“Don’t just do something, sit there!”
Original sermon given on Sunday, July 20 2025 written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“The Good Samaritan”
Luke 10.38-42
Luke 10.38-42
In the name of the living God and the risen Christ. Amen.
You are in a small village outside of Jerusalem. A great rabbi has been invited by a woman into her home, and he has actually accepted — a very strange circumstance, indeed! The host, Martha, busily readies the house, sets the table, prepares the food. The clanking of the pots and pans grows with increased intensity in direct proportion to her increased stress level. (Does it work this way in your house?) Martha frets and fusses in order to serve the Lord, her invited guest, (and who knows how many hangers on) to fulfill his needs.
Understandably, she is a bit miffed that her sister, Mary (that real slacker), is just sitting there, enjoying the company. Martha tries to drag Jesus into the family quarrel. But he gently admonishes her, and by so doing challenges Martha, and each of us, in our understanding of what it means to be in relationship with Jesus and what it means to be fulfilled.
But let’s take Martha’s side for a minute. It’s easy to do. You’ve gotta have people that do stuff — around the house, at work, or even in church. Who isn’t thankful for that coworker that jumps up and says, “I’ll do it; I’ll take care of it; don’t worry about it!”? Better yet, how about those people that do without even being asked — who just know what it means to chip in and get it done! “Many hands make light work,” my parents used to say. Nearly every organization, sacred or secular, seems to follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of the heavy lifting being done by 20% of the people. And so, like Martha, our instinct is to challenge people by saying, “Don’t just sit there, do something for a change!”
But through these living words of scripture, this morning, Jesus instead challenges us about the nature of our relationship to him and what it means to be truly fulfilled. Who really is the host in the end, and who is the guest? Who is really serving and giving and who receiving in the gospel account? Mary has chosen the “goodly portion” because she recognizes that sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing his word, and being served by him is the most needful. Our Christian lives, our worship, even our very salvation begins there, at the feet of Jesus: learning his instruction, receiving his forgiveness, being filled with his peace. And there is no business, no service, no meeting, no task, no good deed which is more important, more needful than this: being served by him.
It is noteworthy how the original language describes busy Martha’s activity. Literally, she was “being dragged around” with much service. Do you know what this is like — the feeling that the business of life, and the many activities of work, home, church, school are in charge, dragging you to and fro? Are you running your life, or is your life running you? You gotta get breakfast on, gotta get to work, fight the traffic, don’t forget to fill up with gas, did you text that person back? How many appointments today, stop for milk on the way home, supper on? Dishes, laundry, lunches made for the next day, collapse on the couch with your phone, and then start it all again over tomorrow. Like Martha, our busy lives end up dragging us around.
And because our culture is so caught up in accomplishments and checklists and productivity, we often translate this into our identity as Christians — as if our standing before God is measured in how many good, wholesome, Christian activities we can do. It’s not. One thing’s needful. Who we are in Christ is not determined by what we do; it is determined by what he has done and continues to do for us. Sometimes we need to be challenged like Martha was. Maybe we could say it this way: don’t just do something, sit there for a change!
One thing is needful: to sit at the feet of Jesus, and receive from him. “Martha’s mistake was in thinking that she was the host, and Jesus the guest,”[1] when in fact, Jesus was doing the real serving that day. Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. His service towards us reached its culmination, offering himself on the cross for us, and for our salvation. There he bled and died for our full forgiveness; there he emptied himself in love and compassion for sinners in need; there he said, “It is finished.” And there is no deed we can do, no list we can cross off, no Christian virtue we can take on, no board we can serve on, which could ever possibly add anything to what he’s already given us. As one commentator put it, our identity with God is not in the “busyness of human doing, but in the stillness of listening to the words of Jesus.”[2]
So slow down. Receive the word. Hear what your Lord has to say. Let him host you and quit getting “dragged around” by life. There are of course many important things, but only one is needful — truly fulfilling our inmost need. He’s doing the real serving today.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.
[1] Arthur Just, Luke, vol. 2, 459
[2] Arthur Just, Luke, vol. 2, 450