SITTING AND SERVING

Tucked away at the end of the tenth chapter of Luke is a very short story that shows us two of the key elements of discipleship. One without the other makes a very lopsided Christ follower.

In brief, here is the story (Luke 10:38-42): 

Jesus visited the home of Martha and Mary, whom we have met before. It was their brother Lazarus who was dramatically raised from the dead (see John 11).

As soon as Jesus arrived, the two sisters took very different approaches to His visit. Martha was all about blessing Jesus by her serving, getting the house ready and preparing the food. Mary left that to her sister because she was eager to receive Jesus’ teaching; she wanted to sit at His feet and listen to what He had to say.

Martha got a little bent out of shape—first, with her sister for not helping her, and then with the Lord. She asked Him in Luke 10:40, “Don’t you care that my sister is not helping me?”

The Lord’s response to Martha was a very gentle, corrective rebuke. “Martha, you have let yourself get distracted and you’ve lost sight of what’s really important here.”

I believe the two sisters are pictures of something that happens in the Christian life all the time, and left alone without correction, these issues become damaging.

Martha is a type of the believer whose life is centered in well-meaning activity. For these people the highest level of following the Lord is totally wrapped up in acts of service. They are the first in line to volunteer, every time. Bible study and prayer, to them, is good but really not that important.

One of the troubling attributes of this type of follower is the tendency to become critical and judgmental; anyone not working as hard as they are just isn’t really as sold out to Christ as they are.

On the other hand, Mary was anxious to know all about the teachings of the Lord. She wanted to be in the Lord’s presence and receive from His teachings—how to communicate with Him in prayer and how to receive from Him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mary is a type of the prayer warrior who carries a big Bible. For them the highest level of dedication to the Lord is to be in a revival meeting, a teaching service, or a prayer meeting. And while they are not usually verbally judgmental of those like Martha, they have a tendency to look down on them as being rather immature and not all that spiritual.

So why is this little gem of a story here? Was this just a little padding Luke put in the book to fill it out a bit like many of our modern writers do? I don’t think so! The Holy Spirit through the writing of Luke was showing us the balance that must be in place for a disciple to be “on the road to maturity, to become an overcomer.”

The Lord’s brother, James, deals with this at length in the Epistle of James. This is just conjecture on my part, but I love to think that James was with Jesus on His visits to the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany. I believe he watched in amazement, with all the other disciples, when Jesus called Lazarus out of death and into life. I believe he learned about being a complete overcomer as he carefully watched his brother lovingly deal with Mary and Martha and bring into focus the key elements needed to see a disciple reach full stature.

Later in his life James put into writing what he observed and learned: “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17, NKJV).

“Sitting and serving” . . . this is what I call the balance that is needed in the life of every mature, fully developed, overcoming disciple. It’s not being a Martha without the Mary, and it’s not being a Mary without the Martha; it’s finding the balance of embracing the best of both.

Sitting is regularly being with the Lord and receiving from Him through His word, through times of intimate fellowship with Him in prayer, and receiving from Him through the fellowship of the saints—and by that I mean the Church.

Serving is finding a place where you can actively be a representative of Jesus Christ and actively give of yourself in service. Perhaps it will be through your local church or a ministry or service organization in your area, but there are always ways to be giving expression to your faith through acts of service. And no one gets a pass on this!

When we are both “sitting and serving,” then we truly are on the road to becoming the kind of disciple the apostle Paul described in Romans 8:37: “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (NKJV).