Tag Archives: Mary

The Martha and Mary Way

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THE MARTHA AND MARY WAY

“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.’

“When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him…

“…When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ He asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied. Jesus wept.” John 11:28-30; 32-35 NIV.

Martha…Mary…two sisters, but two completely different personalities. Martha was the practical one. She loved and served and worshipped with her mind and with her hands. Her joy was to prepare the tastiest meal she could for her Lord and His disciples. She wanted Mary to be like her. She had to learn that she could not force Mary into her mould. Her way of worshipping Jesus was acceptable for her but nor for Mary.

Jesus met her where she was, questioning, reasoning, trying to understand. He spoke to her; He reassured her; He gave her one of the most profound promises in all of Scripture to cling to…’I AM the resurrection and the life.’ Her mind wrestled with His words. In a short while she would understand; her doubts and questions would be laid to rest and she would worship Him again, with greater confidence and freedom because He would show her, once again who He really was. Her worship was expressed in thoughts of her mind and the loving service of her hands.

Mary was the quiet one, content to sit at His feet and listen, to drink in His presence, if not the meaning of every word. Mary worshipped with her heart; she expressed her worship with her emotions. She would not speak — she would weep.  She would wash His feet with her tears and anoint Him with her costliest treasure. She would be there, taking the lowliest place just to be near Him.

When He did not come — and their brother slipped away from them into a place where they could not reach him — they felt their grief in their own unique way. Their rebuke may have been the same but their words were the expression of who they really were inside.

Mary’s tears were her words. She poured out her disillusionment, her disappointment, her distress, her doubts and her brokenness in a torrent of salty anguish — and Jesus heard her heart. He understood and He wept with her; not tears of distress over the death of her brother, or tears of anger over what sin had done, but simply tears of understanding mingling with her tears — speaking to her, ‘Mary, I feel your pain,’ in wet wordlessness.

How precious is the reassurance that Jesus will meet us where we are! Some are Martha-people, expressing our worship in the activity of our minds and the work of our hands. We feel the closest to Him and understand His heart the best when we are doing something to give away His love to someone who has less, is less than we are. He is there when we wipe the tears of one who sorrows. He is there when we fill a growling belly or cover a shivering body with a blanket. We love and serve with His hands.

Some are Mary-people, content to sit at His feet, to love and be loved by being with Him, by revelling in His presence in the beauty of a sunset or the sound of rushing water. Like the lost sheep whom the shepherd carried home on his shoulder, we rest in the joy of being found, content to know that we are loved and cherished enough for the shepherd to give His life for us. We worship with our hearts, with our emotions and our tears.

No matter whether you are a Martha or a Mary, He knows who you are and where you are and meets you there. The question is: Are you ready to let Him meet you and listen to your heart?

It All Depends On Attitude

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IT ALL DEPENDS ON ATTITUDE

“As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed Him and made Him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word He said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them, ‘Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend a hand.’

“The Master said, ‘Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary had chosen it — it’s the main course and won’t be taken from her.'” Luke 10.38-42 (The Message).

How many sermons have you heard on this story!? Martha, the busy one; Mary, the “spiritual” one, or something like that!

But let’s look at it from a slightly different perspective. Martha was working hard to prepare a meal for her guests — highly commendable because they had to eat. Mary was sitting in the living room among the men, listening to Jesus — also highly commendable because she was fascinated and enthralled by this man. Which of them was in the wrong, Martha because she should also have been listening to Jesus, or Mary because she should have been helping Martha prepare the meal?

We are looking at two different people with two different perspectives, values and gifts. Martha was obviously a task-orientated person while Mary was more contemplative and less practically-minded. Did Jesus rebuke Martha for working in the kitchen instead of being with Him? Did He commend Mary for choosing to abandon her sister to sit and listen to Him? It almost sounds like it, doesn’t it? But it would be out of character with Jesus to play one person against another.

I want to suggest that there was something deeper than that. Had I been Martha, and had I thought that Jesus was putting me down for wanting to do my best for Him, I would have been upset and offended with Him. But that was not His intention.

Obviously Martha derived her pleasure from serving. It was her spiritual gift, if you like. But she was fed up with Mary for not doing with her what brought her satisfaction. She wanted Mary to be like her and to do what she did. Had Martha done her work in the kitchen with as much joy as Mary had by listening to Jesus, she would have been worshipping just as much as Mary was.

Was Jesus saying that what Martha was doing was less important than what Mary was doing? It almost seems like it but that would contradict what Scripture teaches. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV).

That’s pretty ordinary, isn’t it? What about this one? “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for human masters.” Colossians 3:23 (NIV).

It was not what Martha was doing that was wrong; it was her attitude that spoiled what she was doing. We also struggle with this problem — we either become resentful of people when they don’t help us with what we are doing “for the Lord” or we want to do what we are not gifted to do because there’s more limelight and more accolades that accompany someone else’s gift.

Was Jesus saying that Mary had the right attitude and therefore she gained the most benefit by doing what she was fitted to do? You see, it’s all about relationships and preserving unity. Martha could have, with a generous heart, allowed Mary the freedom to be with Jesus without resentment and gained as much blessing in her serving as Mary did in her listening.

There are three values that we, as children of God in the family of God must make priorities if we are to represent God’s kingdom to a fallen world; we must protect love, preserve unity and promote contentment, at all costs and all the time.

