A couple of weeks ago, we talked about a woman named Martha, who was “worried and troubled about many things”. As Jesus addressed this dear woman, he admonished her sister, Mary, for ‘choosing the better part’ (Luke 10:38-42). When we looked closely at Martha, we saw that she was distracted, and that was what ultimately led her away from sitting at Jesus’ feet.
Today, though, let’s look at Mary. She is the one we find sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to His words, and gaining much no doubt from His teachings. She is persecuted by her sister, more than likely publicly, and yet is praised by our Lord. When inspired, holy scripture records Jesus admonishing someone, no doubt we should implement those characteristics into our own lives. And so, what is it about Mary that made her so special?
Choices.
On that fateful day, Mary and Martha knew that Jesus was coming to their house. They had the opportunity to choose how that was going to go down. Upon His arrival, Martha chose to busy herself with physical, mundane tasks, while Mary chose to listen to the teachings of the greatest Teacher to ever walk upon this earth.
It seems so simple, and yet it’s a life-changing choice: do you want Jesus? Do you want Him more than anything else? Are you willing to stop what you’re doing on focus on Him? That’s the choice we’re all faced with.
Joshua said it in Joshua 24:15,
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
The Proverbial writer recorded it in the negative when he said, “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Prov 1:28-29)
Jesus simply said “come” and “follow” (Matt. 11:28, 16:24). But what do we do? We trouble ourselves, distract ourselves, with many things when the One thing is needed: a relationship with Jesus. Today, if we are not in a relationship with Him, we must choose the better part: to share in His death through baptism and become one who bears His name.
Mary had another choice, though, and so do we. You see, first, she chose Jesus. She decided she wanted Him to be her focus. Still, though, she had another choice, and that was sitting as His feet and learning from Him. Once we enter into a relationship with Jesus, we are faced with the same choice: are we willing to sit at Jesus’ feet? Are we willing to change our life and give it over to His will?
Every single day we are faced with choices that either say yes, Jesus is the King of my life, or no, I am the king/queen of my own life. From the clothes we put on when we wake up to the entertainment we ingest all day; the words we use with our family/friends/co-workers to the posts we share on social media sites. (As a side note here: what percentage of your social media pages are spiritual in nature? If you took a percentage of your Facebook timeline, for instance, and broke down just how many statuses/shares/etc. were spiritual, what percentage of a Facebook Christian would you be?). Each day we decide if we will sit at the feet of Jesus, or sit at the feet of Satan. Because, as the Bible so simply points out, we are either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness–there is no middle ground (Rom. 6:15-22).
Today, choose Jesus. Choose to put Him above everything and everyone in your life; truly crowning Him Lord of all. Decide you will bear His name & His cross, and become a Christian today. And, if you are a Christian, decide that you will “choose the better part”, Jesus, in every decision.
