I wait until I read 50 pages to give a fair
assessment, others read a chapter. How do you determine if a book is for you?
I chose this book because it was based around a biblical story - the visit by
Jesus to the home of 2 sisters and a brother, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. One
sister is busy preparing everything while the other sits at Jesus' feet
listening to his teaching. Which sister did the right thing? Automatically we
say Mary but did she? This is what this book is all about.
This is one of those good books that has a study guide at the back. And it is a very good study guide. I could see it fitting in very well with a small womens group reading a chapter a week and thinking through the questions for discussion and reflection. Some times I find study guides are either too deep in their thinking but others are too light but this one is spot on.
Here is an example ...
A woman told me "I guess I am just a Martha and that I'll always be a Martha." Is it possible for our basic character to change or are we destined to live our lives stuck in a predetermined nature? Explain your answer.
"Each gifting and personality has its own strengths and weaknesses, its
glories and temptations."
Jesus didn't correct Martha and ask her "why can't you be like Mary?"
He knew Martha would never be Mary nor Mary Martha. But when the 2 were faced
with the same choice - to work or to worship - Jesus said "Mary has chosen
the better part." This implies the better part was available to both Mary
and Martha. And it's available to each one of us, regardless of our gifting or
personality.
Like Joanna says, part of me is Mary as I want to worship extravagantly, I want
to sit at his feet but part of me is Martha - and there's just so much to do!
I love books like this, based around scripture to make you think more deeply
about what is implied. The author draws on what we know of the situation and
makes you think about it from a different angle.
When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians the devil smiles.
When he stops studying the Bible the devil laughs.
When he stops praying the devil shouts for joy.
Some wonderful quotes from this book ...
It is impossible to be in the presence of Jesus and not be changed.
Martha opened her home to Jesus but that doesn't automatically mean she opened her heart. In her eagerness to serve Jesus she almost missed the opportunity to know Jesus.
Jesus isn't looking as much for workers as he is looking for sons and daughters - a people to pour his life into.
When we put work before worship we put the cart before the horse. The cart is important; so is the horse. But the horse must come first or we end up pulling the cart ourselves. Frustrated and weary, we can nearly break under the pressure of service, for there is always something that needs to be done.
When we first spend time in his presence - when we take time to hear his voice- God provides the horsepower we need to pull the heaviest load. He saddles up Grace and invites us to take a ride.
Satan plans his attacks around the Three Deadly Ds of Destruction
Distraction
Discouragement
Doubt
Martha was distracted the day Jesus came to visit. Yes she was involved in ministry but it had become a weight she dragged around. When we are distracted discouragement is just around the corner. Discouragement breaks down our perspective and our defenses. Though we may have just completed great things for God, weary discouragement tells us we are useless, hopeless and abandoned. Doubting God's love does not require tragedy. It can creep into the everyday just as insidiously, just as dangerously. It happens when our will is crossed, when our needs are ignored or when we like Martha are stuck doing the dirty work while everyone else is having fun.
"It's an interesting thing, the human mind" says authors Bill and Kathy Peel in their book Discover Your Destiny. "It can only focus on a couple of things at a time. When we are preoccupied with a problem and focus on our own inadequacy to handle it, there is really no room to add God to the picture. The ability to think rationally returns only when we refocus on God's adequacy."
What we worry about ...
40% are things that will never happen
30% are about the past - which cant be changed
12% are about criticism by others, mostly untrue
8% are about real problems that can be solved.
For me, one of the greatest frustrations of walking through the "dailyness" of my life as a Christian is that I don't always get to see how the bits and pieces of who I am fit into the big picture of Gods plan. It's tempting at times to see my life as a meal here, a meeting there, a carpool, a phone call, a sack of groceries - all disjointed fragments of mothering in particular.
When God Shines Through
by Claire Cloninger
The Lord is my pace setter ... I shall not rush
He makes me stop for quiet intervals
He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity
He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and his guidance is peace
Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for his presence is here
He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity by anointing my mind with his oils of tranquility
My cup of joyous energy overflows
Truly harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours for I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord and dwell in his house for ever.
A version of the Twenty-Third Psalm from Japan
CHAPTER 1 - A TALE OF 2 SISTERS
We want to worship like Mary but the Martha inside keeps bossing us around.
Martha opens her home to a band of 13 hungry men possibly more – what a hostess! She is the original Proverbs 31 woman. Queen of the kitc hen and the rest of the house as well. Notice it is Martha we start with – her home,she opened it to Jesus. Imagine her anger at the sight of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet. She interrupts everything, certain Jesus will take her side. Instead of applauding Martha Jesus rebukes her telling her Mary has chosen “what is better”.
It isn’t more Jesus requires of us – in fact it may be less!
Mary and Martha – only mentioned 3 times in scripture:
Luke 10 verses 38 to 42
John 11 verses 1 to 44
John 12 verses 1 to 11
Mary was sunlight to Martha’s thunder.
Mary was bent to meander through life pausing to smell roses.
Martha was more likely to pick roses and arrange them in a vase.
Not to say one is right and other is wrong – all of us are different and that is just as God made us to be. Each gifting and personality has its own strengths and weaknesses, its glories and temptations.
Jesus didn’t say “why can’t you be more like your sister Mary?”
But when the 2 were faced with the same choice – to work or to worship, Jesus said “Mary has chosen the better part”. The better part was available to both – and it is to us regardless of our gifting or personality – it’s a choice we each can make.
There is a magnetism about Jesus’ words as though they contain breath and life – breath and life Mary hadn’t known she needed until this day.
Martha’s openness with Christ seems to indicate a prior acquaintance – we don’t know how often Jesus visited this home. “We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important” Charles Hummel. “The problem is that the important task rarely must be done today or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and bible study can wait. But the urgent tasks call for instant action – endless demands pressure every hour and day.” So where do we find the time to follow Mary to the feet of Jesus? Where do we find the energy to serve him?
Jesus is our example – never in a hurry, knew who he was and where he was going. He wasn’t held hostage to the world’s demands or even its desperate needs. “I only do what my Father tells me to do” Jesus told his disciples.
Jesus invites us to know him, to see him so clearly that when we look upon him we see the face of God as well.
In obedience to his invitation we find the key to our longings, the secret to living beyond the daily pressures that would otherwise tear us apart. For as we learn what it means to chase the better part of intimacy with Christ, we begin to be changed. Martha did lay aside her personality to worship Jesus. She simply obeys. She receives Jesus’ rebuke and learns that while there is a time for work there is also a time for worship. The Martha we see later in the gospels is no longer frantic and resentful but full of faith and trust – the kind of faith and trust that come only from spending time at Jesus’ feet.
Mary does some changing too – when disaster strikes Mary’s tendency is to be swamped with sorrow and paralysed with questions. But in the end when she realises Jesus’ time is short Mary puts into action what she has learned in worship. She steps forward and seizes the opportunity to serve both beautifully and sacrificially.
The bold one becomes meek. The mild one courageous.
It is impossible to be in Jesus’ presence and not be changed.
Busyness by itself breeds distraction. Luke 10 verse 38 shows us a woman with the gift of hospitality. Martha opened her home to Jesus but that doesn’t mean she opened her heart. In her eagerness to serve Jesus she almost missed the opportunity to know Jesus. “Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” In her mind nothing less than the very best could do. She had to go all out for Jesus. The kingdom of God is a paradox.
While the world applauds achievement God desires companionship The world clamours “do more! Be all that you can be!” But our Father whispers “Be still and know that I am God.” He isn’t looking as much for workers as he is looking for sons and daughters – a people to pour his life into.
Putting work before worship is like putting the cart before the horse, But the horse must come first or we end up pulling the cart ourselves. Frustrated and weary we can nearly brake under the pressure of service for there is always something that needs to be done. When we first spend time in his presence – when we take time to hear his voice – God provides the horsepower we need to pull the heaviest load. He saddles up Grace and invites us to take a ride. Salvation isn’t about what I do; its about what Jesus did. The cross did more than pay for my sins, it sets me free from the bondage of the “should” and “if onlys” and “what might have beens”. You are worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed.” The one thing is not found in doing more. It is found by sitting at his feet. Mary’s gift was
availability.
The only requirement for a deeper relationship with God is showing up with a heart open and ready to receive.
Jesus invites us to come and rest, to spend time with him in this incredible Living Room Intimacy. Intimacy that allows us to be honest in our complaints, bold in our approach and lavish in our love. Intimacy that allows us to hear our Father’s voice and discern our Father’s will. Intimacy that so fills us with his love and his nature that it spills out to our dry, thirsty world in kitchen service. In the Living Room is where it all begins, down at his feet.
CHAPTER 2 - LORD, DON'T YOU CARE?
Life is hard and rarely fair. Even when we work diligently and do what is expected the daily duties of life often seem to provide few rewards.
Martha may have been the first person to ask Jesus the question "Lord don't you care?" She definitely wasn't the last. We have all felt the loneliness, the frustration, the left outness and resentment she experienced in the kitchen that Bethany afternoon - doing all the work for others when no-one seems to notice and no-one seems to care.
In Luke 10 verse 40 we get a clear picture of Martha's struggle. Surprise visitors land on her doorstep. We don't know how many. It could have been as many as 70! Martha responds with open arms and a wide smile. But somewhere between the kitchen and the living room, a seed of resentment starts growing. Before long it sprouts into a question that echoes in womens hearts today - "Lord don't you care?"
Problem: Martha is doing all the work while Mary basks in glory. A part of me wishes Jesus had said "So sorry Martha - terribly insensitive of us. Come on Mary! Come on guys let's all pitch in and give Martha a hand." That's all Martha wanted. That's what I want when I'm feeling overwhelmed - soft soothing words and plenty of helpful action. I want everyone to carry his own weight. But most of all I want life to be fair!
Servant burnout - 5 unrealistic expectations that can contribute to it:
1. there should not be any limits to what I can do
2. I have the capacity to help everyone
3. I am the only person available to help
4. I must never make a mistake
5. I have the ability to change another person
"What you are doing is not good. You will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you, you cannot handle it alone." Exodus 18 verses 17 and 18
Since childhood we've all had an invisible set that weighs what happens to us against what others experience - how our parents treated us by the way they treated our siblings. But many of us have carried the scales into adulthood unaware and we waste surprising amounts of time trying to get those scales to balance. If we are not careful our view of the world can become distorted. Every little word can take on a hidden meaning. Every action can turn into a personal attack. When we look for injustice we usually find it. And when we expect life to always be fair we inevitably set ourselves up for a big disappointment.
Satan plans his attacks around the Three Deadly D's of Destruction:
- distraction
- discouragement
- doubt
Underlying strategy is fairly simple - get peoples eyes off God and on their circumstances. Make them believe that their "happiness" lies in the "happenings" that surround them. Or send them good news about somebody else. When they're thoroughly discouraged tell them God doesn't care. Then sit back and let doubt do its work.
A distracted heart
Martha was "distracted". That's where Satan usually begins. He knows if we're overly worried and bogged down by duties, chances are good our hearts will not hear the Saviour's call to come. While distraction may not win the battle for our soul getting our eyes off of what is important will certainly make us more vulnerable to attack.
"Martha was cumbered about with much serving" = distracted. The word cumber Oxford English dictionary defines:
1. to overwhelm, rout, destroy
2. to harass, distress, bother
3. to trouble, confound, perplex
Original Greek word perispao = to be over occupied about a thing, to draw away.
Strong's concordance to the word cumber = defining it as to drag around.
Martha's pursuits were far from trivial. The preparations Martha pursued were described by Luke as diakonia - New Testament word for ministry.
"But even pure ministry for Jesus can become a weight we drag around". It's called the treadmill anointing and it isn't from God." Dutch Sheets, pastor and author
Alice in Wonderland - rabbit Martha collapsed and Queen of Hearts took over pointing fingers and screaming "off with their heads! Off with everyone's head.
A discouraged heart
When we are distracted discouragement is just around the corner. Weariness creeps in as life overpowers us. It causes us to say and do things we would never consider doing or saying otherwise. Discouragement breaks down our perspective and our defenses. Though we may have completed great things for God, weary discouragement tells us we're useless, hopeless and abandoned.
1 Kings 18 Elijah - Jezebel said she would kill him. He ran for his life
- distraction made him fear
- discouragement made him hide
He sat down under a broom tree - I have had enough, take my life, just let me die.
Discouragement can drain us of all hope, of all vision of all our tomorrows and dreams.
What happened - God sent an angel to bring food to his downhearted prophet "Get up and eat for the journey is too much for you." Then the angel stood guard as Elijah fell back asleep.
Don't hide under a broom tree - go to the Lord and let him sweep away your discouragement.
A doubtful heart
Satan has found that trying to make humanity question God's existence is futile. God's existence is written upon man's heart. Agnosticism and atheism have fallen before the bedrock belief: God is. Belief in God has definitely not died.
5 strategies for fighting discouragement:
1. allow for rest stops
2. get a new point of view - God's perspective on situation
3. have patience
4. mingle - visit friends!
5. set the timer - allow time for a good cry
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you, he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. Deuteronomy 31 verse 8.
If Satan can't make us doubt God's existence he will do his best to doubt God's love.
After he has distracted us ... after he has discouraged us ... Satan's final tactic is disillusionment and doubt.
Doubting God's love doesn't require tragedy. It can creep into the everyday just as insidiously, just as dangerously. It happens when our will is crossed, when our needs are ignored or when we like Martha are stuck doing the dirty work while everyone else is having fun.
Doubt left unchecked can fester into unbelief. And unbelief is not only sin, it's deep trouble. When we no longer believe in God's goodness, when we no longer trust in his care, we end up running away from the very Love we need to live.
Unbelief brought down Judas - he refused to trust God's timing.
Unbelief kept the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years because they questioned God's ability to lead them. It was unbelief back at the beginning of time that opened a doorway of darkness in a world designed for pure light.
The Garden of Eden must have been wonderful. Just think: no house to clean, no meals to cook, no clothes to iron! Eve had it made. A gorgeous hunk of a husband. Paradise for a living room. God for a playmate. But somehow, in the midst of all these blessings, the marvelous grew mundane, the remarkable ho-hum. And a nagging sense of discontentment sent Eve wandering toward the only thing God had withheld: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
What is it about us women that creates such a desperate need in us to always "know", to always "understand"? We want an itinerary for our life, and when God doesn't immediately produce one, we set out to write our own.
"I need to know" we tell ourselves. "No" God answers softly "you need to trust."
But like the original first lady, we push aside his tender voice and head straight for the tree. Not the sacrificial tree of the cross, but the proud, towering beauty called Knowledge. Because, after all, knowledge is power. And power is what we secretly crave.
Eve's eventual sin began with a tiny thought - a small, itching fear she was somehow missing something and that God didn't have her best interest at heart. What could be wrong with something so lovely, so desirable as the forbidden fruit? Perhaps a hidden resentment had worked down into her spirit. Adam got to name the animals while she got to pick papayas. Whatever the identity of the tiny irritation, it sent her looking for more.
And Satan was ready and waiting, willing to give her more than she'd ever bargained for. He filled her mind with questions "Did God really say ...?" Satan encouraged Eve to doubt God's word and God's goodness until the continual question marks finally obliterated her trust in God's love.
Humanity has questioned God's love ever since.
Asking Questions
Like Martha we have our questions. Like Martha we have our doubts. I'm so glad God is not threatened by our doubts and questions, our fears or even our frustrations. He wants us to trust his love enough to tell him what we are thinking and feeling. David did that. He is a marvellous example of a heart honest and open before God. The shepherd-boy-turned-king poured out his complaint before the Lord all through the psalms. In Psalm 62 verse 8 he invites us to do the same: "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."
Our friend Martha was on the right track that day in Bethany. Instead of allowing her doubtful questions to fester, she took her worries and her fears and voiced them to Jesus. While her bristling, abrasive approach is hardly the best model, there are still several important lessons we can learn from her gutsy encounter with Christ.
First we can bring our needs to Jesus anytime and anywhere - "Ask and it will be given to you" Jesus said in Matthew 7 verse 7. In the Greek, the form of the word for ask implies "keep on asking". We can't wear our Saviour our. He's never too busy to hear our hearts' cries. Martha took full advantage of his availability, even in the midst of her busyness and party preparations.
Second, Jesus really cares about what concerns us - "Cast all your anxiety on him" 1 Peter 5 verse 7 tells us, "because he cares for you." Jesus didn't laugh off Martha's concerns. He didn't become angry. Instead, he spoke to her with infinite gentleness and tenderness, recognizing the pain behind her whining words.
Finally, Jesus loves us to enough to confront us when our attitude is wrong - "Those whom I love" says the Lord, "I rebuke and discipline" (Revelation 3 verse 19). And that is what the Saviour did with Martha. He intuitively understood Martha's pain, but that didn't stop him from telling her what she needed to hear.
And Martha to her credit, listened.
Too often, I think, we hold on to doubt and confusion until our questions explode as accusations. We shake our fists at God, raging from all the hurt. Then human nature makes us want to run and hide, nursing our perceived injustice and licking our wounds.
But Martha didn't do this. She stated her case, yes, but then she stuck around to hear Jesus' ruling. Though she accused him of neglect, she was willing to listen to his response. She was willing to leave the outcome in his hands.
I love the compassion of Jesus in this story. He saw Martha's situation. He understood her complaint. But he loved her too much to give her what she wanted. Instead, Jesus gave her what she needed - an invitation to draw close to him. With open arms, he invited the troubled woman to leave her worries and cares and find refuge in him alone.
Because, when you have questions, there is no better place to go than to the One who has the answers.
The answer to the question
"Lord, don't you care?"
Of course he cares. That's why he came.
If I were God, wanting to touch base with man, I'd drop by for a visit. Maybe a week or two with plenty of advance advertising, hitting the major cities before returning to my comfy celestial throne. Just long enough to get people's attention and straighten things out, then "Beam me up Scotty!" I'd be out of there.
Who in their right mind would leave heaven to actually live on earth? Why that would be like a farmer selling his cozy farmhouse so he could live in his pigsty. But that is exactly what Jesus did.
God became one of us so that when we ask "Lord, don't you care?" we can know without a doubt that he does. Instead of paying a house call or a flashy extraterrestrial visit, he took up residence among us. Through Jesus Christ incarnate, God entered the world through the same doorway we do. Then he stuck around as long as we'd let him, until we sent him, dying, out the same painful exit we will go.
Does he care? You'd better believe it.
Because until you settle that question once and for all, you will never get past doubt to true belief. You'll forever be faced with a shiny apple and the hiss of temptation to take matters into your own hands.
The fact is, until we stop doubting God's goodness, we can't experience God's love.
Martha spoke her secret fear aloud, and we can too. But, like Martha we must stic around long enough to hear the sweet reassurance of his anser.
Don't expect any explanations or apologies. After all, God is God. If righteous Job couldn't force God to give an account for his actions, then we shouldn't expect to always understand his mysterious ways.
But rest assured, God will answer. He longs to reveal his love to you. But you won't find it by shaking your fist in his face. You won't find it by barging into his presence and demanding to be treated fairly. You'll find it by sitting at his feet and remembering who he is.
Emmanuel, God with us.
He knows the journey is difficult. He knows life is rarely fair. Jesus fought the same frigid winds of distraction, discouragement and doubt that keep us from knowing God's love. But like the Father, he longs to gather us in his arms. He longs to trade the flimsy blankets of our own self-sufficiency for his all-sufficiency. The Jesus invites us to cast our doubts, our fears and anxiety upon him, to discover how much he really does care.
Trust me, my child, he whispers, I have your ultimate good in mind.
CHAPTER 3 - THE DIAGNOSIS
Worry rituals - biting fingernails, pacing the floor, lying awake at night. All because of worry. We manipulate and postulate, desperate to solve the puzzle. And yet we seem to find few answers. We are anxious people. We are a nation of worriers.
It is hardly a modern phenomenon. Jesus described precisely the same condition 2000 years ago. He didn't write a book or establish a clinic. He had no medical degree, but he knew the human heart and soul. Out of the vast knowledge known only to a creator concerning the created, Jesus spoke truth to a woman caught in chronic worry.
"Martha, Martha" Jesus observed gently, "you are worried and upset about many things." This must have stopped her in her tracks. I am sure she wanted to say "now wait a minute Lord, I am just trying to serve you." But his tender words cut through her excuses and pretense. In one short sentence, Jesus diagnosed the problem that has plagued humankind since the beginning of time. We can trace its roots back to a Garden, a Tree and the Fall of mankind.
