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Page 10 10 Now I want you to see the Lord Jesus walking into this home with His twelve disciples. Martha escorts Him and the Twelve into the public room–the space for the men. Jesus doesn’t request a meal. Instead, He wishes to teach. So He begins speaking. The Twelve are all gathered around Him, sitting at His feet. But something is strange about this picture. A woman is also present. And she too is seated at His feet. Mary has crossed an invisible line. She has breached two social boundaries. First, she is sitting in the men’s space. Second, she is sitting in the posture of a disciple. Now why is that significant? Because every rabbi in that day only had male disciples. Jesus was the exception. He welcomed women to be His disciples also. Let’s go over to the kitchen and look in on Martha. She has one thing in mind. She wants to give the Lord a proper welcome. She is preparing a large meal for Jesus and His disciples. She is slaving in the kitchen preparing the food, getting the plates out, taking out the best silverware, etc. But as each minute goes by, she begins to fume. Her sister isn’t helping her at all. Instead, she is in the public room seated at Jesus’ feet like one of His male disciples. In other words, Mary is acting like a man! Martha continues to work in the kitchen, hoping that Mary will get up and help her. She breaks a sweat. But she just can’t take it any longer. She storms into the public room and protests to Jesus. “Mary isn’t helping me. Don’t you care! Tell her to help me!” Martha was in effect saying, “My sister is in the public room acting like a man when she should be in the kitchen helping me!” Notice that in the midst of Martha’s protest, Mary is silent. She doesn’t defend herself. She lets the Lord defend her. And He does. The Lord’s response to Martha is tender. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. Mary is concerned with only one thing. And it is the most necessary thing. It is the better thing–being my disciple.” “One thing is needful,” He says. “And I won’t take it away from her.” The Lord seems to be saying that the one thing that is necessary . . . the “better part,” as some translations put it, is to know Him. And out of that knowing issues forth intelligent service. A service that flows out of love, friendship, and fellowship. The greatest priority in life is to know the Lord. And that requires time at His feet. But something else is happening here. Exposing the Heart In Bethany, our temperaments, our dispositions, and our motives are exposed. I want you to notice: Jesus didn’t say that the many things that Martha was troubled about were wrong. He simply pointed out that only one thing was necessary. I find it telling that Jesus never told Martha to stop serving. What He did was expose