Worship

Pentecost 6                                 July 20, 2025
Luke 10:38-42                              Pastor Ryan Wolfe

Christians, Keep Your Focus

One of the things I admire about professional athletes or highly successful people in general is their focus. I tend to bounce around from one thing to another until I forget what I actually had started on. If you’ve seen me work on projects in the office or try to teach a Bible study you know that focus is not exactly my strong point. Highly successful people? They have a laser-like focus on their goal and nothing will distract them. That kind of focus allows them to stay on the right path and win the prize they’re working toward. It’s interesting that God tells us in our text here that Christians need to have that same kind of focus and drive if we want to succeed spiritually too. We need to keep our focus on Christ. And in his Word today, we find a simple two-part encouragement to help us keep that focus. We must recognize that the world will distract us, but the Word will guide us.

This short account from the life of Jesus is pretty simple, but you know what might be the most difficult part to understand? Martha is doing the right thing here! Especially contrasted with the verses just before this. Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan we heard last week? When Jesus taught us to help our neighbors and take care of others? Yeah, that’s verse 25-37. Now here, we find Martha doing exactly that and Jesus certainly doesn’t commend her for it does he?

We expect a rebuke when we are distracted by the things of this world, but Martha isn’t in the family room watching TV or wasting time while Mary is laying at Jesus’ feet listening to him speak. Martha is working. She is preparing a meal for Jesus. This is a good thing, and it’s a big job. There’s no microwave or gas stove. No grocery store to go pick up a turkey or dinner rolls. If Jesus is here even with just his closest disciples this could be a crowd of 16 or more. Imagine your Thanksgiving gathering and one person doing all the work while everyone else is out socializing. Who of us could blame Martha for wanting her sister to help? The way Jesus says to help.

But when she comes to Jesus and asks for that help, she doesn’t get the answer she expected at all. Jesus doesn’t scold Mary for shirking her duties as a hostess. He doesn’t tell Martha what a wonderful person she is for doing this work for them. Instead Jesus says to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better.” I can just imagine the look on Martha’s face as she realizes what Jesus’ words mean. Here she had been slaving away working, and what did Jesus really want? That she sit and listen!

What is the one thing needed? It’s to hear the Word of God. Martha was so focused on what she could do for God that she had forgotten to listen to what he was doing for her. The world around her distracted her and she lost her focus. All we need out of this life is to hear the message of God, the gospel that tells us the good news about what Jesus has done. The gospel alone tells us why God will one day let us into heaven. And it won’t have anything to do with how many meals we prepared for the church, or how often we worshipped or how much we gave in our offerings. It will all be about Jesus and his sacrifice. It will all be based not on us, but on him. Our works are simply a thankful response to what he’s already done.

Such a simple truth, but hard to do. It’s an easy thing to lose our focus on Christ. There are a hundred things every day that demand our attention and turn us back to ourselves. Our work, our families, our hobbies – many times it’s not even things that are bad in themselves that become a distraction. Sometimes, like Martha, we get wrapped up in the good things we’re doing and forget that none of that matters compared to remembering what Jesus has done for us. Instead of sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his Word for us, we find ourselves in the kitchen peeling potatoes and roasting a turkey. This warning from Jesus isn’t aimed at the unbelievers of the world – it’s directed squarely at us. Our life of Christian response is important. It’s a blessing to the people around us. Our good works are signs of the faith that matters. But our focus is on Jesus. Our hope is in Jesus. Brothers and sisters, don’t lose your focus!

This can happen on a church level too. What is the mission of the church? Well, it’s just the mission of the individual Christians who make up the church. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey my commands.” It’s easy to lose sight of that as a church too. Especially in a church the size of Salem. If we start a program for any reason other than to show Christ to people, then we’re losing our focus. Take the Manning property. It’s been a question of what to do with it for much longer than I’ve been here. If we take that land and build a beautiful new church campus for any reason other than to praise God and lead others to do the same, then we lost our focus even as we did a good thing. Or, if we sell that property and stay here for any other reason than to praise God and lead others to do the same, we’ve made the same mistake. It’s not about what we want or what’s best for us – it’s about Jesus. We preach Christ, first, foremost, and always. And every program, every facility, every worship service MUST serve that purpose. To bring people to the one thing needful – the word of Christ.

That means, always, going back to the message. Remembering our sin and how it separates us from God. It means rejecting ourselves and putting our whole hope in Jesus. It means trusting that the work for heaven is done. Not by us, but for us. Jesus defeated death. Jesus earned heaven. And by grace alone, without our deserving it, he gives it to us freely. That is our God – fix your eyes on him.

How do we do it? We stay in the Word!. The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:2, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” Have you ever seen a newborn that wants to nurse? It doesn’t wait for mom to finish vacuuming or watching her show on television. That baby cries and screams out until it gets the milk that it craves. To that infant at that time, there is nothing more important in the entire world than getting that milk. This is how God wants Christians to look at his Word. He wants us to come to his Word with the same energy and passion determination.

This is why we worship. Not because it’s something we do for God but because God is here for us. We’re not making supper, we’re sitting at Jesus’ feet. Here we find the one thing needed in the lessons and the sermon. We see it when we look at the baptismal font and remember our baptisms. We celebrate it at this altar when we partake of the Lord’s body and blood. All around us in this place we are reminded of what is truly needed in our life. And we sing with the Psalm, “I rejoice with those who said to me let us go to the house of the Lord.”

There’s one last part of this story about Mary and Martha I would like to draw your attention to. Look at what Jesus says about Mary at the end of the text. “Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her.” The meal that Martha was preparing would have satisfied the guests in her house that day, but they would have become hungry again. But when the Word guides our focus we receive a meal that lasts. The spiritual food that Jesus gives satisfies us completely – here on earth and into eternity. And this forgiveness we have in Jesus will not be taken from us. Nothing can separate us from it, unless we turn our own eyes away.

So keep your focus. Not on your service, but on God’s. I’m not afraid that telling you to think less of your life is going to lead to less good works or less people helping at church or helping others. I know it will lead to more. We serve because see. When we keep our focus on what God has done for us our works of thanks will follow. So come, sit at Jesus’ feet and hear of his love. His voice calls out to you. Praise our Savior of mercy, here and always. Amen.