Luke 10:38-42 (NRSV)
Read Luke 10:38-42 on biblegateway.com
Verse 38Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Verse 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. Verse 40But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." Verse 41But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; Verse 42there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
Devotion
We all live off the kindness of others. That's called hospitality. In Luke 10 Martha appears, at first, to be the hospitable one. But Jesus worries that her hospitality toward him is distracting her—dragging her off in a thousand different directions. Mary seems less focused on hospitality—or is she? What if Mary's hospitality toward Jesus consists of her attention, her focused listening to what Jesus has to say?
The most wondrous miracle here isn't that a gentle soul like Mary would sit still for Jesus in her living room—but that Jesus would sit still for Mary. We have in Jesus a God who graciously seeks us out, enters our space, pays deep attention to us—in order to speak his "I love you" to us again and again and again. Now that is hospitality!
Prayer
Come Lord Jesus, be our guest—and our host—always and forever. Amen.