It is the curse of anxiety. The ongoing burden of worry and fear.
It wasn't supposed to happen to us. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was off-limits for good reason - our own protection. God had created the man and the woman to enjoy a mutual love relationship with him, the same relationship we were created to enjoy. He would take care of us and provide all of our needs. We in return, would "enjoy God and worship him forever" as the Westminster Creed so beautifully puts it.
But rather than viewing the boundaries as evidence of God's mercy, Adam and Eve interpreted the command as a power play on God's part - a desire to withhold something good. So they took and they ate. Their eyes were opened. And what they saw was far more than they expected. Instead of receiving godlike power, they were terrified to behold their nakedness and utter helplessness. But instead of running back to God, they hid from him.
Why? Genesis 3 verse 10 tells us they were afraid. But I think it was more than simple fear of God's wrath that sent them diving for cover.
For the very first time, the man and the woman saw themselves apart from God. Like 2 children lost and alone, they suddenly saw Eden as a frightening place rather than a beautiful paradise. Suddenly with the knowledge of good and evil, came shadows and dark corners, strange sounds and frightening noises. No longer were God's children innocent and unaware. No longer were they safe under God's protection.
With the bite of the apple came the stark, terrible truth: Adam and Eve were on their own. So like naughty little kids, they ran and hid, trying to buy enough time to figure a way out of this snake-induced mess. Cut off by their own disobedience from the very God they needed, they grew chronically fearful and anxious.
And so it has gone, all the way down to Martha of Bethany. All the way down to you and me.
"An anxious heart weighs a man down" Proverbs 12 verse 25
The heavy burden of anxiety offers no real benefits. Jesus highlighted this basic futility when he reminded us "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matthew 6 verse 27
It's been said that worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere. One interesting set of statistics indicates that there is nothing we can do about 70% of our worries!
What we worry about
40% are things that will never happen
30% are about the past - which can't be changed
12% are about criticism by others, mostly untrue
10% are about health, which gets worse with stress
8% are about real problems that can be solved
30% are about the past - which can't be changed
12% are about criticism by others, mostly untrue
10% are about health, which gets worse with stress
8% are about real problems that can be solved
Worry is really a waste of time. But it's also more than that. Worry is not only futile. It's actually bad for us.
The physical and emotional damage caused by chronic anxiety is well known and well documented.
"I have never known a man who died from overwork but many who died from doubt" Dr Charles H Mayo of the Mayo Clinic
Researchers have established connections between chronic worry and weakened immune systems, cardiovascular disease, neurological imbalances, clinical depression and other physical and psychological dysfunctions - not to mention specific anxiety-related illnesses such as panic attacks, agoraphobia, and obsessive compulsive disorders.
No wonder the bible tells us more than 350 times to "fear not".
The truth is, we were simply not wired for worry. We were not fashioned for fear. And if we want to live healthy lives, we have to find a way to leave our chronic anxiety behind.
But beyond our physical well-being, there lies a more pressing spiritual reason not to worry. If anxiety caused God's closest friends Adam and Eve to hide from his face, just imagine what worry must do to you and to me.
Why the Bible tells us not to worry
When God tells us in the bible not to worry, it isn't a suggestion. It's a command. Worry and/or anxiety is specifically mentioned 25 times in the New Testament alone as something we should avoid.
The words used most often for worry and anxiety in the New Testament come from the same Greek word, meridzoe, which means "to be divided, to be pulled in opposite directions, to choke" (Perhaps we wear anxiety around our necks after all).
In the parable of the sower, Jesus tells us: "The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures" (Luke 8 verse 14). These people have accepted the Word of God, Jesus says, but "they do not mature." Gasping for spiritual breath, worry-bound, thorny-ground Christians may survive, but they never truly thrive.
The Old English word for worry meant "to gnaw". Like a dog with bone, a worrier chews on his problem all day long. Jesus warned us specifically against this kind of chronic anxiety when he said, "Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life" (Matthew 6 verse 25).
Why is the bible so adamant about our avoiding fear and worry? Because God knows worry short-circuits our relationship with him. It fixes our eyes on our situation rather than on our Saviour.
Our mind disperses the problem into billions of fear droplets, obscuring God's face. Taking our anxiety to the Lord is often the last thing we think of when we are spiritually fogged in. And yet only the "Son" has the power to disperse it. Without him, one fear leads to another and our lives slow to a painful crawl
Worry as a Way of Life
Worry can become a habit, even a way of life - and it's not easy to let go of it. After all, sometimes it actually seems to work.
Unfortunately, the belief that worry actually helps us is just an illusion - and a dangerous illusion at that. Worry doesn't prevent bad things from happening. In fact, it may prevent us from leading the full lives God intends us to live. Instead of helping us solve life's problems, anxiety creates new ones, including a tendency to unhealthy introspection.
It is common for worriers to let their imaginations get the best of them. Rather than relying on facts, they let one worry stack against another until the domino effect sets in - one fear gets the next one moving and so on and so on. That is why truth can be such a powerful antidote to worry.
Toxic worry - that is quite a description - but it rings true.
Unchecked, worry seeps into our thoughts, poisoning our joy, convincing us to give up on solutions before we've even tried them. Instead of looking for the best, we assume the worst. And we're not in the least surprised when the worst finds us.
What a terrible way to live! No wonder Jesus commanded us to set our worries aside, to "fear not".
Worry Versus Concern
When Jesus told us not to worry, he wasn't asking us to live in denial, a sugarcoated fairy tale. He wasn't telling us there's nothing to be concerned about.
The truth is: we live surrounded by opportunities for fear, anxiety and worry. Because our world is filled with struggles and real pain, we face legitimate concerns every day. Bad things do happen to good people - and not-so-good people as well. Real problems do occur, usually on a daily basis. People don't act the way they ought to. Relationships falter and sometimes fail. There is potential for pain all around us. And there are certainly things that require concern and action on our part.
Jesus knew this better than anybody. He spent most of his life being harassed and pursued by his enemies. So why did he tell us not to worry? Jesus knew that a life-filled with fear has little room left for faith. And without faith, we can neither please God nor draw close to him for comfort and guidance we need to face the cares and affairs of everyday life.
"Worry is allowing problems and distress to come between us and the heart of God. It is the view that God has somehow lost control of the situation and we cannot trust him. A legitimate concern presses us closer to the heart of God and causes us to lean and trust on him all the more." Gary E Gilley
Concern draws us to God. Worry pulls us from him. I think this distinction is especially helpful for those of us who tend to spiritualize worry, convincing ourselves that it's our duty to fret about such things as the state of the world, our finances or our futures.
"Fussing always ends in sin. We imagine that a little anxiety and worry are an indication of how really wise we are; it is much more an indication of how really wicked we are. Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way. Our Lord never worried and he was never anxious, because he was not 'out' to realise his own idea; he was 'out' to realise God's ideas. Fretting is wicked if you are a child of God ... All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God." Oswald Chambers
That's something we all need to remember when it comes to this issue of worry. We face legitimate concerns every day of our lives. But instead of fretting, instead of worrying, we need to focus on discerning what we can do (with God's help) and what should be left entirely up to God.
Even more important, we need to keep our focus on who God is and what God can do.
The bills won't pay themselves. But we serve Jehovah Jireh - the God who provides. The mole on our arm may indeed need to be checked and may even turn out to be cancerous. But we serve Jehovah-Rapha - the God who heals. There is plenty in this world to be concerned about. But we serve El-Shaddai - an almighty God.
Jesus warned us "In this world you will have trouble" (John 16 verse 33). Catch that! He said "you will" not "you might". Troubles come with this earthly territory.
"But take heart!" Jesus says. "I have overcome the world."
If we have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we are not alone. We are never alone. When life comes blustering down the street, threatening to huff and puff and blow our house down, we can rest in ease. Because we live within a mighty fortress. Because we are hidden beneath almighty wings. Because we have a strong older Brother right there beside us. And he's rolling up his sleeves.
That's the reason we can leave our worry behind - not because there's nothing to be concerned about, but because we have Someone who can handle them a lot better than we can.
Three steps to victory
Paul had all kinds of reasons to worry as he sat in a Roman prison awaiting possible death sentence. But instead of writing the Philippians a sob story Paul wrote an incredible epistle of joy.
"Do not be anxious about anything" Paul wrote in Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7, "But in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
In this short passage, we find 3 concise and practical steps to victory over worry.
1. Be anxious about nothing
2. Be prayerful about everything
3. Be thankful for all things
2. Be prayerful about everything
3. Be thankful for all things
When Paul wrote the words, "Do not be anxious about anything" he literally meant "not even one thing!" Nothing. Not our families not our finances, nor our future nor our past. Not even one thing. Allow one little worry in, and another is sure to follow, then another. It's better to cut it all off at the source. To be anxious about nothing.
But of course, the only way to carry off that first order is to carry out the second - to "pray about everything". And Paul literally meant "every single thing!" There is nothing too big, nothing too small, that we cannot bring to the heart of our Father.
"Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden." Corrie Ten Boom
Fretting magnifies the problem, but prayer magnifies God.
"The reasons our problems often seem overwhelming is that we allow the things of time to loom larger in our gaze than the things of eternity" Selwyn Hughes, Every Day Light
"The tiniest of coins, when held close to the eyes, can blot out the sun."
Perhaps that's why Paul finishes his prescription for worry with one last piece of crucial advice. "Be thankful for all things!" Look at everything God has done.
"Count your blessings, name them one by one!"
If we aren't grateful for what God has done in the past and in the present, we won't have faith to believe God for things in the future.
Gratitude is important because it has the power to change our attitude. When we are willing to give thanks to God in all things, not just some things - to consciously thank him even when we don't feel very grateful - something in us begins to shift. We begin to see life as Christ sees it, full of opportunities rather than obstacles. And when we view life through eyes of faith, fear just has to flee.
The choice that leads to peace
So much depends on our perspective. If my God isn't bigger than life, then my life is bigger than God - and that's when anxiety takes over.
"It's an interesting thing, the human mind. It can only focus on a couple of things at a time. When we're preoccupied with a problem and focus on our own inadequacy to handle it, there's really no room to add God to the picture. The ability to think rationally returns only when we refocus on God's adequacy." Bill and Kathy Peel, Discover Your Destiny
And when we do that, Paul says "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4 verse 7
When we decide to pray instead of worry - when we choose to have a grateful heart in not-so-great circumstances - then the peace of God comes and takes us into "protective custody." It stands guard at the door of our heart, transcending, surpassing and confounding our own human understanding, bringing us peace.
Relieved of duty, we can take off our worry beads and pick up our shield of faith. And then we can stand back and watch God move.
Will we pray? Or will we worry? we really can't do both.
The Battlefield of the Mind
"Finally, brothers, whatsoever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things" (Philippians 4 verse 8). Paul closes his advice on worry with a checklist of things to think about. Will our thoughts center on things true or false? Noble or nasty? Right or wrong? Pure or putrid? Lovely or lewd? Admirable or abominable? Excellent and praiseworthy? Or sordid and contemptible?
"Garbage in, garbage out". We have all heard the saying. What we put in our minds affects our hearts. And out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths speak. Our minds churn. Our lust burns. And lives overturn.
We cannot underestimate the effect of what we think about. The war of worry, as well as the trial of temptation is won and lost on the battlefield of our minds.
A new mind
So many of us, even Christians, complain about our struggle against sin, but then we secretly supply Satan with all the ammunition he needs. We know we shouldn't be reading that book. We know the telephone conversation we had yesterday was less than glorifying to the Lord. We know the unforgiveness we've harboured for so long is hardening into rage. But still we cling to it - and then we wonder why we have such a hard time making positive changes in our lives.
We must be willing to take an active role in the battle against anxiety. For too long I'd allowed Satan total access to my thought life, and by doing so, I'd given him free rein.
The word for meditate has been likened to a cow chewing on its cud. Instead of gnawing on the problems we should train our minds to chew on the promises of God's word. And as the Holy Spirit brings back God's word to our remembrance something exciting happens. Anxiety flees in the face of truth and peace - the kind of peace that quieted the disciples' raging storm - comes to take its place.
The kind of peace only Jesus can give. Peace, be still.
Perfect Peace
"Perfect love casteth out fear" 1 John 4 verse 18
J B Phillips translates this verse "Love contains no fear - indeed fully developed love expels every particle of fear, for fear always contains some of the torture of feeling guilty. This means that the man who lives in fear has not yet had his love perfected."
When Jesus said "Martha, Martha ..." so gently that frantic day in Bethany, he was speaking to you and me as well. Lovingly, if we'll listen, he whispers his diagnosis concerning the state of our souls: "you're worried" he points out. "You're anxious. It isn't just about this meal; it's about everything."
And with the diagnoses comes a choice.
Come find love, Jesus invites us. Come find a love so perfect that it covers all your faults and pronounces you "not guilty". Come find a love that chases fear out the door! Come find everything you've ever longed for. Come find peace for your soul.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God; trust also in me" John 14 verse 1
He's urging us all to lay aside our worry beads, to give up fiddling with things we can never hope to fix and to seek his face insttead.
He's calling us to the Great Exchange - the one where we can never lose. As we trade the "many things" that make us anxious, he gives us the "one thing" that calms our hearts. Himself.
For he is the Prince of Peace.
CHAPTER 4 - THE CURE
"You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed." Luke 10 verses 41 and 42
The story is told of a man who met God in a lovely valley one day.
"How are you this morning?" God asked the fellow.
"I'm fine, thank you" the man replied. "Is there anything I can do for you today?"
"Yes there is" God said. "I have a wagon with 3 stones in it and I need someone to pull it up the hill for me. Are you willing?"
"Yes, I'd love to do something for you. Those stones don't look very heavy and the wagon's in good shape. I'd be happy to do that. Where would you like me to take it?"
God gave the man specific instructions, sketching a map in the dust at the side of the road. "Go through the woods and up that road that winds up the side of the hill. Once you get to the top, just leave the wagon there. Thank you for your willingness to help me today."
"No problem!" the man replied and set off cheerfully. The wagon pulled a bit behind him, but the burden was an easy one. He began to whistle as he walked quickly through the forest. The sun peeked through the trees and warmed his back. What a joy to be able to help the Lord, he thought, enjoying the beautiful day.
Just around the third bend, he walked into a small village. People smiled and greeted him. Then, at the last house, a man stopped him and asked "How are you this morning? What a nice wagon you have. Where are you off to?"
"Well, God gave me a job this morning. I'm delivering these 3 stones to the top of the hill."
"My goodness! Can you believe it? I was just praying this morning about how I was going to get this rock I have up to the top of the mountain" the man told him with great excitement. "You don't suppose you could take it up there for me? It would be such an answer to prayer."
The man with the wagon smiled and said "Of course, I don't suppose God would mind. Just put it behind the other 3 stones." Then he set off with 3 stones and rock rolling behind him.
The wagon seemed a bit heavier. He could feel the jolt of each bump and the wagon seemed to pull to one side a bit. The man stopped to adjust the load as he sang a hymn of praise, pleased to be helping out a brother as he served God. Then he set off again and soon reached another small village at the side of the road. A good friend lived there and offered him a glass of cider.
"You're going to the top of the hill?" his oldest friend asked.
"Yes! I am so excited. Can you imagine, God gave me something to do!"
"Hey!" said his friend, "I need this bag of pebbles taken up. I've been so worried that it might not get taken care of since I haven't any time to do it myself. But you could fit it in right between the 3 stones here in the middle." With that, he placed his burden in the wagon.
"Shouldn't be a problem" the man said "I think I can handle it". He finished the cider, then stood up and brushed his hands on his overalls before gripping the handle of the wagon. He waved good-bye and began to pull the wagon back onto the road.
The wagon was definitely tugging on his arm now, but it wasn't uncomfortable. As he started up the incline, he began to feel the weight of the 3 stones, the rock, and the pebbles. Still, it felt good to help a friend. Surely God would be proud of how energetic and helpful he'd been.
One little stop followed another and the wagon grew fuller and fuller. The sun was hot above the man pulling it, and his shoulders ached with the strain. The songs of praise and thanksgiving that had filled his heart had long since left his lips as resentment began to build inside. Surely this wasn't what he had signed up for that morning. God had given him a burden heavier than he could bear.
The wagon felt huge and awkward as it lumbered and swayed over the ruts in the road. Frustrated, the man was beginning to have visions of giving up and letting the wagon roll backward. God was playing a cruel game with him. The wagon lurched, and the load of obligations collided with the back of his legs, leaving bruises. "This is it!" he fumed. "God can't expect me to haul this all the way up the mountain."
"Oh God" he wailed. "This is too hard for me! I thought you were behind this trip, but I am overcome by the heaviness of it. You'll have to get someone else to do it. I'm just not strong enough."
As he prayed, God came to his side "Sounds like you're having a hard time. What's the problem?"
"You gave me a job that is too hard for me" the man sobbed, "I'm just not up to it!" God walked over to where the wagon was braced with a stone. "What is this?" He held up the bag of pebbles.
"That belongs to John, my good friend. He didn't have time to bring it up himself. I thought it would help."
"And this?" God tumbled 2 pieces of shale over the side of the wagon as the man tried to explain.
God continued to unload the wagon, removing both light and heavy items. They dropped to the ground, the dust swirling up around them. The man who had hoped to help God grew silent. "If you will be content to let others take their burdens" God told him "I will help you with your task."
"But I promised I would help! I can't leave these things lying here."
"Let others shoulder their own belongings" God said gently. "I know you were trying to help, but when you are weighted down with all these cares, you cannot do what I have asked of you."
The man jumped to his feet, suddenly realizing the freedom God was offering. "You mean I only have to take the 3 stones after all?" he asked.
"That is what I asked you to do" God smiled. "My yoke is easy and my burden is light. I will never ask you to carry more than you can bear."
"I can do that!" said the man grinning from ear to ear. He grabbed the wagon handle and set off once again, leaving the rest of the burdens beside the road. The wagon still lurched and jolted lightly, but he hardly noticed.
A new song filled his lips, and he noticed a fragrant breeze wafting over the path. With great joy he reached the top of the hill. It had been a wonderful day, for he had done what the Lord had asked.
An overloaded wagon
I've felt like the man hauling rocks - overburdened, overworked, and overwhelmed. What started as a joy became drudgery, and I felt like giving up.
Nothing is harder to bear than a burden we're not called to carry. While God does ask us to bear one another's burdens, he has not asked us to step in and do what people are not willing to do themselves. And while there are many needs, God has not asked us to meet every need.
In fact, we like Martha, may be surprised by how little God actually requires.
The Jews, eager to please God, were big on rules and regulations. God had given the law and because they loved him, they were determined to live it out to the fullest. If a little law was good, then surely more law was even better. At least that was the opinion of the Pharisees, one of the 2 religious sects who most influenced the common people of Jesus' day.
In their desire to be a perfect nation, the Pharisees took the basic precepts God had laid out to Moses and began creating ways to apply them to everyday life. Eventually they created the Mishnah, a collection of over 600 hundred rules and regulations designed to help Jews live out the Law to the last jot and title. The mandates ranged from the sublimed to the ridiculous. Especially those surrounding the Sabbath.
God's law required a weekly day of rest, a ceasing from labour and a laying down of burdens. From the appearance of the first evening star on Friday night until the setting sun on Saturday, Jews were required to cease all work - and the rules about what constituted work were quite exacting. The Pharisees interpreted this to mean that a man who carried a needle in his cloak on the Sabbath was sewing. If he dragged a chair across a sandy floor, he was plowing. if he carried his mattress, he was bearing a burden. If he plucked corn and rubbed it in his hands, he was reaping. In all of these things, he was considered to be breaking the Law.
The Pharisees even argued that it was wrong to eat an egg laid on a Sabbath because the hen had been working. The "official" Sabbath burden that one could legally carry was the weight of one dried fig.
But instead of drawing the nation of Israel closer to God, the pharisaic law became a stumbling block. It was impossible to keep every petty particular of what Jesus called "heavy loads" (Matthew 23 verses 2 to 4)
It is in this legalistic setting that we find Martha. The Jewish religion was patriarchal by nature. Only men were allowed to sit on the Sanhedrin ruling council. Only men were allowed in the synagogue; the women sat outside. Only men were allowed to wear scripture-filled phylacteries upon their foreheads or left arms to remind them to obey God's Law. The outward trappings of godly devotion were largely a male domain.
