Choosing The Better Portion

 We love celebrating birthdays with our grandchildren.  After the candles are blown out and we have all joined in singing “happy birthday,” it is time to cut the cake.  The birthday celebrant gets to choose the “better portion,” usually the corner slice or the one with the most icing.  The younger the child, the more likely they are to make an honest choice.  As we grow older, we defer, out of a desire to be polite or to conceal our gluttony.

 But, really and truly, we all secretly, if not overtly, want the better portion.  Almost all advertising is based on this premise, promising the better portion if we choose their product or their service.  

 In the Bible an interesting scene unfolds in an obscure home on a side street in Bethany, a quiet village just beyond the Mount of Olives, only two miles outside Jerusalem.  It was Jesus’ favorite place to stay when he was visiting the holy city.  The house was the home of two sisters and a brother: Mary, Martha and Lazarus. 

Dinner was approaching and Martha was doing her best to cook up enough food to feed fifteen people, Jesus, his 12 followers and her own family.  Outside, the men were deep in conversation and, in their midst sat Mary, Martha’s sister.  Finally, Martha had enough.  She burst through the door and demanded Jesus tell her sister to come help in the kitchen.  But Jesus shocked everyone in the room with his response.  “Martha, Martha you are anxious and worried about so many things and Mary has chosen the better portion,” (Luke 10:41).

 I often wonder what happened next. The Bible doesn’t say.  We know that Jesus loved Martha.  John wrote, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister,” (Luke 11:5).  I suspect he got up and helped her.  Surely, he who washed the disciples’ feet would not leave Martha in the kitchen alone.

 This event gives us insight into what we all can learn about choosing the better portion.  We choose the better portion when we turn from worry and distraction to simplicity.  Like Martha, I am often worried about things that never happen.  And, like Martha, we are often pulled in many directions trying to meet obligations.  Mary had chosen simple delight, sitting at Jesus’ feet.  Life should be lived with delight, experiencing God’s pleasure.  Repeatedly the Scripture says that God took great pleasure in Jesus: at his birth, his baptism and his transfiguration. Jesus said it is the Father’s pleasure to give us the kingdom! (Luke 12:32). 

 Every day I meet people who are living life out of obligation or delight.  I see it in the faces and hear it in the voices of workers at the fast food restaurants or employees and various businesses.  Some are doing what they do out of obligation. They don’t want to be there. They don’t like their job or the people they work with.  Others are working out of delight, enjoying what they do, happy to be of service.  Every day I can choose to live my own life out of obligation or delight.

 Most of all, Mary chose the better portion because she chose Jesus.  I often wonder what Martha and Mary remembered about that day Jesus visited.  Martha would remember a frustrating day full of obligation, the hot kitchen and the stress of entertaining her guests.  Mary would remember Jesus, the look in his eyes when they met hers, the sound of his voice, the touch of his hand and the words that he spoke.  What do we remember at the end of the day?  What will we remember at the end of life’s journey? Are we choosing the better portion?