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.