Martha: A journey from pride to freedom
Hespeler, 12 February, 2017 ©
Scott McAndless
Luke 10:38-42, John 11:17-27,
Psalm 12
W
|
e all know a Martha. For that
matter, many of us are Marthas. I hope you all recognize her type in our story
this morning from the Gospel of Luke, but, just in case you’re not sure, let me
lay out for you some of what I think that Martha’s backstory must have been.
Martha was the
oldest of three siblings. There was Martha, then her brother, Lazarus, and then
the baby Mary. As often happens with the oldest child – maybe especially when
the oldest is a girl – Martha was given a lot of responsibility early on. But
of course, given the realities of the world that they lived in, the family
pinned all of their hopes and dreams on the only son, on Lazarus. He was the
one who had to succeed. Indeed his failure would destroy the fortunes of the
entire family.
And that was a
problem because, from an early age, Lazarus was rather sickly. His lungs were weak;
he always seemed to come down with fevers and spent as much time on his couch
as he did learning a trade. Is it any surprise that Martha was the one who was
always called upon to tend to him or to pick up the slack in the household when
others were looking after him? Their parents, frankly, were at their wits end
because of their worries for their son. If they lost him, they lost everything.
And more often than not it was Martha that took care of them and helped them to
calm down. She became like a mother to her own parents.
And so it was
that Martha, from a very early age, learned that there was one thing that he
needed above all things. She needed to be needed. It was the one thing that
gave meaning to her life, the one thing that she could not do without. And so
Martha went to work to make sure that absolutely everyone needed her. No one
could cook or clean or organize things better than Martha. In fact, she set things
up so that nobody but her could figure out her system and do any of her work in
her place. She made herself completely indispensable.
Don’t
misunderstand me, she often regretted it later. She cursed herself for taking
on too many tasks and trying to please too many people. How often did she
berate herself? How often did she vow that next time she would just say no? But
when she was there, faced with someone who needed her, she just couldn’t do it.
Martha just needed… to be needed.
So, now you
know a little bit about Martha, do you recognize her? I’m that sure you have
met her before. Some of you may even be her. I have certainly known many
Marthas (and not all of them were women, by the way). I have especially known
them in the life and the work of the church. They are the people who tend to do
the lion’s share of the work in a given congregation. They are the people to
whom you only need to say three small words, “I need you,” and they are there.
The church, quite frankly, would probably not survive if it weren’t for the
Marthas and I am frequently thankful for them.
And we see
Martha in action in our reading this morning in the Gospel of Luke. There are
guests in her house – not just any guests, mind you but only the most famous
preacher and wonderworker that has ever arisen in Galilee. And Martha is doing
what she does best. She is bustling around the kitchen and the dining room and
taking care of everyone, making herself indispensable. But there is a dark side
– a bit of a bite to Martha in this story, isn’t there? And it is, in fact, the
dark side that is common to all Marthas.
In this story,
Martha seems to snap suddenly. She has been taking care of everyone’s needs all
afternoon – just like she always does – when she suddenly stops. She directs
her complaint at Jesus even though she says she isn’t mad at him. “Lord,” she says, “do you not care that my sister
has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”
I have known
enough people like Martha to interpret what she says here. It may sound like
she’s asking for help, but she isn’t exactly. First of all, Martha knows very
well that, even if Jesus tells Mary to help her, that won’t make her happy
because, let me tell you, Mary can’t do it right. She has never been able to do
it as well as Martha. She’ll just get in the way. No, her message isn’t in the
request for help, it is in her opening words, “Lord, do you not care?” She’s not looking for help, she is looking
for sympathy, recognition and maybe even flattery. “Don’t you care that I am
doing all this work all by myself because you’d better care!” She doesn’t just
need to be needed, she needs the appreciation that comes with that.
And I realize
that appreciation is a good thing and that it is something that does us all
good. (Always be generous in giving people appreciation; it will only sow good
will.) But there is something dark going on in Martha in this passage. It is
not just that she desires some appreciation, it is that she needs it. Her identity has become so
caught up in being the one who helps that she needs the appreciation to know
who she is.
