Mary and Martha

The other day in MOPS, a sweet lady brought up something about the story of Mary and Martha with Jesus that I had never thought of before. The irony was, as she read the story and before she made her point, I noticed it.

Here is the passage...

"... He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, 'Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'" Luke 10:38-42

The obvious lesson we always take from this passage is that spending time with the Lord is so much more important than, well, anything else. But as I heard this read to me, I suddenly wondered,

Why didn't Martha just tell her sister to come help her? Why did she bother Jesus with it?

It was like the lady speaking was answering my question when she pointed out that Martha went to Jesus... first.

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It's so easy to think that Mary was the spiritual one; that Martha had no idea who was in her house. But she knew Jesus was there. While she was distracted by wanting to serve Him (um... guilty...) she came to Him first about her frustrations. She didn't do what I would have done and pull Mary aside and chew her out for leaving her to do everything herself.

She went to Jesus first.