Women who wanted to show their love for God were encouraged to do it through good works - but that was about their only option. They were allowed to enter the Women's Court of the Temple to worship but no farther. In the wilderness, they had only been allowed as far as the tabernacle door. Even Solomon, in his description of the perfect woman, mentioned little of her spiritual walk with God - only the duties she fulfilled.
And Jewish women had duties by the dozens. Even keeping the Sabbath meant a lot of work for the women of Jesus' day. Though the Sabbath was mandated as a day of rest for women as well as men, the day before the Sabbath was filled with frantic preparation. There were 3 kosher meals to prepare, lamps to be filled with olive oil, and jugs to be filled to the brim with water for ceremonial washing. The house had to be cleaned, and the whole family needed freshly laundered tunics to wear the next day.
And that was for an "ordinary" Sabbath. Feast days and special events required extra preparations.
The day Jesus visited Martha and Mary was probably busier than usual. The Feast of the Tabernacles was near, and the house was filled with cooking and activity. This pilgrimage feast was held early in the fall and was one of 3 feasts every adult male Jew within a 15 miles radius was required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate.
The Feast of Tabernacles lasted 7 days, followed by a special Sabbath. held just after harvest, it was a time of great celebration and joy. the people left their homes to live in booths or small tents in memory of their time in the wilderness.
Bethany sat at the eastern edge of the Mount of Olives, just 2 miles away from Jerusalem. At the time of Jesus' visit, the town's gentle slopes were probably filled with pilgrims' booths. In order to make room for worshippers during the great feasts, the boundaries of Jerusalem were usually extended to include Bethany.
So when Martha invited Jesus and his disciples to stay at her home on their way to Jerusalem, the accepted her kind hospitality. Martha continued with her expected tasks - making everything comfortable so everyone else could worship.
The thought of joining Jesus never occurred to her because it simply wasn't allowed. But she loved Jesus. I think she knew she was entertaining the Messiah. And so Martha showed her devotion by giving the gift she knew best. The gift of service.
But even welcome wagons can grow heavy as Martha quickly discovered. Especially when they're laden with the extra weight of our human agendas and expectations.
Dumping Rocks
Jesus came to earth and immediately tipped the Jewish wagonload of rules and regulations. He hit the religious leadership right where it hurt - smack dab in the middle of their spiritual pride. "Woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them" (Luke 11 verse 46).
To those helpless under the weight of Law, Christ became a Burden Bearer; "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11 verse 28) But to those who put faith in their religious accomplishments, he added yet another load: "One thing you lack" Jesus told the rich young ruler. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor ... Then come follow me." (Mark 10 verse 21) Jesus knew that sooner or later, the legalistic load would grow too heavy to bear alone and the religious would cry out for relief. And he would be there.
Jesus stripped away all the "traditions of men", the layers of dos and don'ts that had obscured the face of God. "This is who God is" he declared to the world. "Look and see! He loves you. He sent me so you could have life and fellowship with him. It isn't outward appearance that concerns the Father. it's your inner person."
That's what Jesus told Martha that busy afternoon. You're worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed." And what was that one thing? Not cooking or cleaning or doing good works, but knowing God. Listening to him. Leaving the Kitchen long enough to experience the intimate fellowship of the Living Room.
"Only one thing is needed." With those words, Christ swept away centuries of chauvinism and bias, tradition and ritual. Women were no longer to be on the outside looking in when it came to spiritual matters. Just as surely as Christ's death would bridge the gap between God and humankind, so Jesus' words this day removed the gender barrier that separated women from their Maker.
Scripture doesn't tell us Martha's response to Jesus' astounding statement. But I can see Jesus offering his hand, welcoming her to join Mary down at his feet.
What did Martha do then, I wonder? Perhaps she sputtered excuses: the dinner, her apron, her hair. Perhaps she just withdrew, chastened. Or perhaps - as she stood there looking into her Master's eyes - Martha simply sank to her knees and began to listen.
The point is, we just don't know. While negative responses to Jesus' invitations in the bible are usually mentioned - the rich man left downcast, and the keepers of the Law left angry - this particular story is left unfinished. Perhaps it is to leave us room to determine our own response.
What will we do when told we've missed out on the best God has for us? Will we bow our knees or will we run back to what is familiar? Will we sputter excuses or humble our hearts?
It's hard to ignore the love of Jesus. The sweet wooing of the Holy Spirit calms our fears and shatters our defenses. Based on her subsequent encounters with Jesus, I believe that's exactly what happened to Martha. I believe she followed her Master's leading. She bent her knees and found his feet. She let God dump her wagon, so loaded with care, then allowed him to fill it with his presence.
Only then, as Martha let go of her lengthy list of to-dos and began doing the one thing that was needed, did she begin to give God what he really wants.
Giving the Gift God desires
So often we give God the gift we think he needs rather than take time to find out what he desires.
We make promises and New Year's resolutions to be more heavenly minded. This year we'll read the Bible through. This year we'll join a prayer group - or start a new one ourselves. This year we'll try that 40 day fast everyone's talking about.
We make goals to be more loving and less selfish. we look for opportunities to serve. And everything we do is important. All of it is good.
The problem is, contrary to popular belief, we can't do it all. We're not even supposed to try.
Romans 12 - Paul said that the body of Christ has many members and each of them has a different gifting - which means each has a different job to do. The fact that 20% of the church does 80% of the work is not at all what God intended.
Jesus' words to Martha are words to those of us who are overextended in service as well: "Only one thing is needed." We must take time to sit at Jesus' feet, to worship him, to get to know him better. When we put that first thing first, then he delights to reveal his will and our part in fulfilling it.
Sometimes I think I struggle to discern God's will because I'm surrounded by the obvious.
What does God desire?
If we could just get a handle on what God expects, the overachiever in us surmises, then it would be easy to please him. But that was the downfall of the Pharisees. They had reduced their relationship with God to a series of dos and don'ts entirely missing the purpose for which God had set them apart. They put on religious work clothes, not realizing God wasn't looking for maids and valets - he was looking for a people to call his own.
Now that's not to say that service for God is unimportant. The bible tells us, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might" (Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10) "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" according to James 2 verse 17. Serving God and others really is important. Hard work is often part of what we are called to do.
But service was never supposed to be our first priority. Work is not our first order of business - even working for the Lord. In fact, our own efforts are so far down the list when it comes to what God wants that they didn't even register in Jesus' conversation with Martha.
Only one thing is needed - and it was happening, not in the Kitchen but right there in the Living Room.
Notice, however, Jesus didn't rebuke Martha because she was fixing supper, thus instituting the eleventh commandment: "Thou shalt not cook" - although that would be a handy excuse when I don't feel like fixing dinner. Jesus wasn't concerned about Martha's external abilities at all. It was her internal disabilities that he probed - the dark corners of pride and prejudice, the spiritual handicap of busyness that left her unable to enjoy the intimacy of his presence.
After all, intimacy can be threatening. Getting close to Jesus means we can no longer hid our inadequacies. His light illuminates everything that is wrong and ugly about our lives. Unconsciously, therefore, we may flee God's presence rather than pursue it. And Satan spurs on our retreat by telling us we're not good enough to earn God's favour. He tells us that when we get our act together - that's when we can enter the Living Room.
But the truth is, we can't get our spiritual act together unless we go to the Living Room first.
It's not always easy to get there. Intimacy with God may require leaving our comfort zones. Some people feel uneasy in the presence of God. They dismiss the act of worship as too emotional, preferring the intellectual pursuit of bible study or doctrine. Or they simply have trouble being still, because that's their personality. But regardless of our temperament, regardless of our emotional preference, we are all called to intimacy with God. The one thing Martha needed is the one thing we need as well.
If you struggle to stay at his feet, ask the Lord to reveal what is hindering you. There is no need to lay aside your intellect or your personality when you enter the Living Room. Just come as you are.
As a child of God.
Children, after all love intimacy. From infancy when frightened or ill, the first place our children long to be is as close to our heart as they can get. They cuddle in, pressing themselves into our arms.
That is the intimacy our Father desires to share with us. Not because we've earned it, but because he hungers for it. And so do we, whether we're aware of it or not.
Longing for Fellowship
The Galatians had accepted Christ as Saviour and thrived under Paul's teaching and care. But when Paul left Galatia, the Judaizers moved in, telling them they still had a long way to go before they could enjoy true closeness to God. These were Jewish Christians who believed that the ceremonial practices of the Old Testament - including circumcision - were still binding upon the New Testament church. Paul, they said, had inappropriately removed legal requirements from the gospel in order to make it more appealing to the Gentiles.
Just as the scribes and Pharisees added rules and regulations to the Law, so the Judaizers attempted to mix a new form of legalism in with the gospel of grace. They wanted an outward manifestation of what could only be an inward work.
That's why Paul sent a wake-up letter to his beloved church in Galatia. He called the Judaizers' gospel slavery and he added, "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? ... After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" (Galatians 3 verses 1 and 3)
If we aren't careful, we can fall prey to the same kind of lies the Galatians fell for - lies that tell us that we must perform in order to earn God's love, We can add so many requirements to our faith that the "one thing" is swallowed by the "many" and the "best" is obliterated by the "good".
The thing we must understand is that God did not choose us to "use" us.
We are not spiritual Oompa-Loompas, in some cosmic chocolate factory, working night and day to churn out a smoother, better-tasting Christianity.
We were not created to fill some egotistical need God has for praise - the angels forever encircle his throne with worship.
We are not some celestial science project; laboratory mice let loose in a maze to see how they interact.
No, the bible makes it clear that God created us because he longs to have fellowship with us. Our Father longs to pour his very life into us, to give us an inheritance and a share in his divine nature.
What does God desire? It is actually very simple.
He wants you. All of you.
One thing is needed
When Jesus told Martha that only one thing was needed in her life, the context of the verse clearly points to a spiritual call. The Better Part that Mary discovered was to be found not on the table, but at his feet.
However, the Greek phrase for "only one thing is needed" may also refer to food portions. Perhaps in a subtle turn of word, Jesus was issuing 2 invitations:
- First to know him - to put worship before work
- But also, not to overdo - even in our efforts on his behalf
Instead of partaking from a sideboard of fancy entrees, Jews usually ate out of a large common bowl placed in the middle of the table. Guests would break off pieces of bread and dip them in the soup or broth. Jesus may have gently reminded Martha that her overdone effort in preparing multiple dishes was keeping her so busy in the kitchen that she was missing out on the real "food" , the real "life" of the party.
"Her fault was not that she served."
"The condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. Her fault was that she grew 'cumbered with much serving' so that she forgot him and only remembered the service." Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening
How easy it is to confuse duty with devotion: the common with communion. That was Martha's downfall and it can be mine as well. For in her effort to set a table worthy of the Son of God, she nearly missed the real banquet. And I too, can get so overwhelmed that my worship becomes work rather than delight, and devotion becomes just another duty.
If I am not too careful, th spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study and praise can become little more than items to be checked off my to-do list or rocks I'm tempted to dump off my wagon because they slow me down. And so I need to hear Jesus' cure for all my worry and distress.
"Only one thing is needed" - and that is found in true fellowship with him.
For he, after all, is the Bread of Life, the Living Water, the only "dish" we need. he wants to change our hearts and empower our lives. He wants us to find the great freedom of Luke 10 verse 42.
I cannot do everything, but I can do "one thing".
I cannot meet every need, but I can respond in obedience to the need the Spirit lays on my heart.
I cannot carry every load, but I can carry the load God has for me.
For his yoke, indeed is easy, and his burden is truly light.
CHAPTER 5 - LIVING ROOM INTIMACY
What does intimacy with God mean to you? How do you achieve it?
According to Hinduism a religion based on the karma of good works, one lifetime isn't enough for the soul to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Hindu mathematicians calculate it takes 5.8 million rotations through reincarnation for the good and evil in us to finally balance out so that we can receive the ultimate spiritual level of nirvana.
In the Far East, during religious festivals, men often have hooks inserted under the skin of their backs. These hooks are then tied to wagonloads of rocks, which the men drag through the streets, hoping to obtain forgiveness for their sins. In certain areas of Mexico, the devout crawl miles on their knees in pilgrimage.
All over the world people go to unimaginable lengths to find God - which is sad when you consider the unimaginable lengths God has already gone to find us.
We don't need millions of lifetimes in order to be pure enough to see God. All we really need is Jesus. For he is all the evidence we need. The Father actually wants us close and is willing to do whatever is necessary to make sure it happens.
It's hard to imagine the Creator of the universe wanting to know us. We feel so unworthy. That's why many of us persist in thinking that we must earn our way to heaven, that only the superspiritual can really know God. Burdened with the weight of our own spirituality, we struggle beneath a load of self-imposed obligations: "I have to do this ..." or "I can't really know God until I do that ..." We can spend so much of our lives getting ready to know God or backing away out of fear of displeasing God that we never get around to enjoying the Living Room Intimacy Jesus came to provide.
And yet intimacy with God was indeed the very point of Jesus' coming and of his dying. "You who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ" Ephesians 2 verse 13 When Jesus died his cross bridged the great chasm of sin that separated us from God. With his last breath, Jesus blew aside the curtain that had kept sinful humans from touching a holy God. Now we could come into God's very presence, clean and approved, not by our works, but by his grace. Jesus "destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" (verse 14) that had separated humanity from God.
When we couldn't reach up to heaven, heaven came down to us and welcomed us into the Living Room through the doorway of Jesus Christ.
That is the good news of the gospel.
The way has been made. The price has been paid. All we need to do is come. And that means there is nothing keeping any of us away from Living Room Intimacy. The "dividing wall of hostility" has been torn down, at least on God's side. But there may need to be a bit of demolition work on your end, because the enemy of your souls keep quite busy building barriers to block spiritual intimacy.
Barriers to Intimacy
Before salvation, Satan tells us we're just fine. We don't need a Saviour. But after we're saved, the Accuser points his bony finger at us and tells us we're no good. We don't deserve a Saviour. He's lying of course. Jesus says so in John 8 verse 44. Satan is "the father of lies." In fact, lying is what he does best - it's "his native language". The word for lie in the Greek is pseudos, which means falsehood or "an attempt to deceive". We attach the prefix pseudo in the English language to convey the thought of a counterfeit, a false look-alike.
And that's exactly what we get when we listen to Satan's lies and settle for less than God's best: pseudo-Christianity; pseudo-grace. Satan usually doesn't try to make us swallow a blatant lie - he's too smart for that. Instead he just doctors the truth for his own purpose, which is to keep us as far away from God as possible.
"Look at what you've done" he whispers. "How could God ever forgive you?" He twists the truth of sin into a bludgeon of guilt and shame and beats us with it, "You're no good, you're no good, you're no good ... baby, you're no good."
If we let him, he's gonna sing it again. Because every time we listen to his lying lyrics, we take another step backward, away from the Living Room. Away from the closeness our hearts yearn for.
Remember - Satan can use other circumstances just as effectively to keep you from drawing close to God. Take busyness for example. I wonder if God understands when we're too busy to attend to his presence in our lives. Or too tired. Or too embarrassed to admit we've done something he would disapprove of.
Make no mistake. Satan enjoys using our hectic schedules, stressed bodies, and emotional upsets in his efforts to put up barriers to our intimacy with God. That's why we need to take a close look at any thought, feeling, or activity that diminishes our appetite for intimacy with God.
We were designed to be close to God. Just as our bodies hunger and thirst for food and drink, our spirits hunger and thirst for his presence. But just as its possible to bloat our bodies with empty calories, we can find ways to pacify our spiritual cravings without really getting the nourishment we need.
If you're having a little trouble feeling close to God - or even wanting to draw close - you might want to consider what activities you are using to fill the empty places of your life. What's taking the edge off of your hunger for him?
Then again, it could be that you just need to start "eating" the good things of the Lord to find out how spiritually hungry you really are. You see, spiritual hunger and thirst don't work the same way as our physical needs. When our physical body feels hunger pains, we eat and our hunger is satisfied. But spiritually speaking, it isn't until we "eat" that we realise how famished we are. As we feast at God's table, something strange happens. We get hungrier. Thirstier. We want more! We have to have more.
"Our souls are elastic. There are no limits to possible capacity. We can always open ourselves to hold more and more of his fullness. The walls can always stretch further; the roof can always rise higher; the floor can always hold more. The more we receive of his fullness, the more we can receive." Kent Hughes, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome
Once you've tasted the Living Room Intimacy Jesus offers, you'll find nothing else will satisfy. When you've sampled the best of the best, you'll be willing to skip the junk food this world offers in order to have a real sit-down meal with the Saviour.
"Taste and see that the Lord is good" Psalm 34 verse 8
What true devotion is ...
It is not a duty. It is a delight.
It is not an exercise in piety. It is a privilege.
And it is not so much a visit as it is a homecoming
Robert Boyd Munger, My Heart Christ's Home: "Without question one of the most remarkable Christian doctrines is that Jesus Christ Himself through the presence of the Holy Spirit will actually enter a heart, settle down and be at home there. Jesus came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the light. He built a fire in the cold heart and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness and He filled the emptiness with his own loving, wonderful fellowship."
Munger goes on to tell how he showed Christ around the house of his heart inviting him to "settle down here and be perfectly at home" welcoming him room by room. Together they visited the library of his mind - "a very small room with very thick walls." They peered into the dining room of his appetites and desires. They spent a little time in the workshop where his talents and skills were kept and the rumpus room of "certain associations and friendships, activities and amusements." They even poked their heads into the hall closet filled with dead rotting things he had managed to hoard.
As Munger described each room, they reflected my heart as well.
"The trouble with you is this: You have been thinking of the quiet time, of the bible study and prayer time, as a factor in your own spiritual progress, but you have forgotten that this hour means something to me also."
What an amazing thought - that Christ wants to spend quality time with me. That he looks forward to our time together and misses me when I don't show up. Once that message started sinking into my heart, I started looking at my devotional time in a whole new way - not as a ritual, but as a relationship. And a relationship doesn't just happen. It has to be nurtured, protected and loved.
The Comforts of Home
The place Mary found at Jesus' feet is the same place available to you and me. It's a place where we can be comfortable, where we can kick off our shoes and let down our hair. It's a place of transparency and vulnerability; a place where we are completely known yet completely loved. It is truly a place called home.
If we love him and obey his teachings. Jesus says in John 14 verse 23:, God will actually come and live with us. "My Father will love him" he said of those who follow him, "and we will come to him and make our home with him".
And it goes both ways. Jesus not only wants to be at home in us; he also wants to make our home in him. "God wants to be your dwelling place" Max Lucado writes in The Great House of God:
"He has no interest in being a weekend getaway or a Sunday bungalow or a summer cottage. Don't consider using God as a vacation cabin or an eventual retirement home. He wants you under his roof now and always. He wants to be your mailing address, your point of reference; he wants to be your home."
What a beautiful, gracious offer from the Lord of hosts. It's hard to imagine saying no to the opportunity to live in God and rest in him. But we can - and so often we do. Isaiah 28 gives a vivid picture of what happens when we refuse. "This is the resting place, let the weary rest" God told the Israelites through his prophet Isaiah (chapter 28 verse 12). "This is the place of repose" he said, inviting them to be at home with him.
But the Israelites would not listen, according to Isaiah. Instead of making God their dwelling place, they insisted on a more independent living arrangement. And what happened then is the very picture of what happens to us when we refuse the Father's offer of at-home intimacy. Isaiah says in verse 13 "So then the word of the Lord to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there."
Matthew Henry, writing about these verses, says that the Israelites "would not heed ... they went on in a road of external performances ... The prophet's preaching was continually sounding in their ears, but that was all; it made no impression upon them; they had the letter of the precept, but no experience of the power and spirit of it; it was continually beating upon them, but it beat nothing into them."
Sound familiar, Martha? it does to me. When we refuse God's offer of grace filled rest in the Living Room, the only alternative is the tyranny of works, which doesn't work! We will be driven to do more and more - more service projects, more committee chairmanships, more spiritual extra-curricular activities - trying to win God's approval. And still we will fail, because what the Father really wants is for us to find our identity - our "mailing address" as Lucado puts it - in him and him alone.
How to Live Together
Jesus came to show us the way to the Father's house. Instead of making a once-a-year visit to the Holy of Holies, we're invited to dwell there. To make our home in God's throne room - or if you prefer his Living Room.
But practically speaking, how is that possible? Jesus gives us a hint in John's gospel. "Abide in me and I will abide in you" John 15 verse 4. Abide means to live or dwell. Dwell in me, he promises. And I will dwell in you.
