The house must be straight. We clean, we put the dirty clothes away. We vacuum and dust. After all what happens if someone comes to our house and it does not look perfect. They will think poorly of us no matter what else is going on in our lives. They will judge us for the condition of our house cleaning. Because we do not live in a state of perfectual order (and this is especially true if we have children), then we do not show hospitality and we do not have guests over because to do so is a monumental task.
After all a good host does have his or her obligations.
These dynamics remain true even if the visitor is Jesus. For instance, if a person wants God in their life, they often feel that they need to clean up before Jesus can visit. I need time to become better and when when I am better, then Jesus is welcome to visit. But in reality, we never become better. We never clean up. Jesus has to come visit us first-in our mess and filth.
I love the story of Jesus coming to visit Martha and Mary. It is found in Luke 10:38-41 and goes like this:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
I identify with the account. Many of us are Marthas. We are the responsible ones. We are the ones who do the work and make the preparations. We want the house clean. There is food to be cooked and if it is not cooked then maybe even Jesus and the disciples will go hungry. And we end up doing it alone, when the guests and relatives are sitting around waiting to be served.
But Jesus turns the story on its head. In essence, he says that we must prioritize. Hearing the words of the Master and feeding the spirit is more important than having the house neat and doing the dishes. It is more important than having a hot supper on the table and feeding the masses.
He encourages all of us Marthas to take a break and become Marys. He invites us to stop working for a while and sit at his feet and learn from him. He invites us to experience fellowship and devotion. And yes there is a cost—the preparations will not be done. But the benefit of accepting the invitation far outweighs the pain of not getting the tyranny of the tasks satisfied.
And who knows, but that later, the whole guest list might have to chip in and work if they want something to eat.
There is a time to do house work but there is a time to stop and feed the spirit.
A number of years ago a married couple taught us about hospitality. We visited a church and were invited home to dinner by one of the couples the first time we attended. Amazingly we accepted the invitation. When we arrived at the home the house was OK but was not particularly neat. The hostess begin looking in the cabinet and got out a can of tuna fish and we ate tuna fish sandwiches and potatoe chips. We were somewhat surprised by all of this. However, the dinner was delicious, the conversation and fellowship were even more tasty and we found that we had been more hungry for honest hospitality than for food. It was certainly more rare. We later joined the church and these people became great friends. We had been initiated into “tuna fish fellowship.” And if it was good enough for us; it was good enough for them. So we felt free to invite them over on the spur of the moment and crack open a can of tuna fish if necessary.
Time is a strange thing. Why waste it on making everything perfect. The children just make the house dirty again. But when we spend time with Jesus, that time can not be taken away from us.
No comments:
Post a Comment