What Is Best (At His Feet)

When met face to face with Jesus, Mary chose worship and Martha chose worry.

Luke 10:38-42 ESV
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus saying these words to Martha after she’s been rushing around trying to get the house ready for him always used to rub me the wrong way.

I used to find myself thinking ‘well, it’s all very well to say that the BEST thing is just to sit at your feet, but I don’t know how I can do that when there’s so much to do.’

The truth is, I still find myself thinking like that a lot of the time. But regardless of what emotions get stirred as we read these words from Jesus, it’s so vital that we pay attention.

When met face to face with Jesus, Mary chose worship and Martha chose worry.

Where do we find ourselves at those moments during the day when we just need to hear from him, but we also have hundreds of things to fit in? Does the to-do list get the domain? I know it often does for me.

The truth is, in order for us to understand what it is that Jesus is saying here, we must understand him. We know that we won’t fully know all there is to know about him now, but we also know that we can at least endeavour to understand and grow more as we study his word and his work.

Jesus was talking about attitudes of the heart here. He was making it clear that good deed after good deed wasn’t in any way the same as just sitting at his feet in worship and wonder. He wasn’t saying that we won’t have earthly responsibilities, of course. But he also wasn’t saying that they come first.

What comes first is always him. What comes first is always sitting at his feet before we rise to our own and get on with the duties of the day.

However, our own perspectives won’t always make this easy to understand. With the wrong frame of mind and indeed heart, we can quite frankly find ourselves frustrated with this sort of talk. This is why making that all-important space to sit at his feet is just so vital.