Heavenly Father, Your beloved Son befriended frail humans like us to make us Your own. Teach us to be like Jesus’ dear friends from Bethany, that we might serve Him faithfully like Martha, learn from Him earnestly like Mary, and ultimately be raised by Him like Lazarus. Through their Lord and ours, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were disciples with whom Jesus had a special bond of love and friendship. The Gospel according to Saint John records that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus (11:5).”
On one occasion, Martha welcomed Jesus into their home for a meal. While she did all the work, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to his Word and was commended by Jesus for choosing the “good portion, which will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:38-42).”
When their brother Lazarus died, Jesus spoke to Martha this beautiful Gospel promise: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” We note that in this instance, it was Martha who made the wonderful confessions of faith in Christ (John 11:1-44).
Ironically, raising Lazarus from the dead made Jesus’ enemies among the Jewish leaders more determined than ever to kill Him (11:45-57).
Six days before Jesus was crucified, Mary anointed His feet with a very expensive fragrant oil and wiped them with her hair, not knowing at the time that she was doing it in preparation for her Lord’s burial (John 12:1-8). (From The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)
Pentecost 6 SERMON Year C 2022 CLM, Text: St. Luke 10:38–42
Today is the Commemoration of Martha, Mary and Lazarus and from the Collect of the Day, “Heavenly Father…Teach us to be like Jesus’ dear friends from Bethany, that we might serve Him faithfully like Martha, learn from Him earnestly like Mary, and ultimately be raised by Him like Lazarus.” Serve, Learn, Raised are the three verbs in the Collect of the Day above with the subjects being respectively Martha, Mary and Lazarus. These verbs describe our life of faith in Jesus. These three verbs describe the work of the Holy Spirit in the true faith in Christ in making us holy, the work of sanctification, as we are “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Our homes, like Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ home can be outposts of God’s reign, yes, heaven…or hell houses.
Serve Right after the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we read Jesus and His disciples come to the home of Jesus’ friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, sisters, and brother. 38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. Inviting Jesus meant welcoming 12 disciples. They could rest in the hospitality of their home. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. As we are told in St. John 11: 5, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” The word “welcome” is the same used of Zacchaeus welcoming Jesus. Martha invited Jesus into her and her sister’s Mary house. She welcomed Him. She was hospitable…and so was Mary. Hospitality is the basis of Jesus sending the 72. Those who welcome the 72, sent out two by two, with the good message of the reign of God and His shalom, welcomes the One who sent them, and receives the Father who sent His only begotten Son to be born of the Virgin Mary.
And more: welcoming Jesus Christ was socially unusual in that day: a woman welcomes Jesus, rabbi, and a man, into her home, and that Jesus accepts her hospitality:‘not only the role Mary assumes, but also the task Jesus performs in this story is in contrast to what was expected of a Jewish man and woman’. Mary, Martha and Lazarus were dying to hear the Word of the Gospel, as we, so man-made social customs are shed at times.
And hospitality is not simply a footnote to this short narrative but essential to the Bible. Jesus comes to their home…as He did so many centuries before, to the tents of Abraham and Sarah, receiving their hospitality…for the Lord had joyous news, as He had promised: they would have a son in their old age. There is a famed Orthodox icon of this Scripture entitled, the Hospitality of Abraham. The child of promise, from who’s seed would be born the Messiah. And what did Sarah do when she heard the news? She laughed. When the Lord says, Sarah laughed, verse 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.” The Scriptures tell us that a qualification of pastors is to provide hospitality. All our homes are for guests to find warm welcomes to the Word of God. Our homes provide a warm welcome to our guests. It is providential that little Lexington has a yearly opportunity for public hospitality: adopt a rat. “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let Thy gifts to us be blest”. So in our homes, and here in the House of God we can…
Learn Do you think that Jesus and His disciples asked upon arriving at Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ home, Hey, what’s for dinner? The question is a hopeful and happy question of expectation. We quickly find out in this short narrative who is feeding whom and with what food. There were two hosts in the Bethany home: Martha and Jesus. Martha as hostess was busy with much serving: cooking, setting the table, then cleaning up in order to feed the guests. Jesus was giving to Mary, “the good portion that will not be taken away.” The Greek Word for “Portion” was used for a meal. We know how to feed ourselves, that is, our bodies. With the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Lord, we know we have hungers and thirsts that are not physical but of a spiritual nature. The Lord feeds us our daily bread and the Bread of His Word as He is Himself the Bread of Life. Martha went about serving. Mary sat learning…every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Taste and see that the Lord for His mercy endures forever. What does the Lord want to teach us? Jesus, teach us to pray day by day hour by hour in all circumstances of life and for ourselves and our neighbors in all conditions of life. Teach us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Open the Scriptures to us that we may know and do Your. Give us hope as we hear of the ways You have been with Your people Israel. Teach us love and serve our neighbor. Open the treasures of Your Word.
