Have a "Mary" Christmas

My girlfriends and I recently had a Christmas party and a friend asked me to help with a devotional for us to share together. She wanted it to be about women and tie it in to Christmas, etc. So I decided use a lesson from a passage about Mary and Martha as part of the devotional. Read below for the notes and passage I used from the Bible - Luke 10:38-42:

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

First off, it is important to know a little about whom Mary and Martha were. 

·      They were sisters (we are not told specifically if they are blood sisters or sisters in Christ, but we do know it states they are sisters.

·      Lots of people get confused about different Mary’s – this Mary is known as Mary of Bethany.

·      They live in Bethany – outside of Jerusalem.

·      They had a brother named Lazarus who was raised from the dead by Jesus in a separate story in the Bible.

·      They were followers of Christ and loved and worshipped Jesus as their savior. They were thought to be very comfortable and close friends with Jesus. They are seen in other passages of the Bible, and we can tell by the way they spoke to one another that they were friends.

These two sisters were polar opposites and had very different spiritual gifts. Martha was a server and very practical, while Mary was called to personal service and very spiritual.  Martha is thought to be the older sister and to have been the leader of the house. She loved Jesus, and in this passage she was the one to invite Jesus and his followers in to the home to honor him. Mary is seen in the passage sitting at Jesus’ feet, which is such a place of honor. We think of sitting beside Jesus as a place of honor – imagine being at his feet. This shows Mary was completely humbled and devoted to Jesus and hanging on to his every word. Back in those days, it was very unusual to see a woman studying and listening to the men. Martha was in the kitchen serving the men and preparing their meal, which would be the norm.  So I think it is important to note that Mary was neglecting her normal duties. Mary knew listening to Jesus was more important than anything at that moment, and in the verse we are told, he was not going to take that away from her

When I read this verse, it is not so different from our modern day dinners and holiday times. Who doesn’t usually have a dinner or family gathering where one sibling or family member seems to be doing all the work, while the others are sitting around goofing off? I can imagine that Martha was probably banging pots and pans in the kitchen mad that her younger sister was not helping or contributing. She may have let out a few sighs to try to get her attention and when this failed, she became very frustrated and angry. She went to Jesus and demanded that he tell her sister to help her. Jesus tells her that Mary has made the right choice by choosing to spend her time with him, and it will not be taken from her. This is one example of how I think they were close friends. Could you imagine going to Jesus and demanding something from him? I would only be comfortable doing that to someone I was a close friend with. I love how he uses the word choice in there too. You do not see Jesus tell Martha that she needs to stop what she was doing, but I do think he is trying to stress the importance of priorities to her.  We all have choices and priorities in our lives. Mary did not want to miss out on a moment of Jesus’ teachings and her choice and priority were the right one for her. I think this is a great lesson for us to realize that God has made us all different. He has given us all talents and spiritual gifts. Some are servers and some are personal connectors. He gives us these amazing examples in the Bible to teach us these lessons. We know God does not make mistakes. Psalm 139 (one of my favorites) says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We should all be proud of our gifts and how we are different from each other. There is nothing wrong with Mary wanting to be the server. The church and Bible also calls us to serve others. However, it is important to not let our serving become self-serving.

We can all have serve the same purpose but approach it differently. Mary and Martha both wanted to worship Jesus but their styles of doing it were very different. Martha got so distracted in her work of trying to serve that she didn’t see the bigger picture. Imagine how stressed we can be to host a dinner for a group of friends. Back then, there were no phones, so this dinner was probably not planned and imagine how you would feel preparing a meal for Jesus and his followers with no prep!! These were Jesus’ final days and when her and Mary look back which would they remember – the meal or the opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn and listen to him? This is why Jesus stated there was only one thing of importance and that was to be with him. . We are given these two polar opposite examples of women – both spirits are important. We should challenge ourselves to blend the better of the two together.

It is so easy to get distracted in the world that we miss out on the small moments that really matter. Our lives become such a routine – go to work, take care of our families, dinner, and sleep. Time is going by in the blink of an eye. It is so important to make sure we are actually soaking it all in. The holidays can be the time we are the guiltiest. We find ourselves running around hectic, planning, gift shopping and become so frustrated. It is important to remember what the season is about and that is the birth of sweet Jesus. It is so easy to get caught up in the to do lists and they desire to have everything perfect for our loved ones. Use Mary and Martha this Christmas season to remind us stay focused on Jesus, our families, our friends and the time we spend with them.  And use this lesson throughout the year.

Great lesson is Martha was worried while Mary was worshipping and Martha was losing it while Mary was listening

Have a “Mary” Christmas!!!