Luke 10:39 “She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said.”

I have a number of “honey-do” projects that need to get done. Several years ago I bought Pergo flooring for my home study, and I still haven’t installed it. The frame around my back door is falling apart and needs to be replaced. The wall in our master bath near the shower could use a little patch work. Other projects wait for my attention.

Most likely, I will hire someone to get these projects taken care of. They will come and do the work. I will appreciate their service. If they do it well, I may even hire them again. But their work hardly means we have a close relationship.

When my wife gets a day off, she usually takes the kitchen back from me and does the cooking. She often helps with the yard work. I appreciate the help.

But I don’t want her to spend the entire day doing housework or getting projects done. I want us to get some “we” time. I want to sit and listen to her tell me how her life is going. I want time to tell her how much she means to me as well. It’s far more important for our relationship that we are communicating: speaking and listening to each other.

Isn’t that what Mary was doing with Jesus? We don’t know the specific content of their conversation, but I doubt very much that he was lecturing her about good behavior. No doubt his words were leading her further and further into the great heart of God. There we find love that seeks us no matter what we have become. There we find he forgives us no matter what we have done. There we learn he takes us back no matter how many times we have turned away. In opening our eyes and hearts to God’s grace, Jesus’ words bring us closer and closer to God himself. They deepen our relationship. They strengthen our grip on his gifts. They fill us with trust in his promises, because faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

There is a brief scene in the movie You’ve Got Mail, in which Tom Hanks, who has put Meg Ryan’s bookstore out of business, visits her with flowers when she’s sick. He has discovered she is the anonymous woman he has been falling in love with online. She doesn’t know he’s the man she has been chatting with yet. Before he leaves, she mentions the online relationship to him. “On the internet,” he says. “Yes.” “You’ve got mail,” he says. “Yes!” “Powerful words,” he says. “Yes,” she says, as if mesmerized just to think of them again.

Powerful words. That is the one thing necessary for us who follow Jesus, powerful words in which we are not serving him, but he is serving us. His powerful words inspire us to sacrifice for him only because he sacrificed body and soul in our place on the cross. “We love, because he first loved us.” “This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his only Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

So Jesus shows us the one thing necessary. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.” Jesus will always love your service to him. Don’t stop giving it. But none of that matters if he doesn’t serve us first, because we can neither have nor maintain our relationship with him without his word of grace. Hearing it, reading it, having it is the one thing necessary.