Martha did not like it that she had all the dinner chores. Martha sounded resentful. She said to Jesus, Tell my sister to help me. She commanded the Lord to tell Mary to help and accused Him of being uncaring! But Jesus loves the welcoming Martha as well as Mary, as He did their brother Lazarus. He did not lecture her. The problem was not Martha serving and Mary learning as the Lord knows the bottom of our hearts:
Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things Many things is as vast a territory as in Luther’s explanation of the 1st commandment, we are to fear, love and trust in God above all things. We live in age of anxiety and trouble. We live in a Martha world. Anxiety. He diagnosed the problem…
We are all Martha some time or another. Things come crashing in us. We are overwhelmed by all the demands of the day. We wonder will there be enough? Can we pay the mortgage? Or if things are everything okay, the “what if’s” attack, What if I lose my job, What if I don’t go the college I want, What if I don’t do FILL-IN-THE BLANK, I’ll just die. I’ve left so many things undone, and done so many things I should not have. IN the media age of increasing amounts of information, feeds the Old Adam in his anxiety and trouble from the health scare of the week to terrorists all over and what if someone were to break into your home. Anxiety and trouble kills us. Jesus came to kill sin, the Old Adam and give life in His Word to the anxious and troubled. He came to be killed by the trouble and anxiety of the world in His sinless body to forgive and renew us by His death and His indestructible life.
Many things and Jesus said there is the one thing needful: The many and the one: Sabbath rest in His Word. This lesson illustrates the 3rd commandment,
The Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
If the Sabbath rest in His Word is not there, then the heart is cold and bare, frightened and scared runs to and fro, for every wind of doctrine and spiritual ‘experiences’. Mary despised not Christ’s doctrine, neither did Martha. They both needed the one thing needful, the good portion that will not be taken away. Martha welcomed Jesus. The need for the one outweighs the needs of the many if the One is Jesus Christ. If God’s Word of Law and Promise, the Law and the Prophets fulfilled in Jesus Christ and preached in all doctrinal purity and the Sacraments are not administered according to Christ’s command, who cares? All is the darkness of busy-ness, shouting and screaming, look at all our good deeds, good feelings, good times. No, look, behold: the good Lord Who gives us what we need.
In John’s Gospel, chapter 11, Martha confesses Jesus is the Christ, chapter 11, after the death of her brother. This is the good portion, one thing that is needed, they both heard. Mary meets Jesus on the road and again falls at His feet and cries out that my brother would not have died if you had been here. She knew whom to turn to as did Martha. At the whole tangled mess of anxiety and trouble, the sisters turned not to themselves but Him, His Word. Our spirituality is God’s Word, every Word in the Bible, every Word sung and prayed, every Word faithfully taught and preached, the one thing needful, daily repentance turning toward Him our Sabbath Lord. Sabbath teaches we cannot save ourselves. The one thing needful is His Word of grace, mercy and peace to do the one thing needed: help and serve our neighbor in our various vocations. We so serve not to be saved but because we are saved by grace, grace alone.
“You shall observe the worship day/that peace may fill your house, and pray./And put aside the work you do, /So that God may work in you.”/Have mercy, Lord!” (LSB #581)
The old theologians rightly commented that Mary and Martha represent two essential aspects of our life in Christ: respectively, the way of contemplation and the way of action/service. First, contemplation/prayer then service, the first is the root of faith and faith grows the fruit of love…in hope and so,
Raised The Lord chided Martha for her busy-ness and rightly so, but preachers tend to overly chide Martha in their sermons and extol Mary’s faithfulness in listening to Jesus’ sermon. When Martha and Mary’s brother died, John chapter 11, Mary was so distraught she could not go with Martha to meet the Lord. Martha did and the Lord said to her: “Your brother will rise again.” Martha responded: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Martha knew her catechism! Then the Lord said, “I am the Resurrection and the life”. Martha was tough, pragmatic and knew her stuff! Now she will believe in Him And she loved her sister and brother. So, when it comes down to it: it is not so easy for us to pigeon-hole a person. Martha contemplated as well and learned as well from the Lord, while Mary in her hour of grief forgot. Yes, we are all Mary and Martha and know both contemplation and action, or service, around the Lord in His Word and Sacraments to us, for us, in us and for the life of the world…
…and we are also Lazarus. Nothing that Lazarus spoke is recorded in the Bible. He was not present when Jesus first met them, at least we are not told. Lazarus was acted upon by the Lord: raised. Our salvation is utterly passive: Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Death is both spiritual and physical. We were dead in our trespasses (Colossians 2:13). The spiritual and physically dead cannot raise themselves Our words cannot create life only the Lord’s does. I cannot raise me. It takes God Himself to do so in the resurrection of absolution/forgiveness and on the last day. We are Mary, Martha and Lazarus and in common with them, the Lord has given us faith in Him in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
We are also told by the Evangelist St. John that,
“ Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.”
They gave a dinner for Lazarus! Oh, to be a fly on that wall! And there is Martha serving again! This was just a week before Jesus Himself would give Himself up in crucifixion for the life of the world and rise for our justification (Romans 4:25). And in the night in which He was betrayed, He made a dinner for us all to be fed and watered by the Lord’s almighty nail imprinted hand: The Lord’s Supper or the Mass or the Divine Service, the Holy Communion. His body and blood us all as we are Martha, Mary and Lazarus, to serve Christ as He served and serves us, and our neighbor as Martha, learn Christ as Mary(cf. Ephesians 4:20) as the Holy Spirit teaches us the Word of the Bible and be raised as Lazarus day by day and in the last day to eternal life (John 6:40}as Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
Concordia and Koinonia 
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