Choose the Good Portion

But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." ESV Luke 10:41-42

Anyone who has known me for very long knows that I love to read. Keep the TV. Keep the radio. A good book rules the day. Few things bring me more pleasure than to steal away for a couple of hours, especially when it’s cold and damp outside, with a good read. I am a certified bibliophile; a lover and collector of books.

Now explain this mystery for me. God has given me an insatiable appetite for books. Why then, has he not given me an equal capacity to devour them? Many books in my library have only been scanned for lack of time. Though some were purchased only as reference material, a good many sit collecting dust even though I truly want to read them. So many books; so little time; so many distractions…

Distractions. That’s the real topic today. As I sat looking over my bookshelves this weekend, I made mental notes of some truly great works that are yet to be read. Works by Flavel, Baxter, Bavinck, Edwards & Warfield jumped out to me from the Puritan genre. My fiction shelf contains a new Tolkien volume recently compiled and released. Piper, Dever, Pink and Packer have modern religious titles lying in wait as well. All rich. All good. All enlightening. As I questioned why they lay unread, I came to a one word conclusion: Distractions. The urgent and pressing issues of the day distract me from the important and enjoyable task of reading those books.

In our text today, we find that Martha was having a similar problem. Jesus was in town. As a matter of fact, Jesus was a guest in her home and she was busy being a good host. I imagine that she made sure that Jesus was comfortable and then headed straight away to the kitchen so she could fix him a fine meal. Our text simply says that she was busy with much serving. And we would expect no less from a good host today. Being a good servant and being a good host seem to go hand in hand.

Unfortunately for Martha, her fixation on serving kept her from enjoying Jesus. She was so caught up in ‘doing’ that she didn’t get around to ‘enjoying’ Jesus. Martha was distracted. The urgent issue of serving distracted Martha from the important issue of knowing and enjoying Jesus.

The text is plain enough, so let me just say that Mary didn’t share Martha’s problem. Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus; enjoying Him. Now, the notion of enjoying Jesus will no doubt strike some folks as strange, but I am convinced that it is a noble, legitimate idea that is well supported by scripture. I’ll save those thoughts for another day.

But for today, let’s simply ask ourselves this question: Are we letting urgent things keep us from important things? Nothing is more important than knowing and enjoying Christ. Don’t be distracted. Choose the good portion.