Then, to give us an even better idea of what being at home with God really means, Jesus uses a word picture so simple a child can grasp it, though it may take a lifetime to implement.
"See this vine?" I can hear Jesus ask, holding one up for inspection. "See this branch? See where they are connected? Well, that's the way it is with you and me."
"I am the vine" was what he actually said. "You are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15 verse 5
All our "do and do", our "rules on rules" will never accomplish what Jesus can when we let him have his way in our life. But in order for that to happen we must be connected to him. It's not enough simply to be associated. To be acquainted. We have to be spiritually grafted on - to draw our life from him, to be so closely attached that we would wither and die if we were cut off.
It is the tree, not the branch that determines the fruit. The tree is the life source. The branch has no power of its own. But once it gets connected, once that sap gets flowing and those leaves start growing, that insignificant little twig will find itself loaded with fruit. And it didn't have to do anything - except abide.
Staying Close
My relationship with God works the same way. My sole responsibility is keeping my connection to Jesus Christ solid and secure. How is that done? It's really not that complicated. As trite as it may sound, the formula for intimacy with God remains the same today as it has always been:
PRAYER + the WORD + TIME = INTIMACY with GOD
What is prayer? Simply talking to God. Prayer is my heart crying out to the Lord for guidance and wisdom, for my own needs as well as the needs of others. As I focus my heart on him, prayer allows me to express my love through praise, to declare my absolute dependence on him alone. Then, as I wait before the Lord, he reveals his heart to me.
One of the most precious ways God expresses his love for us is through his word, the bible, which is the second essential factor in intimacy. The Hebrew word for bible is mikra, which means "the calling out of God."
We do not have to wonder what God thinks, what he feels about certain topics, because to a large extent he has already told us through scripture. Better yet, we don't have to wonder whether he loves us or not. The old English word for gospel is godspell. God spells out his love for the whole world to see. It's right there in his Word.
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you" the Lord tells us in Isaiah 43 verse 1, 4 "I have summoned you by name ... You are precious and honoured in my sight ... because I love you." We are a chosen people. Make holy, Deeply and dearly loved by God. How do I know that? I hear God's voice telling me, "calling out" to me, every time I open his word.
Time is an essential factor in Living Room Intimacy for a purely practical reason. if I don't take time to pray; there will be no real communication in our relationship. If I don't take time to read God's word, I won't hear his loving call. And if I don't make time to be alone with Jesus, our relationship will suffer, because time is integral to any relationship.
"Think of it this way. Our lives are like photographic plates and prayer is like a time exposure to God. As we expose ourselves to God for a half hour, an hour, perhaps 2 hours a day, his image is imprinted more and more upon us. More and more we absorb the image of his character, his love, his wisdom, his way of dealing with life and people." Kent Hunt describing the intimate impact of spending time with God
That's what I want. That's what I need. And that's what I receive when I spend time in God's word and in prayer. I get more of Jesus and in the process a little less of me.
Maintaining Intimacy
God longs to make his home in us. And he longs for us to make our home in him. Think of it. Christ "in us" (1 John 4 verse 13). Our lives "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3 verse 3). What an incredible, intimate entangling of humanity and divinity!
There is only one thing that can stop such Living Room Intimacy and that is our own sin. For though there is nothing we can do to attain our salvation, there is much to be done to maintain our connection to the Vine. Because sin interrupts the life-flow we need to grow, we must do all we can to maintain a pure heart before God.
Conscious repentance leads to unconscious holiness. Oswald Chambers
Intimacy with God? It's pretty simple, really.
It's not a pillar we sit on; it's a house we live in.
It's not a list of dos and don'ts; it's a branch staying connected to the Vine.
It's not striving to know God, but realising that our Father longs to know us.
And it's free for the taking - at least for you and me.
But we must never forget - it cost Jesus his very life.
CHAPTER 6 - KITCHEN SERVICE
Templates of Christianity
Of all the identifying marks of a Christian, Jesus said love would be the thing that gives us away: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples" he said "if you love one another" (John 13 verse 35). This to be our signature - the unconditional, never-ending love of God flowing through and out of our lives. A feel good phileo kind of love isn't enough. We need a love that loves "in spite of" and "because of". In spite of rejection, hardship or persecution, we love. because of the great compassion God lavished upon us, we share it with our world - both in words and in sacrificial service.
We've been filled with great treasure for one purpose: to be spilled.
Christ illustrated this agape love to his disciples by washing their feet. "As I have loved you, so you must love one another" Jesus told the group of men in John 13 verse 34, their freshly laundered toes a gentle witness to his words.
What Jesus did must have shocked the disciples. The Midrash taught that no Hebrew, even a slave, could be commanded to wash feet. The streets and and roads of Palestine were rugged back then, unsurfaced and unclean. William Barclay says, "In dry weather they were inches deep in dust and in wet they were liquid mud." Add the fact the most people wore sandals, a simple flap of leather fastened to the foot by a few straps and foot washing was a dirty job, to say the least.
Though disciples, by tradition, attended to their favourite rabbi's many needs, they never considered such a filthy task. Nor was it expected. it simply wasn't done.
So when Jesus bent his knee to serve his followers, it was a graphic display of humility. Their Teacher became the lowest of the low. Then he invited - no, commanded them to do the same. "It is noteworthy that only once did Jesus say that he was leaving his disciples an example and that was when he washed their feet" says J Oswald Sanders.
Kitchen Service, you see, isn't optional for Christians. We're supposed to spend a good part of our time following our Lord's example. We're supposed to serve others and show love to them - and in the process, to represent Jesus to the world around us. Unfortunately, as the world well knows, it's easy for Christians to forget what we're here for. It's easy to fall into the hypocrisy of talking one way and living another way - or to get involved with our religious activities that we neglect to reach out to those around us.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, "If Christians lived according to their faith, there would be no more Hindus left in India." The great leader of the Indian nation was fascinated at the thought of knowing Christ. But when he met Christians, he felt let down. Unfortunately, the world is filled with people who feel the same. They are intrigued by the claims of Christ, but they shrink back because of disappointment with his offspring.
"Don't look at people" we might protest. "Look at Jesus". But while that may be true, the sobering truth remains: Whether we like it or not, we're the only Jesus some will ever see. Dwight L Moody put it this way: "Of 100 men, one will read the bible; the 99 will read the Christian."
The apostle Paul understood the responsibility of representing Christ to others. More than 9 times in the New Testament, Paul wrote something to the effect of "Follow me as I follow Christ."
"I urge you to imitate me" - 1 Corinthians 4 verse 16
"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice" - Philippians 4 verse 9
"Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" - 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1
In these verses, Paul was not only encouraging people to replicate his life, but to live life in such a way that they themselves become templates of Christianity. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1 verses 6 and 7 "You became imitators of us and of the Lord ... And so you became a model to all the believers."
There were no Gideon Bibles in the New Testament Church. There were no bibles at all, except for the Hebrew scriptures. The only evidence of this new and living way came in the form of the walking, breathing, living epistles that filled the young church's meeting rooms and spilled out into the street.
"You are a letter from Christ ..." Paul reminded the Christians at Corinth, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stones but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Corinthians 3 verse 3)
You are a letter that is known and read by everyone, Paul said.
The same is true of us today. We are God's love letter to the world. We were set apart for a purpose - to communicate his glory to a lost and dying world,
Fruitful Living
John the Baptist noticed a problem in the lives of many of his Jewish followers. You identify a tree by the fruit it produces, John said - and a tree that doesn't produce is worth nothing at all. "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father." For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones" (Luke 3 verse 8)
John was chastising the Jews for believing their DNA - their "root stock" was enough to please God. It wasn't enough to be sons of Abraham, he said. They also needed to live like chosen people - to bear fruit worthy of their lineage. If they wouldn't do it, God was prepared to find people who would. "The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3 verse 9)
In the same respect, it isn't enough to call ourselves Christians. We must live like Christians. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven" Jesus once said, speaking of the barren lives of many, "but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7 verse 21).
Apple trees bear apples. Plum trees bear plums. If we call ourselves Christians then our lives should be unmistakably and obviously Christlike.
Fruit Happens
Throughout the word of God, the analogy of fruit is used. All 4 Gospels include Christ's picture of the vine and the branches. Out of the 27 book sin the New Testament, 15 mention the kinds of fruit we are to have in our lives, including:
The fruit of our lips: "Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name." (Hebrews 13 verse 15)
The fruit of our deeds: "That you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1 verse 10)
The fruit of our attitudes: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23)
So how can I make sure my life is producing this kind of fruit?
It's not really that difficult. You see, fruit isn't something you can sit down and manufacture in your life. Fruit happens. You get connected to the Vine and pretty soon you've got courgette - so much that you have to share!
As we "abide" in the intimate relationship with Christ that we talked about in chapter 5, something incredible happens. We begin loving as we never loved before. Our lives change and we become examples worth imitating.
We begin producing fruit. Juicy, lusciously lovely, lip-smacking-delicious fruit. Fruit in our lives that tells the world who we are and what our God is like. Even when we're stuck doing dishes in the Kitchen.
Joy in the Kitchen
Nicholas Herman was born in the Lorraine region of France in the middle of the 17th Century. Largely uneducated he worked briefly as a footman, then a soldier. At the age of 18 Nicholas experienced a spiritual awakening and from that moment on his life had one goal: "to walk as in God's presence."
In 1666, Nicholas joined a Carmelite monastery in Paris. There he served as a lay brother until he died at 80 years of age, "full of love and years and honoured by all who knew him."
Perhaps you'd recognise Nicholas by his Carmelite name: Brother Lawrence. A group of letters he wrote during his lifetime were collected into a book called The Practice of the Presence of God. Though Brother Lawrence never meant his correspondence to be published, this tiny book has sold millions, challenging centuries of Christians to a closer walk with God.
It is a picture of a life devoted to God - a truly fruitful life. A picture of a Mary heart in a Martha world.
Brother Lawrence's influential book beautifully illustrates how the fruit-making process is supposed to operate in our lives. In uncomplicated but striking detail he shows that it's not just what we do for Christ that matters, but how we go about it. He learned the secret of fruitfulness in a kitchen.
When Brother Lawrence joined the monastery, he had fully expected to spend his days in prayer and meditation. Instead, he was assigned to cooking and cleanup, a position for which he admitted a "great aversion".
Yet once Brother Lawrence decided to "do everything there for the love of God and with prayer ... for his grace to do his work well" he found his own Kitchen Service a joy and an avenue to a closer walk with God. He wrote ...
"The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."
What a goal! To be so in tune with the presence of God that washing dishes becomes an act of worship. That the moments of our lives, no matter how mundane, become aflame with the divine.
When Jesus rebuked Martha, remember, he wasn't rebuking her act. He was rebuking her attitude. "He blamed Martha, not for her attentive service of love" author Charles Grierson says, "but for allowing that service to irritate, agitate and absorb her."
Service without spirituality is exhausting and hopeless. But in the same respect, spirituality without service is barren and selfish. We need to unite the two and do it all "as unto the Lord."
When we do that, something wonderful happens to our work in the Kitchen. Sinks turn into sanctuaries. Mops swab holy ground. And daily chores that used to bore us or wear us down become opportunities to express our gratitude - selfless avenues for his grace.
Serving Like Jesus
Our sanctification, as Brother Lawrence once said, "does not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own."
For 3 1/2 years Jesus of Nazareth did just that. He ministered out of everyday life. Instead of renting a coliseum or building a synagogue, then waiting for people to come to him, Jesus went to them. He took time to meet the needs of people. Our Saviour stopped midstride to heal the woman with a bleeding disorder. He cleared his afternoon and made room on his lap for little kids. Jesus confronted religious hypocrites and comforted lost souls - each one as the opportunity arose.
And it is exactly this kind of spontaneous ministry that God entrusts to you and me. "He seems to do nothing of himself which he can possible delegate to his creatures" C S Lewis writes. "He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye."
To trembling, inadequate saints like you and me, God gives the ministry of reconciliation - bringing humanity back home to God. A mighty task, yes. But it's not impossible when we take it one day at a time and follow the example that Jesus set - the example Brother Lawrence himself imitated.
I see 3 simple principles of ministry in the life of Christ that can show us how to live our lives in fruitful Kitchen Service:
- Jesus ministered as he went on his way
- Jesus ministered as he went out of his way
- Jesus ministered in all kinds of ways
On our way
Jesus was available. He ministered as he was needed - as he went on his way. He delivered the demon-possessed man as he passed through the Gadarenes (Matthew 8 verses 28 to 34). On the walk to Capernaum, he used the time to teach the disciples (Mark 9 verses 33 to 37). While he was returning from Decapolis, he took advantage of opportunities to heal the sick and raise the dead (Luke 8 verses 40 to 56).
Even the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10 verses 38 to 42 took place while Jesus was "on the way." Instead of pressing on to Jerusalem, where he was headed, Jesus apparently made an unscheduled stop in Bethany when, "a woman named Martha opened her home to him."
This is a God who comes to us. When we open our lives, he enters our hearts and dwells within us. Then he invites us to join him on his journey - for that's what serving God is all about. God doesn't come to sign our guest book. He comes to make us his own.
"Jesus watched to see where the Father was at work and joined him." Henry Blackaby reminds us in Experiencing God. Jesus did nothing of his own initiative, according to John 5 verse 19. Instead the Son did "only what he (saw) his Father doing."
That is the secret of holy Kitchen Service. Instead of expecting God to acquiesce to our plans, dreams and schemes - or frantically trying to impress him with our efforts on his behalf - we simply need to "watch to see where God is working and join him!"
When we do that, Kitchen Service becomes a delight rather than distraction. it becomes a natural outflow of our relationship with God rather than one more duty to keep us from what we really want to do. When we minister on the way, every day can become an adventure!
Going Out of Our Way
Again and again, Jesus went beyond the call of duty and acted out of love. he went out of his way to minister - and I believe he wants us to do the same.
Jesus must have been exhausted that long-ago evening we see sketched in Matthew 14. All day long, the crowds had pressed in with their needs. I have a feeling that Jesus didn't mind that. He could still see the sparkling eyes of the little lame girl as she took her first step. He could still hear the joyful cries of the crowd as she grabbed his hand and began to dance. He could still feel the squeeze of the old knotted hand as an elderly man thanked him for making him see. it was the very thing he had come to do - "to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives" (Isaiah 61 verse 1).
But who would heal Jesus' broken heart? His cousin John had been executed just days before, and Jesus grieved. The sparkling city of Tiberius glowed that evening across Galilee. Torches lit the early dusk, illuminating King Herod's palace. Within its walls was a platter, Jesus had been told. A platter holding his dear friend's head.
Now as the evening came on, Jesus wanted to be alone. He needed to be alone. Only the Father could comfort this overwhelming sadness and soothe this bone-weary exhaustion.
"There he is!" Voices echoed across the water as a long stream of people made their way around the lake. The disciples groaned. They had seen the pain in their Master's eyes. They, too, were weary from the demands of the day. Surely they deserved a little rest.
"Let's send them away" one of the disciples suggested to Jesus.
But Jesus said no.
Instead of sending the people away, Jesus "had compassion on them and healed their sick" (Matthew 14 verse 14). He moved past his own neediness and loved them. He did what he could do to help them. And then, if that wasn't enough, he provided dinner for the hungry crowd. Fish and chips for 5000.
The word Matthew uses for compassion in this passage is splagchnizomai. It means that Jesus didn't respond to the people out of duty; he ministered to them because he felt their distress. So deep, so profound was his compassion, his splagchnizomai, Jesus literally felt it in his gut. He laid aside his hurt so he could pick up their pain. He laid aside his wishes so he could become their one Desire. He laid aside his agenda so he could meet all of their needs.
And that is the essence of ministry that goes out of its way. It puts self aside and reaches out in true compassion.
"Ture love hurts" Mother Teresa once said, "it always has to hurt". And elsewhere she has written profoundly, "If you really love one another, you will not be able to avoid making sacrifices." For many years, this tiny nun and her followers went out of their way to minister to the dying - first in Calcutta, India and later around the world. Their ministry went far beyond simply holding hands and praying. They physically carried broken bodies in off the streets. They sponged out foul-smelling wounds. They got down on their knees to mop up accidents. They tenderly spooned warm food into toothless mouths.
Now that Mother Teresa is gone from this earth, her Missionaries of Charity still continue the world she began - work that again and again goes out of its way to love and serve.
Why do they do it?
If you ask them, their answer is clear and confident. "We do it because Jesus did."
And so must we.
Serving in all Kinds of Ways
When Brother Lawrence gave himself to service to God, he didn't get to choose his job. If you were to go to Calcutta and volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity, you wouldn't pick and choose either. Everyone starts at the same place - at the most humble point of service. But when you're truly a servant, a job title and a position are completely secondary. You're willing to do whatever needs to be done.
Jesus didn't have a luxurious corner office on Jerusalem's east side with a brass doorplate that said "Messiah". He didn't have a multiacre campus to base his ministry. He just ministered as he went along. On his way. As he went out of his way. In all kinds of ways.
I think this is an important thing to note when we speak of Kitchen Service - especially in this age of motivational "giftedness" studies. The last two decades have brought a surge of books, seminars and other education opportunities designed to help us become aware of our natural and spiritual gifts. These have helped Christians by the thousands become aware of the special gifts God has placed within them for building up the church.
The purpose of such offerings was to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And the principle was sound: Working from our God-given gifts releases ministry potential in greater measure and helps the various members of the body work harmoniously.
I'm afraid, however, that instead of mobilizing the body of Christ, the emphasis on gifts may have provided many of us with a handy excuse. Now when churches call for workers, we have a spiritual reason why we can't help. "It just isn't my gift" we can say piously pointing to the twelfth chapters of Romans and 1 Corinthians.
There is much to be learned about the ministry gifts God gives to the church and our part in the body of Christ. A need is not necessarily a call - and no one is called to do everything. That is why we always must start in the Living Room, spending time waiting before the Lord and asking him what he'd have us do.
The biblical description of gifts and the reminders to serve wisely were never intended as excuses to pick the kind of service that feels comfortable and convenient and ignore all the others!
In the same chapter of Romans that lists spiritual gifts also makes it clear that we are all called to serve regardless of our spiritual gifts. We may or may not have the gift of servant hospitality (chapter 12 verse 7) but we are all called to "practice" hospitality (verse 13). We may or may not have the gift of giving (verse 8) but we all called to "share with God's people who are in need" (verse 13).
"Rather than picking and choosing ministry opportunities based solely on our talents and interests" Jack Hoey writes in Discipleship Journal "we are directed, 'always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.'"
That's what our Saviour did. He ministered everywhere he went in all kinds of ways. He stopped to chat with a lonely woman. He told stories to children and cooked fish for disciples. He had dinner with publicans and sinners, even calling one down from his hiding place in a tree so they could share a little koinonia fellowship.
Instead of guarding his life, Jesus gave it away - and he beckons his followers to do the same. When we surrender ourselves to be used by God, we don't always get to pick the time, the method, the place of ministry. In fact, sometimes, we may find ourselves doing nothing at all - except praying and waiting for God's leading.
"He also serves who only stands and waits" the great English poet John Milton once wrote. Frustrated by the limitations of becoming blind, Milton had struggled with feelings of worthlessness - feelings that God couldn't use him. But as the poet discovered, the key is not in our activity, but in our receptivity to God's voice - and in our willingness to be used in whatever ways he brings to our attention.
When we bring to him our willingness to serve, he'll always, eventually point us toward something we can do for him. And that task will always have something to do with love.
Passion, Compassion and Power
A true passion for God will naturally result in compassion for people. We can't love the Father without also being willing to love his kids - even when they're less than lovable.
In Acts 3 Peter and John couldn't just walk by the lame man sitting at the temple gate called Beautiful. When they looked at the crumpled rag doll of a man they didn't see a cripple, they saw a child of God. So they loved him. They wanted to help. Their passion for God spread out naturally into compassion for one in need. But instead of offering the man money, they gave him something far more valuable - something we all need to remember when we offer compassionate service.
"Silver and gold have I none" Peter said. Then with all the passion and power of the Holy Spirit within him, Peter continued "But such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." (Acts 3 verse 6)
Compassion, you see, is just the beginning of what we have to offer the people Jesus loves. After all, the world is filled with charitable works, people and foundations that give money and time and do incredible things on behalf of the poor. And I know such compassion pleases the heart of God - even when it comes from non-Christians.
