Duty, or devotion?

It happens every time we have hamburgers. I cook up these delicious patties my wife Lisa has created, place them on beautiful sesame seed buns, and then take the ketchup and make a happy face on the underside of one bun. Then I put that burger in front of our son Connor.

Here’s where the problem starts. Connor doesn’t want us to put the hamburger together; he wants it left with the smiley face up. He dips his finger into it and licks the ketchup off the end.

I’ll say, “Connor, don’t you want me to put the hamburger together so you can eat the whole yummy burger?” And he’ll say, emphatically, “No.”

One time I put the burger together and Connor burst into tears. (Actually, he screamed.) But when he finally settled down, he took a bite of the burger and his eyes lit up. “Mmmm,” he announced.

Don’t we come at life like that sometimes? We have something good, but we aren’t willing to let it be excellent. There’s my son, mopping up the ketchup with his fingers because he thinks he has it all. But when we get the hamburger together for him and he takes a bite, he sees what he’s been missing.

Sometimes we treat Jesus that way. We see something, and dip our lives into it for a while, thinking it is wonderful. All the while we miss the larger calling on our life, the larger vision Jesus has for us.

Consider the encounter of two sisters, Mary and Martha, with Jesus as recorded in Luke 10:38–42.

As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a village where a woman named Martha welcomed them into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was worrying over the big dinner she was preparing.

She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are so upset over all these details! There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it – and I won’t take it away from her” (Living Bible).

Martha’s culture demanded she serve the guests who had stopped at her house. She was fulfilling the role society had given her. She was being a good hostess. She was doing her duty.

Martha was a friend of Jesus, and we know from other texts, that she loved him deeply. Perhaps she also wanted to sit at the master’s feet. Perhaps she was thinking that if Mary would just get up and help, they could enjoy Jesus together. My son’s burger all in pieces represents Martha, thinking she is doing things the way they should be done, not realizing she needs someone to put it all together.

Mary, on the other hand, sat down to listen to Jesus. When Mary is mentioned in the gospels, many times she is at Jesus’ feet, in the place of a disciple. Rarely would a Jewish teacher take a female as a student in Jesus’ day. Although it was culturally inappropriate for Mary to do what she was doing, Jesus welcomed her as a student. It expressed her devotion to Jesus. Finally getting that burger together and digging in represents Mary, discovering the greatness of the life Jesus is calling her to.

Whom do you relate to?

Depending on our backgrounds and personalities and ideas, some of us (including myself!) understand Martha very well. Others are more like Mary.

I don’t want us to pick sides around the women or what they were doing. Rather, let’s see what the story tells us about our lives. Each of us, whatever we do, has to decide whether we will live a life of duty to religion or a life of devotion to Jesus. And how will we know the difference?

A life of duty doesn’t stop long enough to get instruction, except for the task at hand. We can get so preoccupied with what needs to be done that we don’t have time to see the bigger picture. This is true even for those of us serving in ministry positions in the church.

A life of devotion waits for instruction. The life that is moving towards Jesus and His desires takes the time to listen. I am no master at this, but I know how important it is. There are many different situations that face us each day. We might try a brief period of waiting before jumping into the task. Instruction involves stopping and asking the Holy Spirit to lead, reading a passage from the Bible, or calling someone who we know is godly to get their input.

A life of duty is focused on what is urgent. Duty rarely looks far enough ahead to see what is essential. It is too caught up in the next thing that needs to be done. Take youth ministry, for example, which I’ve been involved in. The most important function of youth ministry is long-term discipleship. We need people to build relationships with students that take them beyond graduation. How tempting, though, to only focus on the next event or service project.

A life of devotion is focused on what is essential. Jesus said that Mary had chosen, by her obvious act and attitude of devotion, the better and essential thing. Ultimately, there are very few things that are necessities in life. Devotion discovers exactly what those necessities are. Jesus’ kingdom puts all that will perish into perspective. Is what we’re involved in going to last past this life?

A life of duty displays a critical spirit. Martha was not only critical of Mary. She was critical of Jesus. When our attitude is one of doing things out of duty we will begin to be frustrated and find fault with others. We will notice when someone else is not pulling their weight or serving in the way we think they should. Our work will be a burden.

A life of devotion displays contentment. Mary was probably content to have a small meal placed before Jesus. She chose to let things wait so she wouldn’t miss what Jesus had to say.

A life of duty questions God’s care. Martha said, “Lord don’t you care?” She thought that she would embarrass Mary by putting Jesus on the spot. How quickly self-pity leads to questioning the intentions of God towards us. It leads us into discouragement and a loss of focus.

A life of devotion is confident in God’s care. When we read later accounts in John’s gospel about Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus (John 11:21–27), we see that both sisters displayed this attitude. Martha too had learned to place her confidence in her Lord.

A life of duty is consumed by what others are or aren’t doing. A life of devotion, however, is concerned about what Jesus is doing. The dinner would wait; Mary wanted to hear what Christ had to say first. She wanted to see Jesus. See His heart. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full.”

Put the hamburger together, embrace the full life that Jesus gives. Embrace a life of devotion to the one who makes this life worth living.

Craig Reimer is Adult Ministries pastor at Westwood MB Church, Prince George, B.C. This article is based on a sermon he preached May 4, 2003. We spotted it at the church website.