Having the Good Portion / Luke 10:38–42 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday July 20th 2025 / Season of Pentecost / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday July 20th 2025: Season of Pentecost / Luke 10:38–42 “Having the Good Portion”

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends the account of Jesus’ visit to the home of the sisters Mary and Martha is often preached with a focus on the Christian life of women in particular. In some ways this in understandable because Mary and Martha are both women but today we’re going to widen this to everyone. And with today being Confirmation of Baptism for five young men in our Congregation, Bronx, Emmet, Leif, Zackary and Kasen, we’ll also think of it in relationship to them, and by extension to us all. 

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,” Jesus says: Martha is focused on doing the serving and she looks at her Sister Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet listening as not doing anything, this is why she says to Jesus “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” Let’s put some perspective on this: Jesus promises to be with us here at Mount Olive, He promises to be with us here in His Word, in His Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, that is the Sacrament of the Altar; He promises to be with us in the forgiveness of our sins. With Jesus present here there are many Marthas who are busy serving, many men and women busy serving; we have ushers and members of the altar guild, we have Elders and funeral lunch workers and over the years people who have served in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, on church council and committees, in the office, with the board of church properties looking after the building and the grounds of the church just to name some, and while they do their volunteer work in service of Jesus they also do it in service of all the Marys who sit at Jesus’ feet listening and learning. All of this is happening around those Marys who are gathered receiving all the good gifts that God the Father is pouring out upon them through Christ Jesus by grace.

Now when the Marthas in the Lord’s house lose track of who they are serving and why and begin to think that it is all about them then a number of problems begin to emerge. One is resentment, they look at the Marys and see them sitting there in the pews like lumps gathered around Jesus listening to His Word and receiving Holy Communion and thinking that they are doing “nothing” they are tempted to say in exasperation, “Lord, do you not care that [they have] left me to serve alone? Tell [them] to help me!” It can become a common complaint: not enough people volunteering to wash out coffee urns, not enough people doing this, not enough people doing that … yet are the Marys gathered around Jesus’ feet really doing nothing?, more on that in a couple minutes.

Another one of the problems is when a modern day Martha loses track of who they are serving and they fall to the temptation of making it all about them and their work. They are the ones doing the work, whatever it might be, and wherever they go there they are so it’s understandable that they might start to think that way. But a star player on a sports team who resents their fellow players for not “trying hard enough,” or not scoring enough goals, or making enough assists, or securing enough first downs, or getting enough touchdowns quickly becomes insufferable when they make it all about them. And they can quickly become “anxious and troubled about many things.” Or when a really good player who delivers on “the ice” or on “the field” in the crunch when it’s go time thinks it’s all about them and their award winning work on the team but then they don’t want to listen to the coach, or learn the plays, or show up for practices, or put in the hours in the gym conditioning their body for best physical results, they too end up short changing themselves of the fullness of what they could have. To the World they might look like winners but they can quickly become losers.         

Martha in our reading from the Gospel of Saint Luke is in danger of being so distracted by the work in front of her and her resentment towards her sister that she could lose both “the good portion,” and the reason she was serving in the first place. Check out last week’s sermon to hear about living life while loving God and neighbour. Quickly, ‘what is “the good portion” that Mary has?’ That’s the part where she sits at Jesus’ feet, learning from Him, receiving all He has to give her. So for a Martha losing “the good portion” might start with a joyless sense of obligation in their work and service, and then might move on to only showing up when scheduled and then due to drama — often which they’ve largely created for themselves — eventually this can lead to giving up and throwing in the towel and becoming absent. Lastly pride will keep them away because they cannot abide anyone seeing them as a failure and they can’t get over themselves long enough to reconcile and come and sit at the feet of Jesus to listen and learn with their sister Mary in peace.     

This leads us to a question and then we’ll dig into Martha’s sister Mary. Here’s the question: “What is the opposite of resentment?”  

Martha’s sister Mary has found herself at the feet of Jesus listening to Him teach, she doesn’t resent the work her sister is doing for her, as far as we know she is grateful and full of thanks, there is no bitterness or anger in her. But even if she was oblivious to the amount of hard work that Martha was doing in her service and in the service of the Lord Mary is at the very least not depicted in Scripture as resentful, or bitter or angry. The opposite of resentfulness when it comes to our emotions and feelings is love and contentment, when it comes to our actions the opposite of resentfulness is gratitude and appreciation.

A question we need to ask ourselves for this life is whether the things that we are doing in life are necessary or not? As a church and congregation we need to ask what things are necessary. Jesus says that there is one thing that is necessary and that is Him and His teaching: what were the marching orders Jesus gave as He ascended into heaven, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[1] There you have three things: baptism, teaching or catechesis, and when Jesus says “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age,” you have Holy Communion with Him and with each other: Sacrament of Baptism, Sacrament of the Altar, and teaching all while gathered around Jesus’ feet together everything else needs to be in service of these things, of the good portion. The rest of what we do can’t get in front of this good portion, this overflowing cup, this table prepared before you by Jesus;[2] the rest of what we do can’t take centre stage, and can’t make demands on the needful thing which is learning and growing in virtue and grace in Christ. As Christians we’ll be both a Martha and a Mary, but first and foremost we need to find ourselves learning at Jesus’ feet, that is the needful thing, the good portion.

