Jesus Protects Mary’s Devotion from Martha’s Agenda
Luke 10:38 shows us an event where Jesus and His disciples were invited into Martha’s home. As Jesus is speaking Mary, the younger sister, sits at His feet and listens intently to everything He is saying. Martha is distracted from Jesus because she is concerned about all the preparations that need to be made for these guests. At one point she becomes frustrated enough with her sister that she asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her! Jesus then tells Martha that Mary has chosen to be completely focused on Him (for the moment) and that this opportunity will not be taken away from her so that she might get the chores done. Jesus essentially protects Mary’s devotion to Him.
I don’t know about you, but for me the “protection” of Jesus, in its many forms, was an absolutely new concept. I never thought of Jesus “protecting” people. I only thought of Jesus in terms of challenging people and convicting them of sin. I am sorry to say that, but it is true. When I began to see Jesus’ protection, especially of imperfect sinful people, (which is all of us!) my heart was strangely warmed to turn to Jesus more deeply. This began with His protection of the woman caught in sexual sin (John 8:1). Jesus protects her “while” she is guilty. Then I saw His protection for Mary when Judas accuses her (Satan’s voice) of wasting all the money on Jesus (John 12:7). Then I began to see Jesus’ protection for humans when He delivered them of demonic spirits or oppression. This was essentially “protection.” Then I saw His “calming of the storm on the sea” as protection for His disciples, among other things (Mk 4:39).
Foundation Verse: “… Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) or “The Son is… the exact representation of [God’s] being.” (Hebrews 1:3) Given these 2 passages and others, we can see that Jesus “exactly reveals God!” Jesus is the visible manifestation of God. What God does and how He does it, is perfectly and precisely revealed by Jesus. And this is obvious when you consider the truth that “Jesus is God who became a human through Mary and Joseph.”
Therefore, Jesus’ protection reveals God’s protection. Jesus’ protection, not of the perfect, but of regular people, reveals God’s protection of everyday regular people… that He might win them from the world and the devil to Himself!
Prayer: “Father, help me see all the different ways you protect me! Help me see all the ways you intervene so that my faith in you might grow! Help me have “confidence” in You! Seeing your protection warms and opens my heart to trust you even more! Help me worship you in the light of your goodness (character)!”