But it wasn't Peter's charity the lame man needed that day. He needed something not found in pockets or purses or even in other people's sympathy. That man needed healing. He needed the power of God to transform his life.
And power is exactly what he got. By the empowerment of the Spirit, Peter took the man by the right hand and helped him up. "Instantly the man's feet and ankle became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk ... walking and jumping and praising God!" (verses 7 and 8)
What we Have to Offer
And that, more than anything is what the world needs from us today. They've heard the TV sermons, they've seen our church buildings and read our ads. What they're hungry for is the manifest glory of God. Something bigger than they are. Something bigger than we are. They want to see God.
It has always been that way. Paul referred to the same reality when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 2 verses 4 and 5 "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." Why was that important? "So that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power."
The world has had enough of man's wisdom. If a little extra know-how was all your neighbour needed, she'd find answers to all life's questions on Oprah. If all your brother-in-law needed was advice, he could get it from coworkers or on the Internet, but what he can't get there is what he needs - a new life. If human wisdom were enough to solve the world's problems, we'd have already gotten rid of war, famine and disease. And we'd have no need of God.
Obviously, that hasn't happened. The world is still embroiled in strife, still wasting away from physical and spiritual emptiness, still hurting and dying. Still desperate for the kind of healing only God can offer.
It might be a good idea, then, for each of us to stop ourselves periodically in the midst of serving and ask "what am I relying on? Whom am I pointing people to?"
Because if our Kitchen Service doesn't point people to Jesus, we risk becoming surrogate messiahs. If we, not God, end up being their source of hope, we are setting them up for profound disappointment and ourselves for profound burnout - because we, in ourselves, are simply not up to the task of saving the world. In ourselves, like Peter and John at the gate called Beautiful, we have nothing to offer. But in Christ, we are given the power to give people what they most desperately need.
Only God, you see, can make rag dolls whole. Only God can put Humpty Dumpty together again. Our job is just to be his rag-doll emissaries, formed in his likeness, filled with his love and endued with his power. And gifted with the privilege of sharing a loving Father with our orphan world.
Sticking out all Over
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have words said of us like those Acts 4 verse 13 records? "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."
One life truly can make a difference. Your life plus my life make two.
Let's get connected to the Vine so that we start bearing fruit. Let's start living in such a way that Jesus sticks out all over. Let's start loving in such a way people can point at our lives and say "I know who you are!"
Or better yet "I know whose you are" - because they see our Lord and his love in us.
CHAPTER 7 - THE BETTER PART
Life is filled with Hula-Hoops. We all have responsibilities, important things that need our attention. If we're not careful, however, our hears and our minds can be consumed with the task of keeping them in the air. Rather than centering ourselves in Christ and letting the other elements of our lives take their rightful place around that centre, we end up shifting our attention from one important to-do item to another, frantically trying to keep them all in motion.
It's easy to forget that while there is a time to work, there is also a time to worship - and it's the worship, the time we spend with God, that provides the serene centre to a busy complex life.
Mary of Bethany didn't fall for that. She knew the difference between work and worship. Martha didn't. That is why she nearly missed the Better Part.
I can almost see Martha as she greeted Jesus on his way through Bethany. I don't suppose the Hula-Hoops were actually visible as she came out to meet him but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a slight movement around Martha's hips. "Come in! come in!" she probably said. "Now if you'll excuse me. I need to check the soup."
I too, have been guilty of giving my Lord a breathless hello and a quick hug. I've welcomed him into my lie and gotten him situated, but then moved on like Martha, gyrating frantically as I pursued other duties.
Mary didn't do that. She dropped her Hula-Hoops and sat at his feet. Who has time for recess games when you're in the presence of the wisest Teacher who ever lived?
Now it's been argued that Mary probably didn't have any hoops (the lazy thing!) "That's why she had time to sit at his feet" we Marthas like to emphasize. But we have no proof of that, and I believe Scripture is vague for a purpose.
Stereotypes keep us from embracing truth. The story of Mary and Martha was never meant to be a psychological profile or a role play in which we choose the character with whom we most identify. This is the story of 2 different responses to one singular occasion. In it, we should find not our personality type, but the kind of heart Christ longs for us to have.
We will all have trials. The question is not when the pressure will come, but where the pressure will lie. Will it come between us and the Lord? Or will it press us ever closer to his breast?" Hudson Taylor
"Life works better when we know how to glance at things but gaze at God. Seeing him clearly will enable us to see all other things clearly." Selwyn Hughes
It is so easy to lose focus in life, to lose our centre. Life conspires to drag our eyes away from the face of the Saviour, hypnotising us with the unending sway of our problems.
The rougher the day, the more time I need to spend with my Saviour. The more hoops I have to handle, the more I need to keep my centre.
I think it's important to remember that if Mary hadn't chosen to take time out of her busy Martha-run schedule to sit at Jesus' feet, the whole encounter wouldn't have happened. The Gospels would have moved right along without recording this intimate pause between a woman and her Saviour. And we wouldn't have seen the difference Living Room Intimacy can make in a life - in a family - surrendered to God.
In his book First Things First, stephen Covey tells the story of a man teaching a time-management seminar. In order to make a point, the man pulled a wide-mouthed gallon jar from under the counter that served as his podium. He picked up some fist-size rocks and put them in the jar. Then he looked out at the class and asked "Is the jar full?"
Some of the students not knowing where he was going blurted out, "yes". The teacher laughed gently and said "no it's not." He pulled out a bucket of pea gravel and began to pour it in the jar. The class watched as the pea gravel filtered down between the rocks, filling the spaces until it reached the top.
"Now is this jar full?"
The class was a bit reticent to answer. After all, they'd been wrong before. Instead of waiting for their response, the man poured a bucket of sand down among the pea gravel and the large rocks. He shook the jar gently to let the sand settle, then added more until finally the sand reached the mouth of the jar. Then he asked again, "is the jar full?" And they said "probably not."
Now the teacher reached for a pitcher of water and slowly poured the water in the jar. It filtered down until it was running out of the jar at the top. "Is the jar full?" the time management consultant asked. The class answered "we think it is."
"OK class" he said, "what is the lesson in this visual aid?"
Somebody in the back raised his hand and said "no matter how busy your life is, there is always room for more."
"No" the teacher said as the class broke into laughter. "That's not it."
"The lesson is class" he said when the chuckles subsided. "If you don't put the big rocks in first you'll never get them in later."
What a powerful picture of a powerful truth! It sounds like the same point Jesus said when he said, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6 verse 33)
First things first, the Lord was saying. Take care of my business and I'll take care of yours. Make room in your heart for me and I'll make room for everything else.
We were created for fullness. According to Ephesians 3 verses 17 to 19, when we come to know Jesus as our Lord through faith, we begin to understand the incredible love of our Saviour. And as we come to know this love better, we are filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (verse 19)
We were created for the fullness of God, not an ounce or litre less. But are we ready for that? After all, being filled to the measure with all the fullness of God will most likely require our being stretched. At the very least, it is sure to disturb our comfort.
Are we willing to let God explode our comfort zone and expand our capacity for him? Or do we want a God we can manage?
Unfortunately at lot of the time that is exactly what we want - enough of God to make us happy, but not enough to make us change. we'd never say it but our attitude is just what Wilbur Rees had in mind when he wrote:
"I would like to buy £3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy £3 worth of God please."
The trouble, of course, is that God doesn't work that way. He's not on the market in manageable, bargain-size portions. He's not on the market in the first place. And he's not looking for buyers; he's looking to buy - you and me. He wants a people who are sold out to him. All the way. Total liquidation. He's not willing to barter. He's not looking to please. He has already paid the price. His Son die on the cross to pay our debt and ransom our souls.
But the transaction is never a forced sale - and that's crucial to realise. God is a gentleman not a robber baron. He will court us and pursue us, but he'll never push himself on us. We can actually say no to the Maker of the Universe. We can choose to keep him in a corner of our lives.
"We are as intimate with God as we choose to be." Cynthia Heald
The only limitations of God's presence in our lives are the limits we ourselves set - the excuses we set up to avoid being filled to the measure with God.
Martha's excuse was duty. She had cleaning and cooking to do. She didn't think she had time to sit at Jesus' feet.
Perhaps your excuse is children or work. Or maybe like me, the only excuse you really have for devotional delinquency is sheer laziness. But whatever it is - whatever keeps us from spending regular time with God - it is sin.
Does it sound harsh to say that cooking or cleaning or taking care of children or doing your job might be sinful? But think about it. The very definition of sin is separation from God. So no matter how important the activity, no matter how good it seems, if I use it as an excuse to hold God at arm's length, it is sin. I need to confess and repent of it so that I can draw close to the Lord once more.
Because the longer I go without being filled with God's presence, the drier and emptier and more frustrated I'm going to become.
Sometimes we have to slow down in order to take spiritual inventory and see where we stand with God. Sometimes we have to realise how empty we are before we're willing to be filled.
Making room for the Better Part in our lives isn't easy. Many great men and women of God have struggled to hammer out time alone with their Saviour.
Living Room Intimacy is not some mystical state of being (or non-being) like the Hindu idea of Nirvana. We need not trek to the mountains of Nepal to find it, nor go on a spirit quest like the native Americans of old. We won't find it on a shelf, in a dusty old cave, or in a museum under lights.
The Better Part is not out there somewhere. It is inside us, where Christ dwells by his Holy Spirit. We can't misplace the Better Part. No-one can take it away from us, though unfortunately we can choose to ignore it.
Remember the painting of Christ knocking at a door? There was no latch on the outside of the wooden door where the Lord stood waiting. It could only be opened from the inside.
So it is with the door of my will. Jesus didn't force his company upon the sisters of Bethany, nor will he force it upon me. I have to let him in before we can enjoy our Living Room time together. And the door isn't always easy to open, even from the inside. But 3 little keys, I've discovered can make all the difference. They are 3 simple truths - so simple they tend to be disregarded, but powerful enough to click open stubbornly willful doors. The have made all the difference in keeping my life centred in Christ.
- Consistency
- Creativity
- Conversation
Consistency
Practice. If we want to be accomplished Christians, and if we want to know God in all his fullness, there is something crucial about the act of seeking Jesus on a regular, day-by-day basis.
Daniel prayed 3 times a day, morning, noon and night - Daniel 6 verse 10
David must have been a morning person, Psalm 5 verse 3 "In the morning O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation."
Jesus tended toward morning as well, Mark 1 verse 35 "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."
It's not really important when I choose to meet God every day. What really matters is that I show up regularly. Consistency does not mean perfection, it simply means refusing to give up. It's amazing what a little time-out can do for you. Especially when you spend that time with Jesus.
Creativity
It is so easy to fall into habits and rituals - the ones that are imposed upon us as well as those we ourselves impose. But while the consistency of habit and the beauty of ritual can be empowering and enriching, they can also lead to dullness. And while the dullness of routine is really no excuse for abandoning our devotional times, the reality is that we stand a better chance of sticking with our quiet times when we have interest as well as will to spur us on.
There's more than one way; in other words, to enjoy a quiet time with the Lord. There's more than one approach to studying Scripture. There's more than one way to meditate and pray. The practical truth is that if we don't learn how to feed our souls so they will eat, our souls will wither and slowly die. And that may require a little variety in our spiritual diet - a little creativity in the way we approach our quiet times.
Conversation
Our relationship with God is supposed to be an intimate, loving relationship and what relationship can thrive without dialogue - good, honest, back-and-forth communication? We need it in marriage and we need it in our walk with God.
As we surrender our hoops to the Lord Jesus, as we centre ourselves in him, something wonderful happens. He takes those hoops and makes them dance. He turns the spinning circles of our chaotic lives into a steady, stable gyroscope mounted and held up by him.
He stabilizes us in the turbulence of life. He steadies us in the midst of raging seas, and he guides us by the compass of his eternal love. As we partake of the Better Part, Jesus Christ becomes the steady balance in our life of constant motion.
What I really need is more and more of the Master himself.
CHAPTER 8 - LESSONS FROM LAZARUS
I can only imagine how Mary and Martha must have felt when their brother Lazarus, fell ill. Everything had been going so well. Since Jesus had come to visit them, nothing had been the same. There was a new peace. A new joy. A new sense of love that permeated the whole household. The incident recorded in Luke 10 verses 38 to 42 had been more than just a couple of small paragraphs. The meeting had completely rewritten the story of their lives. But now, it seemed, the plot was taking a puzzling turn.
John 11 verse 1 doesn't go into detail about his ailment, telling us only that there was a man named Lazarus who was sick.
But through the account that follows, it's obvious Lazarus must have been a very special man. He was dearly loved - not only by his sisters, but also by Jesus. The message sent by Mary and Martha said it all: "Lord the one you love is sick" (verse 3). Their relationship must have been exceptionally close. This wasn't a stranger. This was a friend.
So I can imagine the hope the 2 sisters clung to as they sent the messenger. Surely everything must be all right. The illness seemed severe, but Jesus would come. Lazarus would be made well, and their life would continue as they'd always known it.
Jesus' disciples probably assumed the same thing. After all, when the news about Lazarus came, Jesus told them specifically that "this sickness will not end in death" (verse 4). "No" he added, "it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
Good news, the disciples must have thought. Lazarus will live!
But God had other plans for Lazarus and his sisters. It's the story of God's ongoing relationship with the human race. And it's a tale the Master Storyteller has been working on ever since the dawn of creation.
The bible provides the basic outline. God's first draft was designed to be a perfect love story. He created a man and a woman to live in fellowship with him and with each other in a fairy-tale bliss. The setting was so beautiful it defied description. And the story was sweet. Long walks in the evening. New discoveries in the daytime. No tears. No death. No sorrow.
That was God's original purpose - not only for Adam and Eve, but for you and me as well. Then a serpent slipped in and sin spoiled Paradise. Disobedience destroyed God's manuscript and tossed the man ad the woman out of Eden. The story was over, or so it seemed.
But instead of writing a cruel conclusion, Satan's attempt to interrupt God's epic tale served only as an introduction. For "the moment the forbidden fruit touched the lips of Eve" Max Lucado says, "the shadow of a cross appeared on the horizon." With the fall of man, God began unfolding the greatest story of all - his incredible plan of redemption.
And so the saga continues, right down to this very day, Good and evil still war for the human soul. The conflict between love and hate remains the central theme. What Satan intends for evil, God still turns for good.
This story has a happy ending. An incredible out-of-this-world happy ending! A glorious finale complete with trumpets and fanfare and an old-fashioned camp meeting in the sky.
But in the in-between part - well, that's where you and I come in. For though we already know the ending, we don't get to skip ahead to the end - at least not yet. And that is because God has a lot he wants to teach us at the story unfolds. For tucked among the twists and turns of the everyday plot are valuable lessons about who God is and how he works and how we fit into the tale.
Lessons like the ones Mary and Martha learned the day they feared their brother's story had ended and all hope was gone.
What they learned from painful experience was the first of the lessons we can learn from the story of Lazarus:
God's will does not always proceed in a straight line
That means I will not always see a clear connection between point A and point B. I won't always see the pattern in what happens to me. I won't always understand the plan.
One reason for this is that God is weaving together a greater glory that just my own. As Paul explains in Romans 8 verse 28, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." It is God's purposes, not mine, that must prevail. He is concerned not only with the individual need, but with the corporate need as well.
God wraps up my good with your good and the good of both of us with the good of others. The plot lines of our individual stories weave together to form his master plan. Nothing is wasted. Nothing is left out. There are no dead ends or red herrings; every story line is given his greatest attention, his diligent care. Your story matters to Jesus, just as the individual stories of Mary, Martha and Lazarus mattered to him. But he always has the big picture in mind as he handles the stories of our lives. He knows the beginning from the end, and he operates accordingly.
There are no detours in God's story line, not really. Just complications that he's more than able to resolve.
Satan does his best to foul things up, but God just counters his devilish ploys with moves of his own. God takes Satan's worst and transforms it into our best. And with each jog and twist, our story grows clearer and richer and more divine. The Author of our salvation really does know what he's doing even when we can't figure it out.
When God gave Joseph a dream of the moon and stars bowing down to him, Joseph assumed that great things were in store for him. He didn't expect a side trip to Egypt. But God's plan was far greater than anything young Joseph could have imagined. He used those years of slavery and prison to shape a man who would eventually save not only his family and Israel but the entire known world from starvation.
When King Dairus was forced to throw Daniel into the lions' den, I'm sure Daniel must have wondered if he was about to meet his Maker as kitty chow. He had no idea his miraculous rescue would serve as a catalyst for the conversion of a nation. But God had a plan.
God always has a plan. But it may not follow human logic. In fact, it may often seem to go directly against what we believe about God.
Why would Jesus allow such sorrow to come to a family who loved him so much? Why would he withhold his power to heal when he'd healed so often before?
We may not know the purpose behind our pain until we see Jesus face to face. Even then, we aren't guaranteed any explanations. We are given only a promise: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21 verse 4)
Because we live in this world, trapped in the old order of things, tragedy will touch our lives. That's simply a fact - for Christians and non-Christians alike. We will all lose loved ones. We will all eventually die. Romans 8 verse 28 is often distorted to mean "only good things will happen to those who love God." But Paul meant just the opposite. In the very next paragraph he spells out the kinds of "things" we can expect in this world:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8 verse 35, 38 and 39
Trials are real. Bad things happen - to good people and bad people alike. And we who are Christians don't escape life, Paul says. We overcome life. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (chapter 8 verse 37)
This promise anchors our all-too-shaky world to his unshakeable kingdom.
And so do the lessons of Lazarus. For while life may shake, rattle, and roll, this rock-solid truth from John 11 verse 5 remains: "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."
Love. That's a dependable anchor.
The love Christ has for you is a love that you can cling to, for it will hold you. Though we may not understand God's methods, that doesn't change the fact of God's love.
Even when it seems to tarry.
Common sense seems to dictate that Jesus would drop whatever he was doing when he heard Lazarus was sick and travel immediately to Bethany. Instead when the bad news came, "he stayed where he was 2 more days" (John 11 verse 6).
In retrospect, we can see God's purposes in this delay. After all, we have the gospel account. We know that everything turned out all right.
But what did Mary and Martha think at the time? What did the disciples think?
And what about my life - and yours? What do we do when God doesn't act or move the way we think he should?
If we're paying attention in those times, we may understand better the second lesson the story of Lazarus has to each us:
God's love sometimes tarries for our good and his glory
As human beings, we tend to want rational reasons for everything. The Jews of Jesus' time were especially interested in the whys and what-fors of life. That's why, when they encountered a man who had been born blind, the disciples immediately wanted to know what had gone wrong. "Rabbi" they asked Jesus, "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9 verse 2)
A reasonable question. After all, the religious leaders of the day had developed the principle that "there is no death without sin, and there is no suffering without iniquity." It followed, then, that where there was affliction there had to be sin. Perhaps the man had done wrong in the womb or in a preexistent state. Perhaps the man deserved his blindness. Or perhaps he was the innocent victim of his parents' sin.
The religious elite as well as common folk were big on cause and effect, much as we are today. We want explanations. We want to know why.
With one short sentence, Jesus ripped through their reasoning and shredded their shame-based philosophies. "Neither this man nor his parents sinned" Jesus answered, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."
What hope must have sprung up in the blind man's heart as he heard Jesus speak those words. It wasn't his fault! He wasn't the victim of bad parenting or bad karma. God had a plan!
With spit and plain dirt, Jesus made a mud compress and placed it on the man's eyes, telling him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. The man was healed, and his neighbours were amazed. The Sanhedrin tried to discount the miracle but out of one man's tragedy came another divine triumph.
Because of a fallen world, a man was born blind. But because of that man, Jesus was glorified.
We are not pawns on some celestial chessboard, expendable and unimportant. We are cherished and highly loved. "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?" Jesus reminds us gently in Luke 12 verses 6 and 7. "Yet not one of them is forgotten by God ... Don't be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows."
While we may never fully understand why God's love sometimes lingers, we can rest assured that God's love is always at work. He may not move according to our schedule, but he is right on time for what is best. And he has our ultimate good forever in mind.
The third lesson of Lazarus underscores this hope:
God's ways are not our ways, but his character is still dependable
In other words, we don't need to fret, even when it looks like hope is dead. We might not be able to see the end of the story. But we can trust the Storyteller.