For two years Bronx, Emmet, Leif, Zackary and Kasen have been learning and growing in what they have been taught, they have been receiving from the good portion, they have taken to heart the needful thing and by the grace of God they have been brought to this day. Many Marthas along the way have served them to get to this point; every teacher that they have had from their family and from the church who taught them what Jesus teaches has served them. They have been encouraged and what they have done over these years is not “nothing,” it is God pleasing and good. They had some instruction before they ever began their classes and they have received a series of lessons from the Word of God and things like the Small Catechism and the Book of Concord which are a good and right exposition of Scripture, and they will continue to learn and grow throughout their Christian life.

The Sunday Divine Service is a place of prayer and praise but it is also a place of learning. In some ways it’s the practice field, it’s the ball and stick and a 1,000 practice wrist shots that in the heat of the moment on the ice becomes the goal to break the tie, to win the game. Practice for the wrestling mat of life. Weekly Confession and Absolution is like weight training repetitions in the gym and that moment where your body hits failure and can’t do another rep. This is where strength in forgiveness is achieved. Sitting in a classroom, sitting in a pew, kneeling at the communion rail might look like nothing to some people, might not look like much to the World but it is. Bronx, Emmet, Leif, Zackary and Kasen and all of us who’ve been taught and have listened at Jesus’ feet know this, and there will be moments in our lives along the Way where we need to be reminded of this, moments where we need to be called back to the feet of Jesus our teacher to partake of the needful thing, to be a participant in receiving from the good portion that Jesus offers here.   

To the one who is “distracted with much serving” whether that is in the church or in their work or in their home Jesus says, “Come to Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”[3] Learning from Jesus is not like learning from the school of hard knocks, and while it takes dedication and discipleship, while it requires having a teacher to guide you along the Way it is not burdensome or oppressive. It can actually make hardships and sufferings easier to bear in life.

In order to be the perfect teacher Jesus took the heaviest burdens pressing through them without fault in order to save you, in order to teach you. He both is Wisdom and the teacher of wisdom, He sends out His teachers into the World to administer the Sacraments and to teach and make disciples. We pastors are sent to do this for the young and the old, for those who are beginning to learn and for those further down the path as disciples, for all the team members and for everyone sitting in the stands or in the pews, for all the Marys and Marthas of the World. For those eager to learn and for those who need to be called back into the classroom of their faith.

Dear ones if you are a Mary don’t let a resentful Martha take the good portion away from you and it you are a Martha struggling in your service to the Lord and your neighbour remember the one needful thing, remember to sit down at Jesus’ feet to learn and be fed from the good portion, don’t work to take this from others.

Truly this boils down to the question of ‘what is the priority in your life?’ ‘What is the most important?’ Whatever it is at the very panicle of your life, whatever is at the tippy-top of everything will be what everything else files in line behind. The First Commandment within the Ten Commandments is “You shall have no other gods.” And in the Small Catechism this question follows: What does this mean? The answer is “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”[4] And there you find Mary at Jesus’ feet listening and learning, there you will find Martha putting down the towel to sit down and listen and learn at Jesus’ feet. If you put yourself first Jesus will at best be second. Same goes for other things in your life. Learn from Jesus and He will teach you how to run defense against the million things in this life fighting to scramble up into that first place spot in your life. Regardless of our age a hundred things and more every day are working to climb the ladder of your mind and the ladder of your soul to the very top, trying to find a hole in your defense to slip through like a snake, trying to outmaneuver you and pin you to the mat in the centre of the ring. Having your fear, love, and trust in God above all things will protect you from these competing teachers and adversaries. Having your fear, love, and trust in God above all things will even keep you from ruining your own game in this life.

When you become distracted and anxious and troubled about many things turn back to Jesus, have your eyes fixed on Him for He is the author and perfector of your faith.[5] Trust in Him, keep learning from Him, keep close to Him and remember, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised [Jesus] from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.””[6] Lastly it’s never too late to start learning, it’s never too late to keep learning, and it’s never too late to start learning all over again for the “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.”[7] That’s the kind of Teacher you have in Jesus and that’s the kind of teacher He has called us to be to others who need to learn from Him. When you have found yourself at Jesus’ feet listening and learning from Him you have chosen the good portion, I pray it is never taken away from you. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Matthew 28:19–20
[2] Psalm 23:5
[3] Matthew 11:28–30
[4] The Ten Commandments, Luther’s Small Catechism, Concordia Publishing House 2017, Page 13.
[5] Hebrews 12:2
[6] Romans 10:9–11
[7] Psalm 145:8–9

Photo Credit: main photo supplied by Mount Olive Lutheran Church.