Awake to Jesus
Friends, how often, when people ask how you’re doing, do you respond, ‘busy?’ Do all the good things you have to do make you feel overwhelmed and anxious? Do you have a sneaking suspicion, ‘Maybe I’m living a distracted life. . . . Maybe I’m not fully alive.’
If so, let me remind you of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38–41). You know the story. Jesus comes for dinner. Martha works to host, while Mary waits at his feet. Martha serves; Mary sits. Eventually, Martha gets frustrated and fussy, and Jesus gently corrects her.
In spite of the way this story is often told, the contrast here is not one of personalities but of priorities. The core issue is one of attention. Who gets the priority of your attention? What are you alive to? Are you awake to what matters?
Distracted by Good
Now, we sympathize with Martha — don’t we? Luke tells us she is ‘distracted by much serving’ (v. 40). She is busy. A hundred things demand her attention. She has work to do.
What's amazing about Martha is that she is distracted from Jesus by serving Jesus. Amid a whirlwind of good things, her attention is pulled from the one thing that matters. As Pastor Jonathan reminded us last week, ‘The pressure is always to make it about something other than Jesus’ — even if that other thing is working for Jesus.
Oh, we know this experience too well. Every meal, every dish in the sink, every school assignment, every work deadline, every new email, every sermon becomes one more voice in the cacophony of our distractions. Ministry usurps marveling. Service overshadows savoring. Jesus invites us to sit and soak in his words — to behold your God — but we politely decline. ‘Sorry, Jesus. I’m too busy working for you.’ In becoming very efficient servants, we become very defective disciples.
Tenacious Treasuring
Saints, before Jesus ever wants your work, he wants your undivided attention. Thus he says to Martha, “Oh, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and distracted by many things, but one is needed. Mary has chosen the good portion, and no one will take it from her.”
Jesus approves of Mary’s priorities. He commends her fixed attention on him. Her first priority is to delight in Jesus — to soak in his words. Mary is a Christian Hedonist, and Jesus loves it because her rapt attention magnifies his worth.
Mary is not lazy. She is tenaciously treasuring Christ. Mary is not anxious. How could she be? She is awake to Jesus. Mary is fully alive.
Awake and Alive
Saints, don’t you want that? How many of us are but half-alive because we are but half-awake to Jesus? How many of us live a distracted existence — anxious about many things, slaves to the tyranny of the present crisis, overworked, under-rested, always busy, our attention fractured, our joy tempest-tossed, our love for God like the cooling coals of a long-dying fire? Too often, we are modern-day Marthas, distracted, contagiously discontent, fussing and freaking out.
And all because we fail to attend to the one thing, the one Person that matters. Jesus has thrown wide the door to Joy! Let us not remain outside, dabbling in distraction. We are far more busy than we want because we have far less of Jesus than we need.
Our Lord calls us to a far fuller life (John 10:10). Jesus bids you to come alive to him. He beckons you to wake up to his wonders, to marvel at his beauty, to attend to him as an antidote to our anxiety. Each morning, he calls us close and spreads the riches of his word before us and says, “Friend, these are but the mere fringes of my gladness. Come, sit. You are not yet fully alive, and I mean you to be.” Mary heard and heeded. Will you?
Forgive Our Inattention
And this reminds us of our need to confess:
Lord, you are worth all our attention — worthy of our eternal attention. Your beauty demands it. Yet we live distracted. We are but half-awake to your glory. We fail to remember you. Lord, forgive our inattention and refocus us now in this time of silent confession.