Martha and Mary, while they were sitting at Lazarus' deathbed waiting for Jesus to arrive, had nothing to hang on to except what they knew about the character of Jesus. But what they knew was enough to sustain them. They knew Jesus loved their brother. They knew Jesus had the power to heal. They knew Jesus would know what to do. Even though they must have struggled with fear and doubt, I believe they had the underlying assurance that Jesus would eventually make everything all right.
Did you know that God taught grammar? Everything we need to know is spelled out in his Word, which is good, because this course involves an open-book test. God allows us to face them every day. The questions come out of our lives. The answers are found in him and his Word.
I wonder what Mary and Martha felt when they finally received word from Jesus. They'd been waiting for days. But instead of the Master, the only person they saw walking up their path was an out-of-breath courier with a message that must have rung hollow in their ears: "This sickness will not end in death."
It's hard to hope when hope is dead. It's hard to believe God's promises when your brother's body is lying in your living room.
However, God's ways are not our ways. His plots often don't take the direction we think they should. And even his grammar is not our grammar. For it is against this backdrop of despair that we find God's grammar rule number one. Listen carefully. There will be a test.
God's Grammar Rule Number 1: Never put a period where God puts a comma
Too often we interpret God's delays as God's denials. But the story of Lazarus tells us that "a delay in answer is not a sign of God's indifference or his failure to hear. It is a sign of his love. The delay will help us. It will make us stronger."
Jesus could have spoken the word and made Lazarus well. He did it with the Roman centurion's servant (Matthew 8 verses 5 to 13). He did it for a Syrophoenician woman's daughter (Mark 7 verses 24 to 30). Without physically being present, Jesus healed with just a word. He could have done that with Lazarus - as Mary and Martha well knew.
But God's ways are not our ways, and his timing rarely coincides with our own. While God is never late, I've found he is rarely early. That is why we must trust his schedule as well as his character.
"Faith is about how you live your life in the meantime, how you make decisions when you don't know for sure what's next. What you do with yourself between the last time you heard from God and the next time you hear from God is the ongoing challenge of a life of faith." CeCe Winans, On a Positive Note
Waiting 4 days may have made Jesus late for a healing, but it made him right on time for a resurrection. So never put a period where God puts a comma. Just when you think the sentence is over, the most important part may be yet to come.
Simon Peter learned God's second rule of grammar the hard way. The disciple with the foot-shaped mouth meant well, but when Jesus rebuked him, Peter got the message loud and clear.
God's Grammar Rule Number 2: Don't put a comma where God puts a period
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus had spoken of his death. In Matthew 16 verse 21 the Bible tells us that "Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
But Peter wouldn't hear of it. He took his Master aside and began to rebuke him. "Never Lord!" he said in verse 22. "This shall never happen to you!"
Peter probably thought he was being valiant, protecting and correcting the Lord. He must have felt pretty good about himself ... until Jesus rebuked Peter's rebuke.
"Get behind me, Satan!" Jesus told Peter in verse 23. "You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
Ouch. It's not every day the Son of God calls you "Satan" and when he does, it has to hurt. But if you are trying to put a comma where God intends a period, don't be surprised when Jesus pops your pretty bubbles. Because when you attempt to breath life into something God intends to die, you become a stumbling block to Christ.
There are times in every life when God writes the end to a chapter, when he asks us to say good-bye to something or someone who has been important to us. It might be a spouse, a parent, or friend. it might be a job we've loved, a city we've enjoyed, a prejudice or an assumption that we've always thought was true.
Endings, in a sense, are inevitable. Dead ends, failed possibilities and brick walls will disappoint us all. And those endings come, we can fight them as Peter advised Jesus. Or we can accept them as Jesus did, as coming from the Father's hand.
Our Father knows best.
His periods may not be our periods. His commas may not be our commas. His ways may not be our ways. But God is the One telling the story, and we can trust him to take the tale in the right direction. We can have faith that everything really will turn out all right.
And it is that very faith that takes us to the next lesson Lazarus' story has to teach us.
The house in Bethany was most likely filled with people following Lazarus' death. Jewish faith considered expressing sympathy a sacred duty. Mourning was so important to the Jews that an entire industry had grown up around it. If the deceased hadn't enough friends to mourn, the family would hire wailers to make sure the dead departed properly. The louder the better.
But Mary and Martha didn't have to hire anybody when Lazarus died. They had mourners aplenty, according to John 11. Friends and family flocked in to support the sisters in their grief, even from out of town (verse 19).
This means Martha once again had a houseful of company when Jesus finally arrived in Bethany. But when someone brought the news that Jesus was coming, it was Martha, not Mary, who ran to meet him. The guests, the duties, all the distractions - nothing mattered but seeing Jesus.
She met him somewhere on the road into Bethany, and with all the anguished honesty of deep sorrow, Martha poured out her grief. "Lord" she cried "if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
Her response was natural and heartfelt. But then Martha added something I find remarkable, something that revealed just how much she had changed since the last time they'd met. "But I know" she continued "that even now God will give you whatever you ask" (verse 22).
No longer do we see a woman trying to manipulate God. Instead of trying to rewrite the story of her brother's death - instead of putting a comma where there was a period or a period where there could be a comma - Martha was placing the quill of their lives in Jesus' hands.
Do whatever you want, she was saying. Punctuate as you please. Thy will be done.
It is that kind of surrender and that kind of resolve that sets in motion the miraculous. I can almost see the glory on Jesus' face as he declared his purpose to Martha that day on the road outside her home. "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11 verses 25 and 26)
How precious Martha's response must have sounded in Jesus' ears. "Yes Lord" she told him "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
I believe. Could there be two sweeter sounding words? In Martha's great declaration of faith and the miraculous events that followed it, we find the fourth lesson from the story of Lazarus:
God's plan is released when we believe and obey
This is one of the most exciting lessons of all, because it means that God's story, in a sense, is interactive. We are an integral part of the writing process. Our choices play a part in the unfolding of the plot. Just as Adam and Eve's disobedience blocked God's purpose, our obedience releases his plan.
Faith and obedience go hand in hand. It takes faith to choose obedience and it takes obedience to choose faith when you're quaking with fear. But when God speaks a promise to our hearts, we can take him at his word. That's what Martha did. And as she did, faith arose to help her take the next step; to obey him when he spoke, even when what he told her to do seemed completely impractical.
By the time Jesus came to Bethany, Lazarus had been dead and buried for 4 days. The time span was significant to the Jews. "Many Jews believed the soul remained near the body for 3 days after death in the hope of returning to it. If this idea was in the minds of these people, they obviously thought all hope was gone - Lazarus was irrevocably dead."
For centuries, the 2 primary groups of Jewish religious leaders, the Sadducees and Pharisees, had argued about the afterlife. The Sadducees said there was no resurrection, no future life, no hell nor heaven. Life on earth was all there was. The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed there was a future for the dead. They believed in the immortality of the soul and in reward and retribution after death.
But neither sect understood the concept of resurrection. Certainly not the type of resurrection they were about to witness.
I can only imagine what went through everyone's mind when Jesus asked for the stone to be taken away. Martha only dared to speak what everyone else was thinking. There was a dead body behind that stone - a rotting one at that.
Martha wasn't getting the picture. No one was. Why on earth did Jesus want to open the grave of a man who had been dead 4 days? To pay his last respects?
You see, Martha had faith for what could have been: "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11 verse 21)
Martha had faith for what would be: "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." (chapter 11 verse 24).
What Martha needed was faith for what was happening now: "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" Jesus asked her in verse 40.
It is the same question Jesus asks of us today: "Will you believe?" Martha's response of faith was quick, her obedience certain. "So they took away the stone" verse 41 tells us. And the rest is history. Incredible, life-changing, never-to-be-looked-at-the-same kind of history.
For when Jesus stood outside the tomb and said, "Lazarus, come out!" hell trembled. In a matter of weeks, death's grip on humanity - past, present and future - would be completely broken. The dark shadowland of death would be filled with glorious light. And never again would we read the story of eternal life the same way again.
The final lesson from the story of Lazarus still echoes today:
The "end" is never the end; it is only the beginning
When Jesus came late to Bethany, his lateness was an act of love. A gift of perspective. A foreshadowing meant as a mercy, not only for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, but for his disciples and for you and me.
Jesus knew we would struggle with the concept of resurrection. He knew we would have doubts when his tomb turned up empty. He knew there would be conspiracy theories and chat rooms jammed with people wanting to debate the likelihood of the dead coming back to life. So the Author of our faith, our great storytelling God, prefaced his Son's death with an act that would foreshadow the resurrection. when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he put to death Satan's lie that the end is the end.
The truth of Lazarus and the secret of the resurrection is this: If Jesus Christ can turn death into life, sorrow into gladness, suffering into triumph - then nothing truly bad can ever touch our lives again. Not really. Unfortunate things may happen. Difficulties may come. But it all becomes fodder for a greater work, a more glorious glory.
"When New Testament writers speak of hard times, they express none of the indignation that characterized Job, the prophets and many of the psalmists. They offer no real explanation for suffering, but keep pointing to two events - the death and resurrection of Jesus." Philip Yancey
As a result of Christ's work on the cross, Yancey says, "The three-day pattern - tragedy, darkness, triumph - became for New Testament writers a template that can be applied to all our times of testing."
Looking back, in fact, we can see that pattern all through God's story. Joseph experienced it. So did Job, though he didn't understand it. The disciples felt it. So did our Lord. Tragedy may come. So will the darkness. But triumph is waiting just around the corner.
That's the lesson that Lazarus' resurrection hinted at - that's the truth Jesus' resurrection would triumphantly prove.
It may be Friday, suggested Lazarus' empty tomb. Bu Sunday's comin'.
We will all die. Lazarus eventually did. You and I will.
But never forget: The end is not the end. it is only the beginning. When we belong to Jesus, we simply leave our empty shells behind and go to glory. "Where O death, is your victory?" Paul writes to remind us in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 55 "Where, O death is your sting?"
And yet death does sting, even when we know better. It hurts to leave behind the people we love. It hurts to be left behind. We will all encounter many more hurts on our journey toward the grave. Sometimes the story of our lives seems like one painful episode after another.
And Jesus knew that.
Even though Jesus knew Lazarus was about to be raised from the dead, he understood Mary and Martha's pain. He did more than understand it. He felt it too. John 11 verse 35 tells us "Jesus wept". The word for wept denotes a deep sorrow with great emotion.
Because Jesus loved this family from Bethany, he wept, and he weeps with us as well. Though Jesus knows our triumphant outcomes, though he sees the joyful ending just around the bend, he still gets down in the middle of our sorrow and holds us close, mingling his tears with our own.
And that, is the essence of the story God writes throughout our lives.
Today we suffer. Today we don't understand. But someday, in that eternal Tomorrow, that same Saviour who weeps with us will wipe every tear from our eyes. He'll unbind our graveclothes of earthly flesh, and we'll be set free. Someday all the scattered, broken pieces will fall into place, and we will suddenly understand the hand of God has been upon us all the time. All the tragedy - all the darkness - will instantly be swallowed up by triumph.
What a perfect ending to our imperfect stories!
That's the love of our Master Storyteller God.
CHAPTER 9 - MARTHA'S TEACHABLE HEART
If Jesus would have taken out a classified in the Jerusalem Post at the start of his ministry 2000 years ago, I think it would have read much the same as this business ad "No previous experience required. We will train." Jesus wasn't as interested in finding capable people as he was in finding available people. He was looking for teachable hearts.
Perhaps that's why Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Matthew 19 verse 14). Children learn quickly - mainly because they don't have preconceived ideas that keep them from hearing something new and receiving it.
Perhaps that's why Jesus called a group of ragtag men to come alongside him instead of a bunch of religious muckety-mucks. The minds of the educated scribes and Pharisees of Israel were loaded with false perceptions and man-made agendas; it would have taken years to reprogram their thinking to God's way of thinking. So Jesus chose men without resumes, without formal education, with no previous evangelical work experience.
To the rest of the world, they seemed unimpressive. Unwashed, untaught, and sometimes uncouth. But Jesus saw in them exactly what he needed - followers with the potential for transformation.
Unfortunately, though we all applaud the thought of transformation, most of us don't appreciate the process that gets us there. To be transformed means we have to change, and change too often hurts.
"God is more concerned about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically but to perfect us spiritually." Paul W Powell
I believe that's why Jesus chose to confront Martha's attitude after her little tantrum about help in the kitchen back in Luke 10. There was more at stake in the incident than met the eye. In Martha's outburst, Christ could see a fault line that ran deep down the woman's psyche, down to where her identity lay. Martha thought she had value because she was productive. Jesus wanted her to learn she had value simply because she was his.
I'm sure Martha's feelings must have smarted at Jesus' rebuke. After all, no one enjoys the exposure of his or her blunders. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a moment when Martha was tempted to pack up her bruised ego and stomp out of the room. She knew when she wasn't being appreciated. Let them cook their own dinner! Then they'd see how hard she'd slaved.
But instead, Martha struck around and heard Jesus out. And if we want to be his disciples, we must be willing to do the same. Even when his words cross our will.
Martha received the rebuke of her Saviour and we've witnessed how she changed. Instead of exalting herself against God, she humbled herself, and she found the truth of King Solomon's words "Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Proverbs 27 verses 5 and 6)
Especially when that friend is Jesus.
We all get confused sometimes. Most of us are quick to admit we're not perfect - as long as we don't have to talk specifics. But when someone points out a flaw in our lives, we're not nearly as calm. And we're not all that likely to laugh off the criticism either. Instead we go all stiff and huffy. Or we go ballistic, shooting off our mouths in an attempt to shoot down their theories. "That is simply not true" we say, listing the reasons. When that doesn't work, we go on the offensive, listing their faults. "Get the log out of your own eye" we shout, then run for cover.
But Martha, to her eternal credit, didn't do that when Jesus corrected her that day in the living room. Or at least, I don't think she did.
When he observed "You are worried and upset about many things ... Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her," there's no rebuttal recorded from Martha. No sputtering reply. In fact, the entire incident ends with the words of Jesus' rebuke.
The Bible doesn't tell us how Martha responded that day. But I'm convinced Martha received the rebuke of Jesus humbly and learned from it. I believe that Martha had a teachable heart - for nothing else could explain her mysterious transformation into the Martha of John 11 and 12.
In these 2 chapters we see a woman completely different from the one we last met in Luke 10 verses 38 to 42. Oh, she was still pushy, a bit impatient, and too practical for her own good. But there was also a tender vulnerability that wasn't there before. A new faith. A new kind of intimacy with Jesus that only comes when we receive and apply correction from God.
John 11 paints a picture of a woman changed by a teachable heart. First, Martha left a house filled with guests and hurried to meet Jesus. This was a woman who used to be obsessed about entertaining. What would make her leave a house full of company?
Making that even stranger is the fact that Martha was most likely the firstborn. She was accustomed to being the strong one. She'd held the family together before, and in the middle of this overwhelming grief, surely she would feel the need to hold it together again. But when Jesus arrived in Bethany, instead of holding down the fort, Martha threw aside her obligations and ran outside to meet her Master.
"Lord" Martha said to Jesus in John 11 verse 21, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Her words dripped with grief and confusion. Mary would echo her pain moments later, using the exact same words. But only Martha had something additional to say. Without break, without pause, she added "But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Faith. That's what was different. Instead of whining like a child, demanding that Jesus do things her way, Martha proclaimed her belief that Jesus could do whatever was needed. Gone was Martha's contention "Tell her!" She wasn't ordering Jesus around this time. Instead, she humbly gave Jesus the authority and the room to decide what was best.
It was to this open, teachable heart that Jesus revealed himself in all his glory; "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies ... Do you believe this?" Jesus asked Martha in John 11 verses 25 and 26.
"Yes Lord" she replied, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world" (chapter 11 verse 27).
Scholars call this declaration one of the most incredible statements of faith in scripture, for it cuts to the very essence of who Jesus was and is. And this insightful proclamation came not from contemplative, sensitive Mary, but from organised, duty-bound - but teachable - Martha.
No longer blinded by doubt and self-interest, Martha was a woman whose eyes were open. She knew who Jesus was - not a just good man or a fascinating teacher, but the very Son of God. She proclaimed him the Christ, her Messiah.
But beyond Martha' theological understanding, we see the sweetest change of all "And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside, "The Teacher is here" she said "and is asking for you."
Wait a minute! What happened to the sibling rivalry we saw in Luke 10? Gone now is the resentment. Gone is any form of competition. Martha could feel not only for herself, but also for her sister. And this time, instead of shooing Mary away from the feet of Jesus, Martha pointed her there.
Clearly, this was not the same woman we saw before in that Bethany home. The anxious, demanding Queen of Everything is gone. And in her place is a woman with a transformed heart. It's the kind of transformed heart we all desire but spend most of our lives wondering how to achieve.
I think we get a new heart from the Lord the same way Martha did - by being teachable. And being teachable, in essence, involves 3 things:
- being willing to listen
- acting on what we hear
- responding to discipline
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." Every morning for thousands of years, pious Jews have recited Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. The verse opens the Shema, their main confession of faith, which instructs the Jewish people to: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (6 verse 5)
Shema. The actual Hebrew word means "hear thou". And that's a word for us as well. The Scripture contains great truth. Powerful, life-changing words. If we're willing to Shema - if we're willing to hear.
Unfortunately, it seems God's people have always been hard of hearing. Perhaps it's hereditary. Again and again, in the Old Testament, we read about God's attempts to communicate with his wayward, hearing-impaired children:
"So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the LORD's command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country." Deuteronomy 1 verse 43
"Although the LORD sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen." 2 Chronicles 24 verse 19
"For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. yet they paid no attention." Nehemiah 9 verse 30
It's not hard to see a pattern here. Almost from the beginning of time, God's people have thwarted the Lord's transforming work by refusing to listen. By turning him out. We do the same thing when we refuse to pay attention to the voice of his Spirit in our lives.
Sometimes the refusal to hear is deliberate; we don't want to face what we think God might have to say. Sometimes I think it's almost subconscious; we live in a state of denial because we just can't handle any demands the Lord might want to make. Sometimes we conveniently let God's voice be drowned out by the confusion of our daily existence; we avoid listening to him by being too busy to read the bible or pray. It's almost like we're stubborn children who cover their ears and stomp their feet and hum loudly just to keep from hearing what their parents are trying to tell them.
Regardless of how we do it, the ultimate result is the same. when we refuse to listen to the Lord, we shut him out. We refuse him the opportunity to teach us, to transform our lives and to work through us to transform the world.
Surely that's why Jesus put such a premium on listening. Over and over Jesus' clarion call punctuates the Gospels, echoing the words of the Shema "He who has ears, let him hear." And 8 times in Revelation, Jesus instructs his Bride, the Church, to listen: "Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
And make no mistake, the Lord still speaks today. Through the Scriptures. Through our circumstances. In our heart, by the voice of the Holy Spirit. We can hear him if we give up our rebellion and our denial. We can hear his voice and when we hearken to him, he will teach us.
We who have ears .. let us listen and hear.
Just hearing God's Word isn't enough, of course. The bible makes that abundantly clear. God's transforming power in our lives is unleashed when we not only listen, but also act on what we've heard.
In fact, in our very refusal to apply God's truth to our lives, we may actually keep ourselves from hearing his voice in the future. Sin actually stops up our spiritual ears the same way excess wax plugs up our physical ones. When that happens, we may appear to hear, nodding and saying yes, yet have absolutely no comprehension. People with spiritually topped-up ears are "always learning". Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3 verse 7 "but never able to acknowledge the truth."
The sad fact is, we can grow so accustomed to God's voice that it no longer moves us. We can become like the people God warned us about through his prophet in Ezekiel 33 verses 31 and 32:
"My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice."
Sounds frighteningly familiar, doesn't it? So do the pointed words of James, the brother of Jesus, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." (James 1 verse 22)
Obedience is what we are talking about here. Either we take Jesus' words to heart and change, or we listen but disregard them. And to disregard the vice of God is worse than not listening at all. Especially if we say we love him.
Jesus doesn't mince words with us. He cuts to the heart of what really matters in each of our lives. He puts our finger on our sore spots, the sin-infected places we try so hard to hide.
"All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience ... Obey God in the thing he shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up ... God will never reveal more truth about himself until you have obeyed what you know already." Oswald Chambers
Unfortunately, it's often easier to talk about obedience than to do anything about it. We'll dissect and analyze God's truth, debate it, and philosophize about it - anything but actually let it affect our lives.
