February 08 2025

Saturday February 08

Ambassadors, Neighbors, and Worshippers

Luke 10:38-42

38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

Luke 10 begins with Jesus sending out the “seventy”. “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go (v. 1). Jesus calls and commissions them and gives them specific instructions. He tells them it will be difficult work (v 2), with danger (v. 3), with distractions (vv. 4-9), and with many discouragements as they are rejected (vv. 10-16).

Today, like the seventy, we are called and sent as Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). It is important that we be busy ambassadors, taking the message of the Gospel to lost souls. Luke tells us that the seventy went before Him to every place “where He Himself was about to go” (v. 1). Today, we have the promise that Jesus goes with us everywhere that He sends us. “…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).

In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus tells the story of the “Good Samaritan” after He was asked by the lawyer, “Who is my neighbor”. From this story we also learn that it is essential for us to be merciful Samaritans, seeking to help exploited and hurting people who need God's mercy. We should be a “neighbor” to the person closest to us that has a need.

If there is one thing that has jumped out at me so far as we have been going through the Gospel of Luke, it is even though Jesus ministered to the multitudes, He always took time to notice the individual closest to Him that had a need. And even in Luke 8, He was willing to leave the multitudes and to “crossover” to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to minister to one demon possess man at Gadara.

We are both ambassadors and neighbors! But before we can represent Christ as we should, or imitate Him in our caring ministry, we must spend time with Him and learn from Him. We must "take time to be holy." As we look at this incident that took place in Bethany, we see and learn that the greatest priority in our life is to be a “worshipper”!

Back in Luke 9:51, it appears that Jesus has completed His first three years of ministry in the region of Galilee, and we are told: “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem”.  Just a short distance outside Jerusalem is the village of Bethany where three of Jesus’ friends lived, Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus. When Martha heard Jesus coming through her village on His way to Jerusalem, Martha stopped Him and invited Him and His disciples to come in her house for a meal.

And this is where we are introduced to her sister Mary. There are many women called Mary in the Gospels and this Mary is better known and identified as Mary of Bethany. Mary of Bethany is seen three times in the Gospel record, and on each occasion, she is in the same place: at the feet of Jesus. Here in this passage, she sat at His feet and listened to His Word (Luke 10:39). Later on another occasion, in John 11:32, she fell at His feet and shared her grief because her brother Lazarus had died and Jesus wasn’t there to heal him. Then in John 12:3, Mary and came to His feet and poured out her worship: “Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”  

On this occasion in Luke 10, it appears that Martha was a server and Mary was a worshipper. But as we look at this passage, we should learn that we don’t need to make the choice of one or the other. We should be doing both. The danger is that we can get so busy serving that we forget to worship!

We should be ambassadors, neighbors, and worshippers all the time!

God bless!