Devotional Life and Spiritual Disciplines

Bible Passage: Luke 10:38-42

In ancient Israel, a disciple was sometimes referred to as one ‘covered in the dust of their rabbi’. In this series on discipleship, we are exploring what it looks like to live for Jesus in different areas of our lives. This sermon is an important moment in the series because it reminds us that being a disciple cannot be boiled down to a list of things that we do for Jesus, but it begins by taking time with Jesus. In order to see this contrast clearly, we look at the story of two sisters named Martha and Mary, who each express their love for Jesus in different ways.

She Has Chosen What Is Better: Over the course of Jesus’ time with the sisters, it becomes clear that they each have a different priority for what that time should look like. We should note that it is not Jesus who brings up the difference, as though he has set out to criticise Martha, but it is Martha herself who expresses frustration with Mary sitting listening to Jesus rather than helping with practical tasks. The way Jesus responds to her highlights two very different ways we might think about our own discipleship. It is possible to have a pragmatic and practical mindset that is mainly focussed on knowing what things we need to do. This is not wrong, but when it becomes the sum total of what discipleship is than something important is lacking. Jesus describes Mary’s priority of being with him as ‘better’, and as we think about our own discipleship journey then it is good to consider what it looks like for us to spend devotional time with Jesus just like Mary does here.

Time In His Presence: The heart of what Mary is doing here is spending time in Jesus’ presence. She wants to be in the room with him and makes the most of the opportunity to do so rather than running around getting other things done. For us the presence of Jesus looks different than it did for her. He is present with us by the Spirit rather than in the flesh. Nevertheless, we can choose like Mary did to lock in our attention on drawing near to him, or we can find ourselves taking his presence for granted. Spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, meditation, fasting and worship are some of the ways that we can engage with his presence today, and many people find it helpful to set aside time each day to do these things. One of the challenges that can sometimes get in the way of people doing this is busyness. There are lots of things going on in life that can clamour for our time and attention. In this story, Mary gives us a powerful example of cutting through the competing priorities and spending time on what matters most.

Listening to Him: In verse 39, we are told that Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him. This is noteworthy as it is the traditional posture of a disciple towards a rabbi, and in a cultural context where ‘disciples’ were usually male, there is something radical about Mary engaging with Jesus in this way. She is eager to hear and take on board everything that Jesus wanted to tell her, and we should note that this is exactly the way the voice of the Father told people to respond to Jesus – ‘listen to him!’ (see Matt 17:5). A key part of being a disciple is seeking to hear, understand and apply Jesus’s teaching, and for disciples today the best way to do this is through his word in the Bible. As well as taking daily time in prayer it is a good practice to take time each day reading the Bible, and also to receive Biblical teaching through sermons and small group Bible studies in order to keep growing and understanding who Jesus is and how he would have us respond to him in the way we live our lives.

Potential Applications:

• An obvious application is to challenge people to build a habit of regular time in prayer and the word. You may wish to make some resources available to help people with this (e.g. Bible reading plans).
• Within the meeting itself, create some unhurried worship time for people to be in Jesus’ presence.