There is something deep inside each one of us that rebels against God's authority in our life. Something deep that insists on doing things our own way. That's as true now as it was when Eve bucked God in the garden, when the children of Israel ignored the prophets' warnings, and when the Jews turned Jesus over to be crucified.
And so Pilate's question to the Jews still echoes for us today: What will you do with this man? Because to know him is to hear his words and lovingly obey him, or we know not at all.
What happens when we refuse to listen to God and act on what he says?
The bible is clear that God, like a loving parent, will administer the appropriate correction in our lives "For whom the LORD loves he reproves" states Proverbs 3 verse 12 "even as a father, the son in whom he delights."
The level of the discipline we receive depends mostly on the level of our teachability.
If we are teachable, we come around quickly to obedience. As a consequence, the level of discipline is fairly minor, sometimes even painless. But if we are unteachable, if we refuse God's rebuke the level of discipline increases in severity, just like my "rearing" did. Not because God is ruthless, but because our hearts are rebellious. Our loving Father will do whatever it takes to break that rebellion before that rebellion breaks us. Even if it means giving us a time-out (like having to wait for something we've wanted), taking away our toys (like the new computer that just crashed) or allowing some affliction to come our way.
"Before I was afflicted I went astray" the psalmist writes "but now I obey your word" (Psalm 119 verse 67) Before you think God cruel, read on. This is no trembling abused child. This is a chastened son, who like me, can look back and say to his Father with full assurance: "You are good, and what you do is good: teach me your decrees" (Psalm 119 verse 68)
Jesus was direct in his rebuke of Martha. His words were gentle, but they pierced straight to the heart of her shortcomings. And Martha paid attention. She was teachable. All it took was a tender rebuke from the one she loved. Jesus didn't have to convince her. She didn't launch into a debate. She simply accepted his words, though I'm sure they were painful to hear.
Martha knew the secret every child who has ever been lovingly disciplined eventually learns. You shouldn't run away from your daddy. Though correction hurts and rebukes sting, at the end of the pain, there is great reward. Hebrews 12 verse 11 tells us "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."
Do you want to know God? Do you really desire to have an intimate, heart-to-heart relationship with him? If you do, then respond to his rebuke. Don't refuse his correction. "If you had responded to my rebuke" the Lord says in Proverbs 1 verse 23 "I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts know to you." Respond to him with a teachable heart and you'll be surprised at the holy makeover that happens in your own life.
I want that for my life. I want a holy makeover as transforming as Martha's. My deepest fear has always been that I might wake up 30 years from now and realise I haven't changed - that I still struggle with the same worthless habits, petty attitudes and hidden sin that I did way back when.
What a terrible thing that would be. But unless I have a teachable heart, such spiritual stagnation is my destiny. Bitter and fearful, I'll be encrusted with things from the past that I should have let go of long ago. And all because I refused to be taught by my heavenly Father.
The purpose of Jesus' death on the cross wasn't to provide fire insurance or an all-expenses-paid trip to heaven. He died and rose again so we could be new. So we wouldn't have to stay in our trespasses and sins, tangled up by our emotions, hurts, and past disappointments. He did it so we could be "transformed into his likeness." Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18 "No longer must be hide behind a veil of shame. Instead with "unveiled faces" we "reflect the Lord's glory ... with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord."
Don't be conformed to this world, Paul tells us in Romans 12, but be transformed. That is the result of teachability, of being open to the Lord's lesson and when we choose transformation, we choose something magnificent. The Greek word for it is metamorphoo, from which we get our word metamorphose, meaning to be transfigured or changed. It is the same word used to describe what happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Transformation. We can experience it as well.
All we have to do is be teachable.
Jesus will change us. All we have to do is lay down our old lives - and he'll make them new.
CHAPTER 10 - MARY'S EXTRAVAGANT LOVE
He looks so tired. The face she loves is lined and drawn as she meets him at the door. His forehead is troubled, but when he sees her, the Master's eyes soften. He makes his way through the crowded foyer and takes her hands.
"Mary ..."
"I'm glad you're here, Lord" she says "It's been too long." His travels have taken him away from Jerusalem lately. Away from the temple courts. Away from the rumored price upon his head. "I worry for you" Mary whispers.
Jesus smiles and slowly shakes his head. "Be anxious for nothing, dear Mary. My life is in the Father's hands." His words are tender, yet intense; as though they hold hidden truth. A shiver runs down her spine as they walk toward the living room.
It's clear this visit will be nothing like the one so many months ago. Something is wrong. And yet, somehow, Mary senses something so right. It goes against logic. She can see the Master's weariness. The men are clearly worried and befuddled. And yet Mary feels a tremor within, like a single strum upon a stringed instrument. Like hope ... or is it joy?
There is no sound, only an awaiting. As though all of heaven is standing on tiptoe listening, for the song. As if all eternity has been gathering momentum for this week ... for this journey ... for this Man.
No one can know what took place in Mary's heart when she met Jesus that day. However, the sweet sadness and the sense of destiny surrounding this final trip to Jerusalem seems evident. We know that Jesus had "set his face as flint" toward the Holy City. Toward certain arrest and certain death. Of all the people surrounding him only Mary seemed to understand, for only she seemed moved to take the appropriate action.
This story found in John 12 verses 1 to 8 is the last time the bible mentions Mary, Martha and Lazarus. (The same story told in Matthew and Luke doesn't mention this family by name, but the similarities of the narrative seem to indicate that those gospel writers were speaking of the same incident). Though religious tradition places all 3 at the cross, scripture doesn't specify their presence there. It's clear, however, this family deeply loved the Lord and he loved them. This trio from Bethany had provided something Jesus needed after leaving Nazareth 3 1/2 years before.
They had given him a home. A family. A place to lay his head.
And for these sisters and their brother and all who loved Jesus, the mood must have been confused on that last journey to Jerusalem. According to Matthew 26 verse 2, Jesus had told the disciples what awaited him: "The Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." He had kept no secrets, but still the disciples seemed unable to comprehend fully what was happening.
They knew, of course, that Jesus was a wanted man. The fact had been well publicized. After raising Lazarus from the dead, he had risen quickly to the top of the religious mafia's hit list. And no wonder. Many of the Jewish community, it seemed, had had a real change of heart (John 11 verse 45). After seeing Jesus bring their friend Lazarus back to life, they'd been convinced that Jesus was indeed something special - perhaps even the Messiah. If Jesus could do that for a dead man, think what he could do for someone still alive!
Temple attendance had declined as crowds flocked to hear the man from Galilee. Synagogue growth experts were deeply concerned. Perhaps they needed to be more seeker sensitive. Perhaps they needed to focus on a feeding programme - the Nazarene had had great luck with his potlucks. Clearly, they needed to do everything. Everything was at risk. Especially for the religious elite.
"If we let him go on like this" the chief priests and some of the Pharisees had argued before the Jewish governing authority, the Sanhedrin (chapter 11 verse 48), "everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
Loss of position. Loss of of power. Loss of influence. At this point in the game, that was a risk the Jewish leaders were not prepared to take - especially not after they had worked so hard to secure just those things.
The Sanhedrin had only recently worked an uneasy truce with the Roman procurator. Pilate, and after a rocky beginning it was finally working well. When the newly appointed Pilate first paraded Roman flags bearing the emperor's image down Jerusalem's streets, the people had rioted in a frenzy against the idolatry. In the face of such opposition, Pilate had quickly retreated into a you-don't bother-me-I won't bother-you understanding with the temple and its officials. The Sanhedrin had finally gotten the procurator right where they wanted him. Until Jesus showed up, that is.
"You know nothing at all!" Caiaphas, the high priest, erupted during the meeting. Like most members of the Sadducee sect, he was not known for his tack nor his kindness. In his mind, he was thinking strategically, hoping to push the situation to its logical conclusion. "You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." (chapter 11 verses 49 and 50)
But it was Caiaphas who hadn't a clue. Unbeknownst to him, he had just "prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation." John writes in verses 51 and 52 "and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one."
So while the religious establishment plotted Jesus' downfall. God's plan to bring all humanity back to him was gathering speed. Heaven's gates began to open, ready to receive all who would come in through Jesus Christ the Son.
Eternity's song began to play. The Lamb "slain from the creation of the world" (Revelation 13 verse 8) was about to die so you and I could know God.
Mary alone seemed to hear the echoes of that music. Only she seemed ready to respond to the extravagance of Jesus' love.
When Mary anointed Jesus at the banquet given in his honour, she gave her very best. In fact, she may have laid down her very future when she poured the perfume on his feet. For that jar of perfume - which Matthew and Mark describe as an alabaster jar, broken in order to be opened - may have very well held every hope and dream she'd ever had.
To be married ranked high on every Jewish maiden's wish list. Their culture, even their religion, made marriage and especially childbirth the highest form of honour. To be barren was a disgrace. But to be unmarried ... well, that truly was a shame.
By age 12, most young Jewish women had been promised in marriage, if they weren't already married. Fathers usually arranged the unions, though the girls were given a say in the matter. Several factors were involved. One was the bride's price, the compensation paid to the bride's father by the groom. But the bride was often expected to bring something of value to the union as well.
When both sides agreed, the betrothal - the engagement part of the ceremony - was performed. An ornate document called the ketubah was signed by the future bride and groom, and the ceremony was sealed by a kiss. From that moment on, the couple were legally bound to wed, though the actual wedding ceremony might not take place for several years. The agreement could be dissolved only by death or by divorce, the option considered by Joseph before being reassured by an angel.
As far as we know, Mary never had the opportunity to marry. Because she and Lazarus lived with Martha, it appears that their parents must have died several years before. The fact that it was called Martha's house is interesting as well, for the family estate usually went to a son. Some commentaries speculate Martha may have been married and widowed, the house an inheritance from her husband.
But what did Mary have? With no father to arrange her marriage, time was ticking away. The alabaster jar of perfume may have been a part, if not all, of Mary's dowry. Worth more than 300 denarii, nearly a year's wages, this was no ordinary perfume. Though unromantic by name, nard was rare, made from the aromatic oil extracted from the root of a plant grown mainly in India. It had to be imported. No perfume today can even compare in worth - approximately 30,000 dollars a bottle.
Alabaster, on the other hand, was a common container in the Near East. The snowy gypsum shone smooth and translucent when polished. Easily carved, it formed ornate jars, boxes, vases and flasks. Sometimes marble containers were labeled alabastra as well. But the origin and type of the container wasn't really significant. It still isn't.
What mattered most - what matters still today - is the treasure the container holds. And the treasure Mary poured out that day was more than an expensive perfume. She was pouring out her very life in love and sacrificial service.
Unfortunately not everyone present had Mary's kind of heart.
What a waste. What an extravagant, exorbitant, unnecessary display of emotion. Why a whole bottle when a few drops would have been more than adequate? Why break the jar when it could have easily been poured? And why the hair? The whole scene was messy, not at all proper or orderly. As Mary caressed the Master's feet, the perfume hung pungent in the air, her sobs the only sound breaking the stunned silence.
Why doesn't he tell her to stop? Judas thought as he watched the woman's shameful abandon. He turned away from the scene perturbed. He distrusted all forms of sentiment, anything that distracted from the cause of overthrowing the Romans and establishing the long-awaited kingdom. Following the Nazarene had been a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows for Judas, quite unsettling for a focused fellow like himself.
But Judas had hitched his wagon to a star and he was committed to the ride, no matter how rocky it got. It hadn't been easy. Certainly the Saviour would establish his kingdom soon. Yet every time the crowds tried to crown Jesus king, he refused, ducking the opportunity.
Worst of all, the offerings had started to dry up. Jesus wasn't nearly as popular as before, judging by the weight of the money bag Judas wore around his waist. It was getting more and more difficult to embezzle funds. Of course, that was such an ugly term. Judas preferred to call it "compensation for services rendered."
If something doesn't change fast, Judas thought, I may have to consider switching careers.
He wasn't like the rest of the disciples. The only non-Galilean of the group, this city boy from Kerioth was determined to make his mark on the world. But making a mark required money. Money he didn't have.
"Hey Judas" one of the disciples leaned over and whispered. "How much do you think a pint of pure nard goes for these days?"
Pure nard. Judas hadn't recognized the fragrance. Why it was worse than he'd thought. The world's most expensive perfume - someone had to say something. "Ahem ... excuse me, Master?" he interjected. Judas pointed at the woman and her broken flask. "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." A few disciples around him murmured agreement.
"Leave her alone" Jesus replied. His eyes bored through Judas is if looking into his soul. Judas shifted uncomfortably. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial" Jesus continued. "You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."
Judas looked to the other disciples for support. But they diverted their eyes looking away, around, anywhere but Judas or the Master.
Now Judas swallowed as he felt things shift and solidify inside him. Instead of piercing his heart, Jesus' words had somehow cemented the deal. Suddenly everything seemed crystal clear to him. Nothing would ever change. All this talk about dying ... there was no kingdom to come. The whole thing had been a farce. So much for being part of a new Jewish parliament. The gig was up.
Unless ...
The story of Jesus' anointing is recounted in all 4 gospels, as is that of Judas' betrayal. Whether or not Judas' thought process happened as I've speculated, the result was the same. Matthew and Mark both place Judas' dark turn of heart as happening immediately after Mary's extravagant act of love.
"Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over." (Mark 14 verses 10 and 11)
Only Matthew highlights the amount for which Judas sold Jesus - 30 pieces of silver, the exact amount prophesied 400 years before in Zechariah11 verses 12 and 13. It was the standard price paid for a slave in Exodus 21 verse 32 - approximately 120 denarii.
Less than half the amount of money Mary had so lavishly spilled on Jesus' feet.
Life has a way of bringing to the surface who we really are, the deep hidden motivations of our heart. "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" Jesus said in Matthew 12 verses 34 and 35. "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."
It certainly happened in Judas. But it happened in Mary as well. While the situation caused the evil dormant within Judas to rise to the surface, it was the same instance that brought something beautiful up from the depths of the maiden from Bethany.
From all appearances, Mary seems to have been contemplative by nature. And while spiritual intuitiveness made her a wonderful worshipper, it also made her susceptible to despair. Instead of running to meet Jesus after Lazarus died, if you remember, she remained in the house. Downcast and alone amid the crowd of friends, she had sunk deeper and deeper into her grief, and even the news of Jesus' coming had not been able to lift her sorrow.
But - thank God! - Jesus meets us where we are. He comes into those dark, hidden corners of our lives, and if we're willing, he shines the sweet spotlight of heaven, his precious Holy Spirit. If we allow him, he offers to clean out our personalities, tempering them through the Holy Spirit so we won't fall to the strong sides of our weaknesses and the weak sides of our strengths.
And that, as far as we can tell, is what happened to Mary. even though she sensed, with her keen intuitiveness, the graveness of her Lord's situation, this time she did not collapse. Instead of just sitting passively and listening to the Saviour, instead of being overwhelmed by grief, this time Mary responded. She gave herself to worship to the One who had given so much to her and her family.
Not so with Judas, apparently. Though Jesus knew the disciple's weaknesses, he had given Judas chance after chance in the 3 years they had travelled together. According to John 13 verse 29, Jesus had even made the man treasurer of the group.
"Sometimes", William Barclay writes in The Gospel of John "the best way to reclaim someone who is on the wrong path is to treat him not with suspicion but with trust; not as if we expected the worst, but as if we expected the best." That's exactly what Jesus had done with Judas. But Judas had remained unchanged.
Imagine spending 3 years of your life with the Messiah yet walking away more or less the same - or even worse than when you started. Judas did just that. It can happen to any of us if we don't settle, once and for all, the question of Christ's lordship in our lives.
Until we determine whom we will serve, we run the risk of developing a Judas heart instead of a heart of sacrificial love. For whenever our interests conflict with his interests, we'll be tempted to sell Christ off as a slave to the highest bidder, rather than spend out all to anoint his feet.
"To know whom you worship" says Theodore Parker "let me see you in your shop, let me hear you in your trade, let me know how you rent your houses, how you get your money, how you kept it and how you spent it."
Jesus says basically the same thing in Matthew 6 verse 21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Mary's treasure was not in her trousseau. Her hope didn't lie in what she could get from Jesus. Her joy lay in what she could give.
Judas, on the other hand, was after all he could get. That is the first difference between a love that is extravagant and a heart that is mean and tight fisted.
Consider the following:
Mary had a heart of gratitude
Her brother had been raised from the dead. The Messiah had come and he'd called her friend. What greater honour - what greater joy - than to give her all to the One who had given her so very much.
Judas had a heart of greed
Things weren't turning out the way he'd planned. One of Westcott's Laws of Temptations, quoted by William Barclay, is that temptation "comes through that for which we are naturally fitted." Our strength can be our undoing. And Judas' strength was his ambition, his focus, and his commitment to getting ahead. it was also, of course, his greatest weakness. It caused Judas to care more about the political situation and his own bank account than the condition of his heart.
Greed is a tyrant. As women, we can fall prey to its lies as easily as men. "The leech has two daughters" Proverbs 30 verse 15 says, "Give! Give! they cry". A greedy heart is never satisfied. It never has enough.
"But godliness with contentment is great gain" 1 Timothy 6 verse 6
Discontentment can creep in so easily, making us unsatisfied with what we have. It isn't long before the discontentment hardens into determination to get what we deserve, no matter the cost. But the cost is often extremely high.
"Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith" Paul warns Timothy in verse 19, "and pierced themselves with many griefs."
The secret to happiness lies not in getting what you want, but in wanting what you have. Judas came to his senses too late. His greed caused him to do the unimaginable - to betray a friend. to betray the Son of God. But the grief that soon replaced the greed could not heal his soul. Nor his mind. After trying to give the money back, Judas went out and hung himself, his body buried in a field bought by Jesus' blood.
Without gratefulness, we are prone to the same hardness of heart and darkness of mind that drove Judas' treachery. If we refuse to recognize the immensity of God's grace and its incredible cost on Jesus' part, sooner or later, we will take it for granted. And once we begin to presume on God's grace, we begin to abuse God's grace - trampling it under our careless feet in a maddening rush for yet another blessing.
Without gratitude we become like the people Romans 1 verse 21 describes "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." Dark minds do dark things. Look at Judas.
How sad that it is possible to know God but never truly experience God. If we want intimacy with God, we must nurture a grateful heart that glorifies Jesus.
Consider the following additional differences between the hearts of Mary and Judas. Which kind of heart do you have? Is it extravagant with gratitude or tightfisted with greed?
- Mary came with abandon
- Judas came with an agenda
- Mary heard what Jesus was saying - and she responded
- Judas heard but did not understand
- Mary held nothing back
- Judas gave nothing up
Instead of being shamed by Mary's extravagance, Judas became critical of what she gave. His greed warped his perception. "If we find ourselves becoming critical of other people" Barclay says, "we should stop examining them and start examining ourselves."
Extravagant love is still rarely understood. "Don't you think you're going a little overboard with this 'God stuff'?" a friend may ask. "Why spend so much time in prayer? After all, God knows your heart" another may reason.
But true love always costs the giver something. Otherwise, the giving remains only a philanthropic contribution. At best, kind. At worst, self-serving. In the light of Mary's total abandon, halfway love is truly the "least" we can do.
Do we love Jesus the who-o-o-le world? Or only when it's convenient?
Jesus laid down his life for you and me. He didn't have to do it. He could have spoken the word and 10,000 angels would have flown to his rescue. But instead, he chose not to use his own power. He humbled himself and chose the way of sacrificial death. And there was never a hint of selfishness in his sacrifice - no self-interest, not a hint of mixed of mixed motives.
Why did he do it? He did it out of love - extravagant, lavish, life-changing love.
The apostle John writes in 1 John 3 verse 1, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" What a wonderful picture - the lavish love of God. Love so wonderfully extravagant that, like a thick rich hand cream, it must be spread around. So much love that the simple and the ordinary aren't enough.
Mary knew a little bit about that kind of love. So do a lot of Christians I know. They just give and give of themselves without seeming to tire. Compassion and service flow uninterrupted from their lives.
Sure they get weary. Sometimes they feel moody - but not for long. In fact, it seems the more they freely give, the more energized they feel.
Mary not only loved Jesus, she did something about it. And what she did and how she did it point toward the secret for more fully loving God and loving people.
Mary loved with her whole heart
She didn't hold anything back. Instead, in sweet abandon, she poured everything she had into showing her love for Jesus.
