The Good Part

Mary’s Story

Sister to Martha and Lazarus, Mary must have had long hair.

One day, Jesus was staying in their home after having raised Lazarus from the dead.  While they were eating dinner, Mary came to Jesus and poured very expensive, fragrant oil on His feet.  She then wiped His feet with her hair.  Not an easy feat if your hair is short.

The Good Part

It was that dinner where Mary’s sister, Martha, became upset because, Mary, was not helping with the dinner preparations.  This caused Martha to take her frustrations to Jesus.

Martha was a lot like us.  Focused, determined, and capable, she worked hard preparing a meal fit for the King.  But the distractions of daily living were blinding Martha from seeing a deeper truth right before her.

Martha knew her sister, Mary, was capable of helping her and that is why she complained to Jesus.

When Jesus responded, He cut through Martha’s thick diversions.  Martha learned that she was “worried and troubled about many things.” Luke 10:41 She also learned that her sister, Mary, had “chosen the good part.” Luke 10:42

The Next Life

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, spending time with Him, and listening to Him.  The most poignant thing we can learn from this interaction of two sisters with Jesus, is that Mary chose the “part that would not be taken from her.” Luke 10:42

When Jesus spoke with Martha about her distractions and her sister, Mary, choosing the good part, He was not inferring that Martha would lose everything.  Jesus was telling Martha, that what Mary was receiving, she would be able to take forward beyond this life.

We are so focused on this life that we rarely concern ourselves with the next one.  If, like me, you have been working tirelessly to build a life of comfort, then you must know that those things you have been furnishing your life with, cannot go with you to the next life.

In its time, the next life will be revealed for each of us.  It is a truth of the universe that none can escape.

The Real Treasure

We entered this world with nothing and it is certain we will leave it with only what we can carry.  When I say we will leave this world with only what we can carry, I do not mean that we will have anything in our hands, arms, or pockets.  Nor will we have a duffel bag hanging off our back.

What we carry out of this world will be in our heart and our head.  That is where the real treasure resides.  Mary instinctively knew that Jesus was the source of that treasure.

The Greatest Gift

What could Mary possibly learn that would be so valuable that Jesus would give her a pass on helping her sister, Martha?

The answer is time with her savior, Jesus Christ.  He was not going to be on the earth much longer and Mary loved Him deeply.  Who knows what she heard as she listened to Jesus, but I bet she can remember His words now, even though she is in heaven.

Mary also most certainly learned about the love God has for us and what it means to love your fellow human being.  God is love and I don’t think He can have a conversation without building on the theme of love.

Too many people think that love is sex, but for them, the idea of love is only an excuse for sex.  The bible defines the truth about love.  See below to find out what the apostle, Paul, said in the book of 1 Corinthians about the greatest gift of love.

With Us Forever

Other things that we will take from this life to the next are relationships.  God made us with a need to relate to others.  If there are relationships dear to you, that you want to continue beyond this life, then I encourage you to pray for those people in your life.  Like you, they need the strength to endure so that they also may be able to receive the reward of eternal life with Jesus Christ.

Finally, the Holy Spirit and fruit we receive from Him, will be carried through the veil.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and more are treasures that fill us and will be with us forever.

A Revelation of Truth

Love, relationships, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit will never be taken from you.  With one exception.

If you reject Jesus Christ and His will for you in this life, then whatever you have in this life will be lost in the next.

Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

Do you know who Jesus Christ is?  Do you believe in Him?   Will you stop right now to seek Him and spend time with Him?  Pick up a bible and start reading the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  When you finish those books, then continue reading to the end.  You will not be disappointed.

The words in the bible are alive and powerful.  I have been reading the bible for 40 years and it has never failed to teach me or open my eyes to a revelation of truth.

We spend much time going to school and learning to grow professionally and personally.  How much time is spent reading the bible and learning about the One who came to save us and give us an eternal hope?  Pick up a bible and read while it is still called “today.”  What do you have to lose?

What the Bible Says

Mary and Martha Worship and Serve

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Jesus and Death, the Last Enemy

And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”

Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?”

They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”

Lazarus Raised from the Dead

Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” John 11:17-44

The Anointing at Bethany

​Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.” John 12:1-8

The Greatest Gift

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13