Mary, Martha, and Knowing God
This past Sunday’s reading of Isaiah 29 has brought to mind a point of reflection that has often come upon me. This reflection is particularly prompted by verse 13 of Isaiah 29 wherein the Lord says,
"These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”
God wants the hearts of his people, but instead he finds them putting themselves at a distance by ironically reducing their relationship with Him to rote religious practices. The people know how to perform all the ceremonies, how to celebrate all the festivals, how to make all the offerings, save the one offering that God supremely desires: the offering of their hearts.
When I read this passage, as someone who has grown up his whole life in the church and now serves as a pastor, I can’t help but wonder how often the same could be said of me. Some find it challenging to stay committed to attending weekly Sunday services, but I have never found it challenging. While Sunday attendance is now part of my vocation, I did have plenty of opportunity in my college days to skip out, but I didn’t. Going to church is simply what I’d always done and always would do. I enjoy routine and I enjoy familiarity and church attendance is both of those things for me. But is that all that it is to me? That’s the question Isaiah 29:13 thrusts upon me.
Since entering into pastoral ministry, this consideration has sharpened given all the responsibilities that I bear and the host of contingencies that swarm around the life of the church. It is very easy for my relationship with God to be reduced to duties:
“I need to study this passage for Sunday’s sermon.”
“I need to make preparations for our church to be healthy and grow.”
“I need to reach get into the community to start reaching people.”
“I need to reach out to this person before they join others who have drifted away.”
These are good things to be doing, but perhaps you can see how they might swell up into a sort of anxious busyness. Over time, I’ve learned to pick out this tendency in myself. What has always come to mind is the occasion when Jesus visited the house of Mary and Martha. Luke writes,
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 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!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed--or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." [Luke 10:38-42 NIV]
The short of it is that while Martha was busying herself doing things for Jesus, Mary was more concerned about knowing Jesus. At first glance, we would think Martha should be commended and yet Jesus commends Mary. He says, “Mary has chosen what is better.”
“Have I chosen what is better?” This is the question that confronts me in the midst of my well-established routines and busyness. For as good as it might be to serve God, it does not replace knowing God. No amount of performance can replace the perfection of simply sitting at the feet of Jesus, desiring to know him more and more. No peace will be found when my heart is given to duties. My heart must be given to God.
The balance of the Christian life can only be established when we start here. We must first and foremost seek to know God. Not in a bookish way (though this doesn’t exclude the help of books), but in a truly deep and personal way. It’s only then that any duties can be properly taken up, and these too must be similarly framed. Everything we do should be in the service of making God known, in leading others to know him as we have come to know Him in Jesus Christ. And along the way, if done right, we should find ourselves knowing Him more even in what we’re doing.
Personally, I sum up the purpose of the Christian life as “To Know God & To Make God Known.” More broadly, I believe this is our purpose as the Church, which is why you’ll find this purpose communicated on the front page of our website. When our life falls out of balance, it is usually due to some deficit on either end of this summation. Either we have traded knowing God for religious duty or we have become apathetic about making God known to our neighbors. Truth be told, the cause of this apathy circles back around to the first deficit as it suggests that we don’t know God’s heart for those who are separated from Him.
There’s something ironically easy about keeping our hearts busy with duties. I invite you to join me in trying the harder thing, stopping mid-motion, and surrendering our hearts to the only One who can give them a home. Truly, this is the purpose for which Christ came.
Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.