Do you ever feel yourself holding back part of your life, wondering how much you can give and still have something left? Like Mary, you feel the call to total abandonment, but surrender like that makes you afraid. If you've felt that way, you're not alone. I think every one of us comes to a crossroads in our relationship with God where we're faced with the dilemma of total or partial surrender.
When Mary broke the bottle and poured the ointment, Mary didn't stop herself to count the cost or calculate how much of the ointment was actually needed. She spilled it all out. Lavishly. Extravagantly. Until her treasure ran down over Jesus' feet and soaked into the floor.
Then she did something I find disconcerting. She unbound her headpiece and wiped Jesus' feet with her hair. By that act, she laid down her glory and in essence, stood naked before her Lord. A woman's hair was her glory, her identity, her ultimate sign of femininity, an intimate gift meant only for her husband. But for Mary, nothing was too extravagant for Jesus, she was even willing to risk her reputation. Like a lover before her beloved, she made herself vulnerable and fragile, open for rejection or rebuke.
But neither came. Only the tender, silent approval of a Bridegroom for his bride. Jesus watched as Mary dried his feet, and I'm sure there were tears in his eyes.
The extravagance might be misunderstood by the others, but not by the one that she loved. "She has done a beautiful thing for me," Jesus said in the face of his disciples' disapproval.
Leave her alone. She belongs to me.
Judas offered Jesus a single kiss. The kiss of betrayal. How that must have hurt the heart of God. All the time they'd spent together, all the teaching, all the love - and then to be rejected that way. Jesus knew it was coming, of course, but even he seemed surprised by the chosen signal that night in Gethsemane. Can't you hear the pain in Luke 22 verse 48 when Jesus asks, "Judas are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"
Unlike Judas' stingy, mocking gesture, the loving attention Mary lavished upon the Saviour's feet had nothing to do with manipulation or control. When Jesus foretold his death, instead of rebuking him as Peter did - "Lord, this will never be" - Mary prepared her Saviour; she made ready the way of the Lord. And instead of sinking into depression, contemplative Mary made room for the sovereign will of God as she anointed the Lover of her soul for burial.
"I tell you the truth" Jesus said in Mark 14 verse 9, "wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
And still the story is told - the story of a woman who loved so much she gave up just about everything. The sweet scene of Mary's extravagant sacrifice still lingers today.
We sense the precious aroma of extravagant love rising once more to heaven each time one of God's children gives his or her everything to the One who gave his all.
CHAPTER 11 - BALANCING WORK AND WORSHIP
Luke placed the story of Mary and Martha between 2 famous passages: the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10 verses 30 to 37) and Christ's teaching on the Lord's Prayer (chapter 11 verses 1 to 4). One deal with our relationship with people. The other deals with our relationship with God. One teaches us how to serve. The other teaches us how to pray. One breaks down the wall that divides culture. The other breaks down the wall that divides God and humanity.
In Luke's story of 2 women and 1 Saviour we find the fulcurm, the pivot point of our spiritual teetertotters - the secret of balancing the practical with the spiritual and duties with devotion. Without a fulcrum, these stories are 2 separate wooden planks. Both are important. Both are true. But when we place the fundamental truths of service and prayer on the pivot point of practicality - when we get down to the company's-here-and-what-do-I-do? application, the fun really begins.
Jesus was the most balanced individual the world has ever known. In fact, that is part of why he came - to show us how to manage the tricky balance between work and worship, between what we do and what we are.
"What must I do to inherit eternal life?" an expert in the law asked after cornering Jesus one day (chapter 10 verse 25). What can I do to ensure "safe passage" to heaven?
A good question to ask. But Jesus looked into the legal expert's heart and saw he was more interested in debates than in answers, more concerned about theory than practice. So Jesus turned the question around and let the "expert" give his opinion.
"What is written in the Law?" Jesus asked. "How do you read it?"
I can almost hear the lawyer's voice deepen as he gathered his robes around him and assumed the proper posture for quoting scripture. Everyone stopped what he or she was doing. Babies quit fussing. Kids stopped chasing butterflies. For they recognised the familiar portion of the Torah as it thundered from the scholar's mouth: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;" and "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Luke 10 verse 27)
The final sentence drifted upon the afternoon air, the expert's voice trailing off as he lifted one hand toward heaven for emphasis. Everyone was silent. The crowd waited, spellbound, their eyes shifting from the legal expert to Jesus. What would the itinerant rabbi say in the face of such learning and wisdom?
I can almost see Jesus smile and nod as he said, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live."
End of discussion. The expert gets an A+. Next question?
You see, loving the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself was and is the very thing God has always wanted us to do - it's a perfect picture of the perfectly balanced life. These 2 verses sum up all of the Old Testament and the New Testament combined.
God wants us to love him. Really love him.
And he wants us to love each other. Really love each other. That's how we can know we belong to him - if we have love one for another (John 13 verse 35).
Love for God. Love for others. Worship and service. Though love for God comes first, the 2 can't be separated. One flows from the other - and back again. That's what it means to live a balanced life, a Christlike life.
But the legal expert didn't seem to get it. And if he did, he wasn't willing to give up. This rabble-rouser from Nazareth had come out of the exchange looking better than he did. So, wanting "to justify himself" the man challenged Jesus "And who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10 verse 29).
Aha, the lawyer must have thought to himself, I've got him now. That very question had stumped religious scholars for centuries. Of course, when you make God your exclusive property and call anyone who wasn't born a Jew a goy - or Gentile dog - your list of acceptable neighbours shrinks dramatically.
When you're not really interested in truth and you just want a lively conversation, Jesus is definitely the wrong person to come to. For he is Truth. And when you knock, he opens the door. When you seek he reveals. And when you ask, sometimes you get a answer you don't want to hear. This poor old lawyer certainly did.
What he got was a bad case of the bumpsies - as Jesus brought his legalistic and superspiritual outlook thumping back down to earth with a practical picture of what loving your neighbour looks like.
Jesus doesn't give us bumpsies to watch us fly. He counteracts our off-kilter beliefs and lifestyles for one purpose - to bring us back into balance. But for the legal expert, Jesus' approach had to have been jarring. After all, the story Jesus told challenged some long-cherished beliefs, and it shook his Jewish sense of religious superiority, dismantling the excuses he'd used not to get involved with those lesser than himself.
The hero of the story Jesus told wasn't Moses or Joshua. He wasn't a Jew at all - not a real one anyway. He was one of those despised half-breed Samaritans who lived up north. And Jesus didn't stop there. He not only glorified the Samaritan by calling him "good" but he also made an unflattering comparison between that man's generosity and the hypocrisy of the Jews who'd walked by the bleeding, broken man on their way to Jerusalem and church.
The expert probably squirmed along with the rest of the religious elite in the crowd. Maybe the story brought to mind the ragged blind man he'd passed on the way to the debate. "Alms! Alms for the poor" he'd cried. But the religious exprt was out of change and besides, he'd given at the temple.
Jesus was hitting pretty close to home. Stepping on the toes of people for whom the sandals fit all too well.
He has a way of doing that, you know - of highlighting discrepancies we'd rather ignore. And while we may be more comfortable with our little rearendskis planted on one end or the other, balancing our life is exactly what Jesus calls us to do.
Love the Lord your God ... love your neighbour as yourself.
Love God? No problem! some of us think. I'm really good at the spiritual side of my walk. You might even consider me an expert. Kumbayah, my Lord, kumbayah ... And so there we stay, sitting on one side of our teetertotter, happy to be worshipping in the Lord's presence.
But there is more - more to this balanced Christian walk than only worship. Love people? Sure I do! Others say of us say to ourselves as we sit on the other end of the teetertotter. I love serving people. I'm definitely a Martha. Why just the other day ... And so we recite our service record and list our sacrificial accomplishments, glad to be helping the Lord.
But there is more to this balanced Christian walk than only serving.
Jesus directs us to get off our religious duffs and do the hard but rewarding work of balancing our Christianity, spending adequate amounts of our lives both in the Living Room and the Kitchen, worshiping and serving, loving God and loving people.
"The holy is here within us, waiting to pour out of us and ... it's much more accessible than we ever would have thought. It's grace with blisters; it's redemption in overdrive." Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat
While I have been justified by faith alone - saved not by my works but because of Christ's sacrifice - I must partner with the Lor din the process of being sanctified, that is, being made more like him. I must allow his holiness to affect the way I live and what I do.
God provides the holy and I provide the sweat. That's part of what it means to balance work and worship. It's what we were made for.
Though we were created for worship, first and foremost, we were also "created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2 verse 10). We were created for the intimate fellowship of the Lord's Prayer but also entrusted with the ministry of the Good Samaritan.
Created to say yet to the calls of both duty and devotion.
We were created to say an enthusiastic yes to the call of God in our lives - both his call to devotion and his call to service. Saying yes to him releases his power and his joy to our souls. It's what gives us the strength and the energy to do what he wants us to do.
At the same time, it's important to remember that saying yes to God doesn't mean saying yes to everything! When our lives are overbooked, it's easy for us to become spiritually dry and undernourished. We can barely hear God's voice above the busy noise, let alone say yet to what he is asking. In this case, we do need to learn how to say no, but only so we are able to say yes to God when he wants to give us an assignment.
"It's a great release to know that the secret to 'doing it all' is not necessarily doing it all" Jill Briscoe writes in her excellent book Renewal on the Run, "but rather discovering which part of the "all" he has give us to do and doing all of that."
Being balanced is not so much a matter of staying in perfect equilibrium as it is a matter of finding the right rhythm for our lives.
The balance between Living Room Intimacy and Kitchen Service more often resembles the up-and-down, back-and-forth motion of the teetertotter than it does that fleeting moment of synchronicity.
In Hebrew the word Sabbath literally means "a ceasing of labour". It refers specifically to a day of the week set aside for rest and for worship.
The Jews have always observed the Sabbath from sundown on Fridays until sundown on Saturdays. We Christians set aside Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, for our Sabbath. But the chosen day is not as important as the chosen purpose - to bring balance and perspective to our work-weary lives on a weekly basis.
"If you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honourable" says the prophet Isaiah "and if you honour it by not going your own way ... then you will find your joy in the Lord." (Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14) Unfortunately the Sabbath is being squeezed out by our nonstop culture, and that poses a big balance problem in the lives of many Christians.
In the first place, many of us find it hard to resist the business-as-usual mentality that's become the norm.
Second (and partly as a result), many people find themselves in a position of having to work on the Lord's Day.
But despite all the distractions, real and imagined, I really believe that if we want balance in our lives we must set out hearts toward obeying the fourth commandment (Exodus 20 verse 8). The specifics of what that means for you and your family will be between you and God. But I believe that Sabbath-keeping as God ordained it must involve 3 things.
First the Sabbath needs to be different, set apart; it has to contrast noticeably with the other 6 days.
Second, the Sabbath should be a day of devotion. It's meant to be spent in the Living Room, Kitchen duties can wait. This is a time to focus our hearts and our minds on God alone.
Finally, the Sabbath should be at least partially a family day - a time spent not only with our biological families, but also with the family of faith gathered for corporate worship and fellowship. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing." Paul wrote to the church in Hebrews 10 verse 25 "but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
How do these priorities translate into actual practice? Here are the Sabbath guidelines Elizabeth Stalcup and her family have decided on: "Our family attends church services on Sunday morning, no matter how tired or frazzled we feel, unless we are ill. We don't do laundry, clean house, go shopping, or cook elaborate meals. We take walks, read the bible, visit with friends, nap or putter in the garden."
This kind of Sabbath keeping requires a certain amount of discipline. Elizabeth says "God gave us the Sabbath because he loves us."
The practice of keeping the Sabbath is not the only God-ordained balancing principle that seems to be lost these days. Another one, is the practice of hospitality - opening up our arms to welcome others into our lives.
"Christian women just don't have a choice about whether or not they'll be hospitable" says Rachael Crabb, author of The Personal Touch. "It's a biblical command. Scripture tells us that in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves. We're called to be givers instead."
Over and over in the bible, we're encouraged to show hospitality by reaching out and giving of ourselves to others, welcoming them into our lives. We are given the example of Abraham, who entertained 3 holy visitors without knowing who they were. Jesus exhorted us to entertain those who can't pay us back (Luke 14 verses 12 to 14). Paul lists hospitality as a requirement for office in the church (1 Timothy 3 verse 2) and encourages all of us to "practice hospitality" in Romans 12 verse 13. Paul adds the injunction to do it "without grumbling" (1 Peter 4 verse 9).
How easy it is to get caught up in our busy lives that we forget the reason Jesus came and the purpose for which we were called.
"What good is it" James asks "if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" Suppose someone is without clothes and daily food, the brother of Jesus ponders in James 2 verses 14 to 17. "If one of you says to him, 'God I wish you well; keep warm and well fed' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?' James repeats the question, then concludes: "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
Hospitality isn't an option for anyone who wants to say yes to Christ. It's part of his call to us, though it may be hard to work into our busy lives.
In order to live the balanced life God desires, we may need to give more weight to the side we feel weakest in.
There are times when we have to make a concentrated effort to lean into our area of weakness, to give more weight to the area of intimacy or service that doesn't come easily for us.
That's what Martha did. She leaned away from the comfort of her Kitchen and shifted the weight of her attention toward the Living Room. Mary did the same thing when she left her place at the Lord's feet and leaned toward the active service of anointing her Lord.
So how do we balance work and worship? All of the things we've talked about - keeping an attitude of yes, finding a rhythm, leaning toward our weaknesses - can help keep our teetertotters balanced. But it all comes right back to the same pivotal reality that changed the lives of Mary and Martha of Bethany.
The secret of balancing worship and work, devotion and service, love of God and love of people is maintaining our connection to Jesus Christ. Our relationship with him is the fulcrum, the anchor, the steadying point that makes balance possible in the first place. And the deeper that relationship goes, the more stable the balance will be.
If we want to live a balanced life, we must concentrate on the underpinnings of that life. Jesus did. He was in constant communion with his Father. we must do the same if we hope to sail successfully through life. And we can! - because the cross purchased the same privilege Christ enjoyed: an intimate one-on-one relationship with God.
As we spend time in the Living Room, walking and talking with him, we fill the hulls of our lives with the rich things of God. And out of that abundance will come both a steadfastness in the midst of storms and a surplus we can share with others.
We'll be loving God and loving our neighbour. Spending time in the Lord' Prayer and playing the Good Samaritan. Keeping the Sabbath. Practicing hospitality.
We'll be living in the rhythm, but with a deep solid anchor. Work will become worshipful. Worship will be a delight.
Chapter 12 - Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World
A Mary heart. A Martha world. Can the 2 parts of me ever come together? Will I ever find the pure, exquisite joy of being centered in Christ alone? Is it really possible to live a balanced life of Living Room Intimacy and Kitchen Service?
Though I haven't "obtained all this, or have already been made perfect" like Paul, I, too, want to "press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" (Philippians 3 verse 12). I haven't arrived but I know where I'm headed.
A product requires a process. The same is true of our Christian walk. Becoming like Jesus requires a process as well.
Christianity is a journey not a destination.
"I thought it had been an easy thing to be a Christian" Samuel Rutherford wrote several centuries ago, "but oh, the windings, the turnings, the ups and the downs that he has led me through." It is the twisting tests of life that produce character and faithfulness to God. Rutherford concludes.
It takes a process to produce a product - and that applies to sanctified Christians as well as diamonds, automobiles and houses. It's certainly true of having a Mary heart in a Martha world. If we want to be like Jesus, we won't be able to escape the refining process.
But we can be "confident of this" Paul writes in Philippians 1 verse 6 "that he who began a good work in (us) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
This doesn't mean we'll always understand his methods. It is a mystery to me how God can take something as imperfect as my life and turn it into an agent for his glory.
"For me one of the greatest frustrations of walking through the "dailiness" of my life as a Christian is that I don't always get to see how the bits and pieces of who I am fit into the big picture of God's plan. It's tempting at times to see my life as a meal here, a meeting there, a carpool, a phone call, a sack of groceries - all disjointed fragments of mothering in particular.
When God Shines Through by Claire Cloninger
Claire concludes that it is those very scattered pieces that God uses to make a kaleidoscope. Instead of waiting for us to arrive, God shines the Light of Christ through the fragments we place in his hands, transforming "the disorder into beauty and symmetry", splashing the colours of our brokenness like fireworks across the sky.
The process of staying surrendered and letting Christ work in you is not as passive as that might sound.
Yes the Lord has gone out of his way to make us his own. Yes, he died and rose again. he sent the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us. He's invested his own life to make us holy, and he'll take what we offer him and make it into something good. But we're still expected to partner in the process.
When I settle down enough to listen, when I calm my heart to hear his voice, the Saviour reassures me, "Yes your salvation is my work. It is finished. I did it on the cross. But now I want to partner with you in living it out."
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1 verses 2 to 4
Pure joy? The churches he addressed were undergoing tremendous persecution. After the death of one of the first deacons, Stephen, many Christians had fled Jerusalem and spread throughout Judea and Samaria (Acts 8 verse 1), many of them joining Jewish communities around the Mediterranean (Acts 11 verses 19 to 20). But instead of being welcomed by their Jewish kinsmen, they were rejected and persecuted - denied protection by the Jews, exploited by the Gentiles, robbed of possessions hauled into court, treated worse than slaves. And it was to these lonely, hurting outcasts that James directed those unbelievable words: "Consider it pure joy" - or according to the New English Bible, "Count yourselves supremely happy."
But what was James really saying to those hurting Christians? He was telling them to look beyond the painful surface of what was happening to what God was doing in the midst of it all. He wanted them to see that the trials - the peirasmos - they were undergoing weren't haphazard. The testing of their faith had a purpose. Their trials were directed toward a glorious end. it would all be worth it if they would only persevere.
The trouble of course, is that most of the time we'd rather not persevere. we all want a testimony but we'd rather skip the test that gives us one. we all want a product. But we'd rather skip the process.
When it comes to our spiritual lives, a lot of us are all-or-nothing people. If we aren't automatically perfect, we just give up. When Christlike virtues like patience and kindness seem hard to come by, we abandon our character development and decide holiness is for those better equipped. But when we give up, we're giving up on our part of the partnership. Perseverance is one of our responsibilities in this process of being changed.
And what a change it will be! The rewards of perseverance James outlines for us are so much more than mere words. He tells us that the glorious result of perseverance will make us "mature and complete, not lacking in anything." The word he uses for mature is telios, which describes a dynamic maturity, a personality that has reached its full development. And when James says we'll be complete, the word holokleros means we'll be "entire, perfect in every part." It was the word used to describe the condition of the high priest and the animal sacrifice given every year. It meant they were free of any disqualifying or disfiguring blemish." Perseverance makes us ready to be the living sacrifices Paul describes in Romans 12 verse 1 as "holy and pleasing to God."
God uses the pressure of trials to perfect our lives. He fashions facets in humble stone to reflect his glory. The last phrase in James 1 verse 4 echoes through my heart with incredible hope. When we persevere, we become mature and complete "not lacking anything". Leipos medeis. We suffer no deficiency. We have everything we need.
Of course, there will still be areas in our lives where we struggle. There will still be battles, and we'll lose a few now and then. But if we're willing to persevere in the process, one day - with Christ beside us - we'll win the war.
John 12 verses 1 to 3 sketches a portrait of 2 women at rest. At rest with their Saviour. At rest with themselves.
Martha is still serving, but she does it with an attentive heart. Rather than barricading herself in the Kitchen, she serves in the Living Room, within the presence of her Lord. The busy servant has become a focused student as Martha drinks in his every word.
Mary may have started the evening sitting at the feet of Jesus, but rather than passively listening, she gives all that she has. She breaks open her treasure, spilling it out in prophetic ministry to Christ. With loving service, she prepares the Master for burial and the end of his sojourn on earth. The contemplative student has become an effective servant as Mary shows her love through extravagant deed.
It takes a process to produce a product and a process takes time. But never forget, Christ's beloved, this process is divine. God is right beside you! He is the one who's in charge. All he asks is that you partner with him and surrender to what he is doing in your life.
"Therefore we do not lose heart" Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4 verses 16 and 17. "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
From glory to glory, he's changing us.
So don't worry that you haven't arrived, my dear sister. Just don't give up on the process. Don't miss the journey.
For it will be glorious! It will be worth it all.
A Prayer for the Journey
O Christ, do not give me tasks equal to my powers,
but give me powers equal to my tasks,
for I want to be stretched by things too great for me,
I want to grow through the greatness of my tasks,
but I shall need your help for the growing.
E Stanley Jones
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