One of my favorite pictures of beholding Jesus is the story of His friend Mary sitting at His feet and listening to Him speak.
“Martha welcomed Him [Jesus] into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’ And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:38-42)1
Martha reminds me of my kids tattling on each other when they were little: “Mom! She’s not helping us clean the kitchen!” Jesus responded to her, “Martha, I’m not going to tell her to help you. I like what she’s doing.” We get so offended when others don’t work as hard as we do, and we miss the whole point that we are often making sacrifices that God never asked us to make! We beg God to make our husbands or our children or our co-workers help us. Sometimes He says, “Nope. I’m not going to do that. You need to learn how to rest and not be so dependent on others to change for you or to help you. And the way to do that is to HEAR MY WORD like Mary did.”
Have you ever noticed that Martha didn’t just blame Mary for not caring about her? She blamed Jesus, too! And notice that Jesus didn’t chastise her for working too hard or even for accusing Him of not caring, He corrected her for not doing the ONE THING THAT WAS NEEDED. We don’t need to reason this one away. Jesus doesn’t lie! There’s only ONE thing that is needed in this life, and it’s what Mary was doing: sitting at His feet to hear His word. Where it says that Mary sat at His feet and “heard” His word, it’s the Greek word “akouo.” It means to attend to, to understand, to perceive.2 Mary was attending to His word. She was perceiving what He was saying and understanding it. I’m sure Martha in all her busyness could hear what Jesus was saying; however, was she attending to it? Apparently not.
According to Jesus, the one thing that is needful in this life is to attend to the word of God.
(from page 358 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
Shop Unveiling Jesus Products
Unveiling Jesus Book
Unveiling Jesus 20-Part Series
Original Unveiling Jesus, 10-part series
1Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2G191 (akouō), Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G191&t=KJV, accessed on 7-17-14
