Mary: “But one thing is needed, and Mary has choose the good part, which will not be taken away from her” (Lk. 10:42 NKJV). Mary appeared three times in scripture, in three different episodes of life, and on each occasion she is sitting at the feet of Jesus (Lk. 10:39; Jn. 11:32; 12:3), bearing the brunt of someone’s harsh words for her single minded devotion to our Lord. Mary was a person of one thing - passion for Jesus - who prized every minute in the presence of an audience of one. In a sense this passage paints a comparison of our soul and spirit. Martha, representing our soul, is “worried and troubled about many things”. Our soul is never at rest and always distracted by the natural realm. These distractions are not always “bad things” in and of themselves” as in this case where “much serving” had distracted Martha from intimate fellowship with Jesus. Remember, “good” is always the greatest enemy of “best”: Martha wasn’t out hitting the local pub; she was serving food to Jesus and His disciples. But she was “distracted” from the “one thing that was needed”, and missed out on the “good part”. Mary, representing our spirit, wants to abide in the presence of God with passionate, single-minded determination. This is the “one thing that is needed”, the “good part” - passionate, whole hearted, intimate devotion to our savior. But we must willfully choose to be a person of one thing, refusing to allow our soul to distract us from the wooing of the Holy Spirit. In all her fussing about, Martha never realized that Jesus could have easily “created” dinner - the miraculous is never far behind passionate intimacy.
GOOD IS ALWAYS THE ENEMY OF BEST
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