A Meditation on Spiritual Balance

Luke 10:40-42

But Martha was encumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, "Lord, doest thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?  Bid her therefore that she help me."

And the Iesou (Jesus) answered and said unto her, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things'.  but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Martha was encumbered.  The Greek text suggests that encumbered means:  "to drag all around or to distract with care."  Her condition or personal state of being revolved around her work.  Her work demanded her constant attention.

She was fragmented and frustrated by the constant imperative of work.  She no longer controlled her work-day, her work-day controlled her.  She was so absorbed by work that the Divine Presence in her midst was only the means to an end. 

Her prayer, her petition to the Iesou was a complaint and a demand that his divine intervention be used to summon her sister into her encumbered situation.  Distraction and frustration had frozen Martha's ability to relate to her Lord, her sister, and herself.

Notice, that Martha never uses her sister's name in her frustration-prayer-petition.  She uses pronoun's like 'my sister', 'her', and 'she'.

When relationships are sacrificed on the altar of work, the encumbered ones demand that the unencumbered ones become as they are - fragmented by much work.

The Iesou answered and addressed Martha's need and not her frustrated desire.  The undistracted Iesou called the distracted Martha by her name and compassionately pointed out her situation.  He pointed out her raging anxiety and her perpetual disturbance about so many things.

His differential diagnosis concluded that:  "But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Mary understood that work must be balanced by cultivation of a rich spiritual relationship with Iesou.  And he wanted the heart of Martha to be set free from things that demanded her soul.  Martha's preoccupation with many things gave her no satisfaction.

We must all learn to balance our lives with appropriated dedication to work and appropriate attention to the necessity of spiritual wisdom in our lives through the Person of Christ.

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