(From the NJB)
Luke 10: 38. In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
39. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to him speaking.
40. Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me."
41. But the Lord answered, "Martha, Martha," he said, "you worry and fret about so many things,
42. and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her."
To my way of thinking it is to strive for saintliness. The chores of this life and world should not take us away from our trek to a saintly life.
What are your thoughts on that?
Peace and kindness,
Fred (arcura)

In this instance Jesus is referring to "sitting at His feet and listening to Him".

He DOES want us to strive for holiness but since He is the vine and we the branches, we can do nothing without Him. If we get too busy being saintly (even if it is living with the zeal to serve as Martha did) we can lose our refreshing time with God. It is important not only to enter His rest, but also to abide in it all our life.

revdrgade,
As always in the past your insight on the subject is well though out and gives me another good way at looking at it.
Yes, the cares and chores of this life can take us away from our "refreshing time with God (as you put it).
It is something to guard against.
Peace and kindness.
Fred (arcura)

arcura -

I'd like to offer a thought on this. It seems to me that the issue going on here is that Martha is trying to get Jesus to side with her. She's clearly thinking that way because she goes as far as to say "Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me." She's attempting to be hospitable and in her moment of serving, she becomes agitated at Mary because she is not helping her. She reasoned that meeting the needs of Jesus and the disciples was of utmost importance at that moment—which by itself would seem like a perfectly reasonable thing. She thought that her act of service at that moment was far superior to what it was that Jesus was doing for the people; which was teaching them the truths of the Kingdom of God.

To me the matter at hand was that Martha was, indeed, doing a good thing by seeking to serve the needs of the people gathered at the feet of Christ; but where she lacked perspective was that she did not see, with clarity, the full import of the moment. Here you have the Messiah, the Son of God, teaching His disciples the most important truths that people will ever need to hear in this life, and Martha comes along and says, Lord, please tell Mary to come and help me prepare this food. To which Jesus responds very lovingly, Martha, you are worried for many things and yet few of those things are needed (or necessary). But that thing that Mary is most concerned for right now (which is to learn about God and His Kingdom), I will not take that from her by telling her to come help you.

I believe that this is the significance of this passage. I think that it offers us a very keen perspective on how we place our importance on things. The issue is that when the really important thing enters our life and we are facing the decision to choose between that which is good and that which is necessary, we have to have the eyes to see which is necessary. That moment of interaction between Martha and Jesus captured that idea most perfectly.

jakester,
Thank you much for your thoughts on that; well thought out.
I agree with you.
Peace and kindness,
Fred (arcura)

I think that the problem was with neither of the ladies' actions, it was in the heart of Martha. Both ladies chose to "serve" Jesus, although in different ways. Mary chose to listen to him while doing nothing else. This served Jesus' need as well as Mary's. After all, what good is a teacher if there is no student to hear the lessons? (As a teacher myself, I understand that concept all too well). Martha had chosen to fulfill the obligation to provide for a guest, which met Jesus' physical needs. This should have been a blessing to her, but she instead chose to be somewhat bitter toward Mary. It seems she was doing the chores purely out of a sense of duty, rather than with a glad and serving heart.

I don't know if this is what you were getting at, but I thought it was worth a shot.

DK

In the king james:
... Luk 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
So the good part is the one thing that's needful. It seems important, cause jesus won't give in to martha's request for kitchen help.
Mary was sitting at jesus' feet, listening to his word. I honestly believe this is exactly what jesus wants every one of us to be doing. Because this 'one thing... [that's] needful', is listening to jesus' word.

kindj.
Your idea of the "part" Jesus was speaking of is what I was looking for.
Several people have provided what they see in that passage.
I thank you for yours. It is very good and easy to understand.
Peace and kindness,
Fred