Listening to Jesus

Martha was upset over all the work she had to do so she came and said, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me!’

The Lord answered her, ‘Martha! Martha! You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing, and it will not be taken away from her.’
(verses 40-42)

Read Luke 10:38-42

I’d like to present a possible new slant on this lovely old story, often used to illustrate the importance of sitting at Jesus’ feet and being taught by him.

What if Mary was not sitting at Jesus’ feet to be taught by him but to minister to him through listening? Remember, Jesus was on his way to be crucified. This must have been a terribly stressful time for him, knowing what was coming, as his later agony in Gethsemane shows. This story doesn’t say Jesus was teaching and Mary was learning. Could it not be that Jesus was pouring his heart out to one of his closest friends, and she, abandoning all else, was ‘pastoring the pastor’, by listening?

Your pastor listens often to peoples’ woes. Yet pastors have their own problems too. Who can they go to? Who listens to them? Maybe sometimes the pastor, in paying a visit, doesn’t want a cup of tea but, instead, a sympathetic listening ear.

Jesus said that what we do for his followers we do for him. When did you last minister to Jesus by sitting quietly and listening?

Lord, thank you for new insights into your word. Help me not only to listen to you speak, for my own benefit but let me also be a faithful listener to others, for their benefit too. Amen.

by Aub Podlich, in ‘God’s Peace for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2005)

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