The problem at
the heart of Martha’s life, in fact, is pride. I hesitate to call it by the
name of pride because she does not suffer from the kind of egotistical
self-centredness that we often associate with pride. Martha is the opposite of
self-centred; she is selfless to a fault! But there is pride in what Martha is
doing. She has taken on the self-image of the helper so completely that she has
begun to believe that she and she alone is able to bring help. Everyone needs
her but (and this is the sad part) she doesn’t need anyone. To believe that you
don’t need anyone and that you cannot receive help from anyone is a
particularly dangerous kind of pride, and it is the kind of pride to which Marthas
are particularly susceptible.
But it is even
worse than that for Martha. It becomes clear that she has even concluded that
she does not need God. If she had any inkling of how much she needed God, after
all, where would she be? She would be right where Jesus tells her she ought to
be: right beside her sister Mary at Jesus’ feet absorbing everything that he
says like a sponge. But Martha, in her pride, has decided that she doesn’t need
that.
I have been
deeply blessed throughout my life by many Marthas. Their service has so often
been there to make life and work in the church bearable and meaningful. I would
never presume to criticise a Martha because I do indeed appreciate them. But I
have also known a few of them well enough to know that they often struggle as
well. They struggle when they do too much, help too much and serve too much and
so neglect their own needs. They struggle when they don’t receive the
appreciation that they often deserve. And it can make them lash out like Martha
does in front of Jesus. I also know that they often struggle to ask for help
and mean it and that they have a hard time accepting help when it is offered.
But do you
want to hear something wonderful? I think that Jesus understood and appreciated
Martha better than she even knew. He didn’t just rebuke her that day, he began
to work in her for transformation. He didn’t seek to take her serving heart away
from her, but he did help her with the pride that threatened to destroy that
heart.
These two
sisters, Mary and Martha, are never again mentioned in the Gospel of Luke after
that incident when Jesus was in their home, but they do surface later in the
Gospel of John. The story in the Gospel of John must take place sometime later
than the one in Luke because it comes near to the very end of Jesus’ ministry.
So it turns out that we are given two distinct episodes out of Martha’s life:
an earlier one when she had just started to know Jesus and another one very
close to the end of his life. We get a chance to see what a difference Jesus
had been able to make in her life.
So what do we
see in the more mature Martha in the story in the Gospel of John – the Martha
who had had Jesus working in her life for a while. Jesus comes along this time
at a much more difficult time for Martha and Mary. Their cherished brother,
Lazarus, has died. Not only have they lost someone that they love, they have
lost the one who is the security and hope of the family. If ever they needed
help, they need it now. And the old Martha, the one we met in the Gospel of
Luke was not very good at receiving help. What do we see now?
When Jesus
finally arrives, what happens? This time it is Mary who stays in the home but
it is Martha who runs out of the house and straight to Jesus’ side. It is
Martha who confesses to Jesus just how much she needs him – needed him four
days ago in fact: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died.” Even more important, it is Martha who proclaims an amazing trust in
Jesus: “But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”
What has
happened to this woman? Rest assured that this is that same amazing woman that
we met in the Gospel of Luke – a woman who knows how to take care of everyone’s
needs. Why, I’ll bet that she has spent the last four days organizing funeral
lunches and taking care of everyone who came to pay their respects. She still
knows the joy that comes in serving others and being there to provide for them
to the best of her ability. But her dealings with Jesus have also taught her
something new – a humility that does not oppress her but actually makes her
free to rest in being able to need another – in being able to need and trust
Jesus.
And, because
she has grown so much, Martha is even ready to receive a fundamental truth
about Jesus – one that few others were ready to hear at that point. “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus says to her. “Those
who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and
believes in me will never die.” To this, Martha is also able to reply with
a remarkable statement of faith: “Yes,
Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into
the world.”
Yes, the Marthas of this world are
a wonderful gift to all of us. If you have a Martha in your life or in your
circle of friends, you are truly blessed. Make sure them you appreciate them;
it will mean a lot to them. But never forget that Jesus also has work that he
wants to do in the life of the Marthas – in your life if you are one. Jesus
wants to set you free from the burden of helping, that you might rest in him,
learn to receive when you need to receive, and live in the joy of who God
created you to be.
Jesus did a
marvelous work in the life of Martha. He still does that work today in the life
of people like her. If you are a Martha, then practice trusting Jesus and
admitting that you need Jesus. If you know or love a Martha, be patient with
him or her as they learn that lesson. Expect miraculous transformation and I
think you will see it.
140CharacterSermon Some
people have a deep need to be needed. They’re wonderful but may struggle to
need God. Jesus works in their lives too
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