Distracted or deliberate
I’ve got a challenge for you. Here’s a vase and some rocks, pebbles and sand. Get things right and everything just fits below the brim of the pot. How would you get them all into the pot? But there’s a twist one of the rocks is so big it won’t fit past the pinch point of the vase.
You have to build everything around the big rock put the other rocks in below, then pebbles fit into the spaces and finally you pour the sand in to fill any remaining gaps.
Life’s like the jar. It’s finite, there’s only so much space to do things. There’s only 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week. But life often feels like that jar doesn’t it, it can feel as if it’s impossible to fit everything in. You start the day with your to do list and sometimes end the day with an even longer one.
Our lives are high pressured because they’re crammed full. Life is busy to bursting point, hectic and harried. There’s work, there’s taking so and so to drums or piano or football practice, there’s cooking, cleaning, DIY. There’s friends you really want to catch up with, there’s Sunday school to prepare, the MOT is due, there are insurance quotes to shop for, there’s family to speak to, exercise to fit in, uniform to buy and sleep to squeeze in somewhere.
And even as we do all those things we’re surrounded by other things which compete for our attention. Adverts shout at us, designed to capture and hold our attention and show us lifestyles to aspire to. Then there’s the R2D2 whistle as a text message arrives, then the ping of a Facebook notification. Did you know that a study has shown that just by doing this – puts phone down on table – our attention starts to wander. We start thinking about other things. We live in a world that’s full, busy but also distracting. A world that’s always giving us new things to pursue, new ways to do, new goals to have, a world with multiple distractions at any given moment.
Where it’s not just the good things that distract us from the best things, but a hundred and one other things. And in the midst of the chatter and clutter of busyness we feel like we’re drowning. Never achieving, never getting nearer the end of the to do list, missing out on the things we should do because of things we have to do.
This morning is an opportunity to stop and think. To stop and hear what Jesus has to say about busyness and distraction. To hear what he says the big rocks are that we should be putting in place in our lives and why it will change everything.
Jesus knew about busyness. Life was simpler in some ways but far harder in others. Imagine your week without any labour saving devices in your home, imagine the pressure of subsistence living. Imagine your week with only your feet as a mode of transportation. Jesus has been at Capernaum and now he’s in Bethany only two miles from Jerusalem, a walk of 83 miles. And Jesus maximises his journey time, ministering as he goes and his days are full. Just look at ch10; Jesus sends the 72 out on mission ahead of him before he visits every town(1-16), then he debriefs them(17-24), then he’s answering the crowds questions(25-37) calling them to love God with all their being and love their neighbour. In ch11 he’s casting out a demon and engaging in repeated clashes with the Pharisees. Life for Jesus and the disciples is full and busy.
It’s against that background, that maelstrom of ministry that Luke records this incident. In the midst of ministry Jesus teaches his disciples about the most important things – listening to him and prayer. Busyness is dangerous, ministry can be harmful because we can lose sight of what really matters.
The danger of distraction
(38)Begins with a seemingly peaceful homely scene. Martha has opened her home to Jesus and the disciples and is preparing a meal for 15, a great example of loving your neighbour. But as we listen we hear the noises of baking bread and chopping vegetables getting louder. Soon things are being banged down. And (40)you can picture Martha can’t you? Slightly dishevelled, flustered, red in the face, exasperation writ large on her features. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me?”
It’s not unreasonable is it? There are 13 extra mouths to feed. We’ve felt like that haven’t we? Her concern is for a good thing – hospitality, loving and providing for others. But Luke clues us into the problem (40)“But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” Martha is distracted, she’s drawn away from the most important thing by something of less importance. Her gaze and attention is deflected from Jesus by the preparations.
Distraction is dangerous for the disciple. Things will crowd or creep in and keep us from Jesus. For Martha it’s her kitchen to do list, what is it for us? What distracts me from spending time listening to Jesus?
It’s dangerous because long-term distraction chokes off fruitfulness. In the parable of the sower 3 soils appear to accept the word of God, but only one produces fruit. The third soil looks promising but its fruit is choked off by the worries, pleasures and riches of life. Other things distract it and gradually draw it away. Or Demas one of Paul’s fellow ministers who deserts the gospel because “he loved this world”, distracted and drawn away.
Distraction from Jesus is dangerous, potentially deadly. And notice here that it’s a good thing that distracts Martha. It’s not Facebook, twitter, a glossy magazine or Candy Crush Saga. It’s serving others. Ministry can be a dangerous distraction if it cuts us off from Jesus. In Acts 6 it’s what the Apostles face, the distraction of the need to wait on tables – a good thing. Distraction is a danger God’s people repeatedly face in the Bible. So we need to ask what distracts me from listening to Jesus? What good things are distracting me from Jesus?
A Disciples Decision
Distraction is a great parenting tool isn’t it? Your young child starts towards the DVD player at a friends house, and you know that unchecked all sorts of things will be inserted in the DVD slot – toffee, drool, plastic coins, Lego. So what do you do? You distract them with something else, a teddy, a toy, your already drooled on phone. You pick them up and move them, or show them something in the garden or the toys over here. But with some children that just doesn’t work. Some children are like a heat seeking missile locked on to that DVD player, ignoring all the chaff and flares you put in their way. They won’t be distracted, they know what they want, they’re deliberate, decided and determined.