It’s what Jesus did. Shouldn’t we?

(The rest of Luke’s Gospel, from chapter 11, has already been posted. I would love to know whether anyone thinks there is value in publishing these contributions in book form. Please blog in the appropriate place.  Luella)

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Twenty One

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DAY TWENTY ONE

 Then the disciples went back to their home,

but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

and saw two angels in white

seated where Jesus’ body had been,

one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken away my Lord,” she said,

“and I don’t know where they have put Him.”

At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,

but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” He said, “why are you crying?

Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking He was the gardener she said,

“Sir, if you have carried Him away,

tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned towards Him and cried out in Aramaic,

“Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

John 20:10-16

 Can you imagine this moment! Mary’s eyes are swollen with crying.  She does not recognise Jesus.  She pours out her grief to the “gardener” and then hears one word, “Mary!” and her world turns the right way up again.

 

 

Just An Ordinary Kid?

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JUST AN ORDINARY KID? 

“About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral home town to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

“While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped Him in a blanket and laid Him in a manger because there was no room in the hostel.” Luke 2:1-7 (The Message).

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? A young man and his pregnant fiancée! It could be the story of any young couple in today’s world of free sex and blurred morality, in fact, very little morality when you come to think of it. Anyone reading this story for the first time would think that this is a story about our times.

However, Luke has already made it quite clear that Mary’s pregnancy was not the result of a one night stand or a young couple who couldn’t wait. She was a highly favoured teenage girl whom God chose to be the earthly mother of His Son. The baby who was so soon to be born was no ordinary kid. Yes, He was an ordinary human being like you and me and yet His conception was the union of the human and the divine, God stepping down for a season to become one of us.

Because of a government decree, Joseph and Mary had to make the gruelling journey to Bethlehem to join the head count in their ancestral home town. Why then, of all times? Mary’s pregnancy was almost full term. How could she make the long trip before the baby came? There was no train or bus service and certainly no plane to make the flight in an hour or so. This was a long journey on the back of a donkey over rough terrain which would take many days.

But they had to go and they went.

To crown it all, every nook and cranny of the town was filled with visitors. Every house with a spare room was full. There were no luxury hotels to make the situation easier for them. They had to take what shelter they could get and make the best of it. The only space in the local hostel was the downstairs room where the cooking was done and where the animals were sheltered at night.

And then, on top of that, Mary went into labour! What did she think about all this? Didn’t God know that this was not the place for His Son to be born? After all, He was the Son of God. At least God could have arranged it that they have a place in someone’s home where there was female help for this young girl having her first baby.

But God knew exactly what He was doing. Centuries before, through the mouth of the prophet Micah, God promised a ruler who would come from Bethlehem. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.” Micah 5:2 (NIV). But Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth.

They would have to be moved from Nazareth to Bethlehem at the right moment for the child to be born there. How could they be forced to make the journey at such a crucial time? Only a government decree would motivate them to relocate to Bethlehem. And why in such a lowly place? It was God’s idea to stage His Son’s entry into the world in a place so humble that no one could ever think that they were excluded from His grace.

This is just like God, isn’t it? He didn’t only come to earth but He came to a scenario that was below the level of human beings so that He could lift us up. Even His death was the death of the lowest of the low. He could not go any lower.

And now, He cannot go any higher, because He is the highest of the high!

 

Mary’s Song

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MARY’S SONG

“And Mary said, “‘I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Saviour God.
God took one look at me, and look what happened — I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! What God has done for me will never be forgotten, the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others. His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before Him. He bared His arm and showed His strength, scattered the bluffing braggarts. He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. He embraced His chosen child, Israel; He remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. It’s exactly what He promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.’

“Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her home.” Luke 1:46-56 (The Message).

Mary was so ecstatic about the great things God had done for her that, at this stage, she was not concerned about the practical realities of having a child out of wedlock. I don’t think she was unaware of the consequences, but she was not troubled by them because she knew that her pregnancy was a miracle of God, whatever people thought of her.

Had she told Joseph of the angel’s visit and her subsequent pregnancy yet, or did she only tell him on her return to Nazareth? The Bible does not tell us when she told him. We only know that when he found out he was deeply troubled. It took an angelic dream to reassure him that Mary had not been unfaithful to him during their betrothal period. He married her as planned but did not consummate the marriage until after Jesus’ birth.

If Mary was highly favoured of God, so also was Joseph. He was an honourable man, not wanting to disgrace his fiancée’ publicly when he thought that she was guilty of fornication, and refraining from demanding his conjugal rights until after the birth of the child conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Mary was blessed and favoured of God in many ways. Unlike ordinary people who never make it into the history books, her name would never be forgotten. She would always be associated with Jesus the Messiah as the young village girl who was privileged to bring Him into the world.

Never for one moment was she intended to be worshipped as the “Mother of God”, nor did she ever see herself as anything but an ordinary mother. How ridiculous to think that a human being can ever “mother” God. She was the vessel who bore His human form, but Jesus was more than just human. He was Emmanuel, God with us, as Charles Wesley so aptly put it, “Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.”

Mary recognised that, in the Son she was going to bear, the promise God made to Abraham was finally about to be fulfilled. And He was bringing it about, not in the palace of a great king or as the offspring of a noble family, but through the womb and in the home of a nobody. That’s just who God is and how He works!