Choosing the Better Part

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 20, 2025.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last week, if you were here worshiping with us, you would have heard the parable of the Good Samaritan. That is a story that Jesus told in response to a question. A lawyer, an expert in the law of Moses. He wants to know, who is my neighbor? But the question he's actually asking is, what is the minimum that I must do in order to be saved? How must I show my love for my neighbors? What is God's demand on me? What is the minimum that I can do in order to have satisfied that demand?

Last week, we reflected on the idea that instead of worrying who it is that we have to serve, rather we should first reflect on what Christ has done for us. For indeed, you and I are not the Good Samaritan going to help our neighbor. We are broken and bleeding on the side of the road. Jesus Christ is the Good Samaritan who becomes the hated other who still scoops us up and puts us on the donkey and tends to our wounds when we were helpless.

Then reflecting on that idea that Jesus Christ is the Good Samaritan to us, that he has rescued us from sin and death, that he has scooped us up when there was nothing that we could do on our own, that we should go out into the world and take care of others as God has taken care of us.

The Story of Mary and Martha

Today, our reading, the story of Mary and Martha, is not a parable. It's not a hypothetical story told in order to prove a point. But instead, it's actually something that happens. It happens to Jesus immediately after he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.

But the theme of what's going on right now in the ministry of Jesus is the same. What is it that I must do? What is expected of me as a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Jesus goes to visit the home of these two unmarried sisters, Mary and Martha. When he arrives, they welcome him into the home. But soon after that, there begins to be some things that are a little bit askance.

First of all, even consider this, that in the ancient Near East, these two unmarried sisters welcoming an unmarried man into their home was nothing short of scandalous. My goodness, who knows what's going on behind that closed door? It's got people talking. You know how people talk. Because the village they lived in was a small town, kind of like our small town. Word travels fast.

But also, we have here an interesting interplay between what the role of women is in that society and what is expected of a follower of Jesus.

Martha's Hospitality

Martha, for her part, I really can't criticize her too much. She has taken on the expected role of women in that place. She has gone out of her way to provide as much hospitality as she and her sister are capable of. She immediately sets to work preparing not just a simple meal, but a very complex meal. She is very busy about the work of welcoming Jesus into her home. She is filled with cooking and cleaning and preparing and making as hospitable as possible.

Martha is not a problem. No, she has gone out of her way to be hospitable and welcoming. She's a good hostess.

Mary's Choice

On the other hand, it is Mary who poses a problem for us, at least at first glance. Because Mary does not get up and do all of the tasks and busy herself with all the preparations to welcome this man who is the Son of God.

Can you imagine, especially ladies, let me ask you this. I mean, anybody can think this, but ladies, if you knew that Jesus was coming over to your house in like 30 minutes, on a scale of zero to a million, how panicked are you? I mean, I would be, personally, I would be panicked, but I know my wife would be like that squared.

Mary does something remarkable, different and unexpected. She brings Jesus into their midst by sitting down at his feet.

Now, it's not immediately obvious to you and me in our cultural time and place how enormously strange this is. Because now this man who is other, this man who is guest, who is meant to be welcomed by the frenzied hospitality of Mary and Martha, now is being welcomed by Mary, not as a guest, but as the head of her household.

She sits, it literally means she has, once she has taken her place at his feet, she has put herself in the position not just to receive him as a guest, but to receive him as a father. Mary has taken her place at his feet.

The Discipleship Theme

I said earlier that the theme here in this part of the Gospel of Luke is the repeated discipleship theme of hearing the Word and doing the Word. We have something that is a little bit unusual here. We would expect that Martha would be the one who is praised because she knows that she welcomes Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, into her midst, into her own home. She is busy about the work of honoring him to the degree that he deserves to be honored.

And yet, it is Mary who is praised. For Mary is the one who puts herself at his feet and takes her place with him as the head of her household.

You can hear the frustration in Martha's voice as she finally, after whispering in Mary's ear over and over again that there is work to be done and she ought to get up and help do it, she actually goes to Jesus and says, "Is it of no concern to you that my sister has left me alone to serve?"

Actually, it's funny here because Martha calls Jesus Lord, literally, kurios, Lord, Caesar. It's the same word. Lord, but it's not a respectful Lord. In fact, it's probably a little bit ironic. When she says Lord, she's not worshiping him as God, but rather she's saying, Sir. Have you ever had somebody say, Sir, to you like that? You know, guys, you know what I'm talking about. It's not, Sir, like, yes, sir. It's, Sir, like, come on, man. Sir! Can you not see? Jesus, do you not realize? Can you not understand what's going on here? If Mary won't listen to me, maybe she'll listen to you.

Martha is worried about serving many courses in a meal to a man who has come not to be her guest, but to be her head. Not to be merely a welcomed outsider, but to be a member of her household.

Mary, on the other hand, has chosen the good course. Jesus would be satisfied with a simple meal. He doesn't need the elaboration. He doesn't need the efflusive praise. Mary senses this and puts herself in submission to him.

Lessons for Christian Service

It's a reminder to you and me that proper Christian service is not something which is showy, not something which is elaborate, not something which is trying to grab attention for attention's sake. It doesn't have to be a vast undertaking, and it doesn't have to be something meticulously and deeply organized.

Instead of focusing on these concerns, which really come out of our own need for control, instead we should think, what has Jesus come to do for me? Well, he has come to love you. He has come to forgive your sins. He has come to free you from the demands of the law. He is the one who says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

You need not do so much, but simply be at Jesus' feet.

Yes, there is something scandalous about this unmarried woman sitting at table with an unmarried man, something that people are going to talk about because it shatters society's expectations, society. It shatters the expectations of the household.

This scene is different because this stranger, Jesus, welcomed into their midst has not simply become an honored guest, but has become the head of the household so as to give them a command. But this command is no burden to carry. This command gives rest. It opens us to the possibility that maybe this following Jesus stuff is not about making long lists of things that we must do, but instead is simply as simple as sitting at the feet of Jesus, letting him minister to our souls, and then getting up and doing whatever we see before us that is necessary.

Worship and the Better Part

Here today, we worship this Jesus Christ. We welcome this word of God made flesh, our proper attention. Not because what we do is necessary to God. Not because God is looking at us and saying, ah, these are the people who showed up and did the things on the list in order to worship me. But rather, these are the ones who have come to sit and listen at the feet of Jesus Christ, who I will feed with my word and my sacrament, who I will give new life to, who I will raise up from death, who I will rescue broken and bleeding on the side of the road, who I will carry on my own donkey and provide for their healing from my own pocket, who I will give gifts to, whom I will lead, of whom I will be the head.

As we come to worship, we find that at the feet of Jesus, we receive all that is truly needful. For few things are truly needful, Jesus says. Indeed, only one. Mary has chosen the better part, the better course.

May you choose this course and be at the feet of Jesus Christ and allow him to minister to your souls that you may live and then living you may serve in newness of life. In Jesus' name, amen.