Mary is a bit like that here. While Martha hustles and bustles in the kitchen Mary is where? (39)“sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.” It’s as if nothing else matters, everything else can wait this is what is needful. Mary isn’t unaware of the preparations that need doing, she’s not one of these hopelessly impractical people who don’t see a job needs doing unless you point it out to them. She has decided the preparations can wait, this matters more. She has deliberately adopted the posture of a disciple, she’s listening to her Lord. (42b)and Jesus commends her “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Do you see the lesson for the disciples and us here? In the midst of ministry, of serving others, of living life for Jesus, we must set aside time to tune out the distractions of even good things and tune into Jesus. Do you remember the old wireless radio’s which had a knob you turned to find a radio station and you’d go through loads of just background noise as you did so until you tuned into the station, then you had to ever so carefully move it so you were perfectly attuned. And every so often you had to retune it slightly because it had just got slightly out of frequency. Mary is tuning out everything else and tuning into Jesus.
We need to ask ourselves are we doing that? Are we tuning out the distractions and taking time to listen to Jesus words and to pray? Mary doesn’t drift into this she deliberate decides, it’s a choice, she’s chosen this over that. Choosing the vital over the important, the better over the good. Think back to the jar, this is that big rock that everything else has to fit around.
Am I deliberately choosing or am I distracted? Notice that’s the issue. Martha wants to spend time with Jesus but this has to be done first. Are we deliberately choosing to listen to Jesus?
You might be saying but how do you do that? Every time we read the Bible God speaks to us. Read the Bible. Don’t try to read too much. It’s helpful to read the whole bible through but it’s better to take just a few verses and really think them through. Maybe even memorise a verse a week. Why not slowly work through a passage a week. This week I’m going to blog exactly that, take one passage and ask a question of it each day. Maybe it’ll help you to follow.
Maybe you find reading hard. Go to Biblegateway.com and it will read a passage to you. We’re not lone rangers as disciples either, studying the Bible with others is one of the best ways to do it, why not study something together, come to gospel group, or meet for coffee one day during the week.
Whenever we come to passage like this I’m sure you, like me, feel that you’ve got your priorities out of sync again. Again you’ve let other things distract you from what Jesus says matters. Or maybe you haven’t decided to follow Jesus yet and your thinking it’s just another to do, I’m busy enough already, how does that help me? As we finish I want us to see Jesus gracious invitation to new life,
Jesus invites us to know him
Jesus response to Martha’s frustration, anxiety and distraction isn’t a lecture. It’s not ‘I’m not angry I’m just disappointed.’ Jesus doesn’t use guilt, instead he offers a gracious invitation, (41)“Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Do you see Jesus gracious invitation? He shows Martha her distractedness and her real need and invites her to come sit with Mary. Jesus doesn’t belittle her concerns and service he calls her to something better. Martha put down the bread and plates and knives, come sit and know me. It won’t be taken from Mary but you can have it too.
As we think about where we’ve been distracted, by good things, by ministry, by less important things, Jesus extends that same invitation to us. He longs for us to know him and choose his presence. He isn’t aloof and distant, we don’t have to do certain things to earn his presence, he came looking for us, seeking us, so we know him. In Revelation Jesus writes to the church at Laodicea who’ve drifted and become distracted to such an extent that Jesus pictures himself outside the church. But what is he doing there?
Listen “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.”
Do you see Jesus staggering grace? Jesus longs for his people to know him, when we drift or become distracted, in love he calls us back to repent and is waiting, ready and willing to know us and share himself with us.
That’s amazing. But what is more amazing is that as we listen to him, as we get to know him we find that our pressures change as our priorities are reshaped. Spending time with Jesus help us order life rightly. Right priorities in life flow out of time spent with Jesus, listening to his word. As we spend time with Jesus he reminds me that I won’t find satisfaction in my work thereby liberating me from workaholism, yet he also calls me to do whatever I do as serving him therefore giving great value to my work whether that’s being a mum, a bin man, a surgeon or crunching numbers. It reminds me that my day and my experience of it will mirror the brokenness of the world yet also give me glimpses of the glory of God in his creation, and cause me to live in hope as I long for his return. It will reorient me so that I prize people made in his image and am aware of opportunities to love rather than jobs to do. It will remind me that I am loved, forgiven, redeemed, and now am in Christ full of the Spirit seeking to plant my footsteps where he leads. It will lead me to serve others for God’s glory not man’s approval and yet ensure that it doesn’t distract me from listening to Jesus. It will do all that and more.
Do you see the danger? Do you see the choice? More importantly do you see the Saviour lovingly wanting and calling you to a better way? Why would you not want to know the freedom that is ours in him?
(41)“Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few are needed – or indeed only one. Do you hear Jesus invitation to you this morning?
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