Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” Luke 10:40 (NIV)
I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. Isa. 45:7 (ESV)
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Prov. 16:4 (ESV)
Lord Jesus, Martha’s question, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?” seems a bit immature, on her part. I find myself wanting to say to her, “If Jesus doesn’t care, who does?” Or, “Martha, get over your whining and finish supper.”
But we do experience things in life that make Martha’s question quite understandable. Sometimes life’s events contradict what we’ve come to expect from you. When our kids suffer, the cancer returns, our employment goes away, relationships blow up, or the addiction outlasts the recovery… those seasons generate vulnerability, confusion, and doubt.
Though you don’t always explain or fix things, we are thankful to know you will never “crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.” Even when we’re angry, you welcome us. The weary find rest in you, long before the Day of all things new (Matt. 11:28-30: Rev. 21:5).
Jesus, when we’d prefer predictability to your sovereignty, grant us big grace and trusting hearts. Keep rescuing us from bad theology and unbiblical teachings that never prepared us for days of mystery and suffering. Free us to accept the fact that you “make well-being and create calamity” (Isa. 45:7)—that you have made “everything for its purpose,” even, “the wicked for the day of trouble” (Prov. 16:4). One Day this will make total sense to us.
Until then, until that blessed day… by your life, death, and resurrection, we have hope, Jesus—great hope, living hope, sure hope. So very Amen we pray, in your kind and powerful name.
