PRIDE 2

Pride is insisting on waiting on Jesus instead of waiting for Jesus, which is the essence of patience. This was Martha’s sin. It was not time for Jesus to be waited on. He came to Martha’s home to give something to both her and Mary. He had come to teach them. Since they were women and Teachers (Rabbis) did not teach women, it was a very special gift he wanted to give. He wanted her to wait for that gift just as Mary was doing. Her pride got in her way.

I have found it true of Martha and many of her descendents that they are much better at giving than they are receiving. Pride has subtle ways of changing giving into controlling. Pride converts giving into a transaction. “I will care for you and in return you will at the very least be properly grateful.” Creating this sense of debt on the part of the recipient becomes a means of control. Guilt is used to manipulate the proper response to this wonderful gift of caring. Reality is that people don’t always act the way they are supposed to, especially in the area of gratitude. Worse still, most people don’t like to be manipulated or controlled by guilt.

For Martha I’m sure this was not a conscious effort to control Jesus, but the results were the same. She, like many others whose generosity is infected with pride, was in danger of having her sense of worth bruised. If asked, Martha would have denied trying to control Jesus, but that is exactly what she was doing. It hurt her when he refused to go along with her plan and then was ungrateful to boot. To understand how this sin of pride comes into the lives of giving people with wonderful servant hearts, let’s take a closer look at Martha’s encounter with Jesus.

Although Jesus was a friend of the family, his status as a teacher in Israel made his visit highly unusual to say the least. He had come to teach and rabbis did not teach women. What an honor it was for Martha to have such a guest in her home. The natural thing for Martha was to have her home in good order to receive her guest and have a good meal prepared.

The point is that what Martha did was a good thing, which obviously came from a heart full of generous hospitality. Pride starts with a good thing of which we have a right to be proud. However, it takes the good thing and bends it for selfish purposes. It was good for Martha to open her home. It was good that she was preparing a special meal. What Martha did not realize was that Jesus came to give first and then receive. His giving was most important to him. All her preparations got in the way of her understanding this. Her preparations became more important than the person she was serving.

PRIDE

The house was clean. The smell of baking bread and the fragrance of spices in a special dish she was preparing filled the air. There were only a few details remained. She was so excited! He had honored her and her sister by accepting a dinner invitation. He was not only their friend but also a respected Teacher. She would fix him the finest meal he had ever eaten!

Her problems began when she found that she had not been watching the time. Her guest arrived before all the preparations were finished. That would not be a problem since her sister could help her. Little did she know that from that point on, everything would go wrong.
Instead of helping her, her sister parked herself at her guest’s feet hanging on every word of the Rabbi. How could she be so lazy when there was so much work to be done? Worse yet, the Teacher seemed to be encouraging her. Neither seemed to care about all she was doing for this special meal.

What happened next even surprised her. She was so angry. Before she knew it, she flew out of the kitchen and began scolding her guest for not telling her sister to help her. Where were her manners? Instead of extending all the proper courtesies to her guest, she was dressing down the very guest she so hoped to impress. To make things worse, she was humiliated when her guest took up for her lazy sister.

As you might know, this is the story of the visit of Jesus to Martha’s home. The lazy sister, of course, is Mary (Luke 10:38-42). Over the years I have preached and taught many times on this visit of Jesus. It never fails that a “Martha” or two (sometimes six or seven) will rise to Martha’s defense. They are kindred souls with Martha. They have servant’s hearts and are wonderful, hardworking members of their churches. They make a powerful case in Martha’s defense for why she was in the kitchen and not sitting around like Mary. (Try operating a church sometime without them.) They will agree that Jesus had his reasons for saying what he said but will always believe he should have been kinder to Martha.

To any “Martha” who is reading this study, I feel an obligation to warn you that this next section may offend you. You see, I am going to address the sin of pride. Of all the things Martha may have been guilty of, any “Martha” I have known would rank this as the least of her sins and would be hurt by suggesting otherwise. After all, Martha is such a giving, caring person. I will take the risk of suggesting pride as Martha’s sin with the understanding that she is also an excellent model of the fruit of the Spirit, patience, as I will demonstrate later.

joy summary

Let’s review what the fruit of the Holy Spirit called joy does in our lives.

1. It teaches the practice of gentleness

2. It shows how to give up our rights

3. It keeps anger from festering

4. It draws us into the Lord’s presence

5. It produces honesty in confessing our sins

6. It releases forgiveness

7. It draws us into Christian community

8. It releases thanksgiving

9. It frees us from worry

10. It teaches us how to properly grieve our losses

11. It enables living in the moment

12. It brings the peace of God

13. It keeps us from indulging poor learned habits

14. It keeps close watch on our hot buttons

15. It changes angry behavior

16. It practices things that are excellent and praiseworthy

17. It learns from the example of others