Episode 334: Distraction & Intimacy | Landon Dermott

Thank you, Quigg. I was gonna say hello. I was gonna preach today, but the bible font is like four points, and so I need a much younger man to do that. You're elected, bro. Come on up.

Thanks, Quig. Thanks for that short notice. Good morning. My name's Landon. I'm the area director of Young Life here in Roanoke, and I oversee the ministries that we have for high school and middle school students all over the Roanoke Valley. I'm a member of Church of the Holy Spirit, and every time I get the privilege and honor to stand up here, it's really humbling and really exciting for me as well. So I'm excited to jump in this morning.

But before we do, I wonder if you can think of a moment in your life where everything changed. You can almost date time by a moment like this, where before it, everything was different, and after, nothing was ever the same. You probably have a few, but I wanna share with you one of those moments in my own life this morning.

It happened in March 2006. I was 11 years old. I was a fifth grader at Oak Grove Elementary. Go Tigers, and don't you forget it. And we were taking the writing SOL. I was in Miss Buckley's class, and class had ended. Basically, what was going on is we would take the writing SOL, and then whenever it was done, we were gonna go out, and the rest of the day, we were gonna have recess. It was pretty bad motivation because we all just sprinted through the test. We were like, let's get out of here as fast as we can, but we're done. We head out to the playground, and there's about 20 some of us in the class, but there were 12 guys, and we said, hey, let's split up and let's play touch football. So we split up and did six v six, and I was on Scott Wiggington and Ryan Loria's team.

One of the first few plays of the game, I went and I was playing wide receiver. Scott was playing quarterback. I was lined up, and he said, down, set, hut, and he threw me the ball. I remember standing here just like this, watching the ball almost in slow motion fly towards my face. And my four foot nothing, fifty five pound frame saw out of the corner of my eye Dorian Harris, who I don't know exactly how big he was, but somewhere between seven and eight feet tall, somewhere between five and six hundred pounds. And he comes running to receive this pass and try to intercept it. He's on the defense. And as I stand there, he lands knee first onto my thigh. I'll spare you too many of the details, but my leg broke. I had a fracture in my femur, and it was a pretty big deal. It wasn't just a small fracture. They rushed me to the hospital, and I was given a doctor who performed a surgery on my leg. He put an external fixator in the bone and tried to put it together and said, okay, Landon, here's the deal. In about four to six weeks after this surgery, your bone will be healed. You'll be back to walking, running, and doing all the things that a normal kid your age would be doing.

Now, I'm gonna show you an x-ray from after surgery. This is after the doctor had performed the surgery on my leg. I know it's a little bit gross to look at, but basically, as you can tell, things were not as they should be. And instead of four to six weeks, flash forward six to eight months. I'd kind of gone through a bunch of different treatments. I wore a thing called a bone growth stimulator for a few weeks. I had a couple more surgeries, and I did a little bit of physical therapy. And no matter what we did, that bone never healed.

And after six to eight months, my family and I said, hey, we need to go see a different doctor. So we looked up online some leg specialists, and we found a guy named Dror Paley, who you should look up because he's fascinating. He was located in Baltimore, Maryland, and we went and saw Doctor Paley. Doctor Paley took a look at my leg. And Doctor Paley was a good doctor, and what he did was he looked at the symptoms I was experiencing with my leg. And after he looked at the symptoms, he said, I wanna figure out what's going on underneath the surface. What's the underlying issue? What's the diagnosis for why your bone is not healing? And then after he did that, he said, I wanna develop a plan. I wanna administer a cure, and I wanna develop a plan for how we can heal your leg. And that's exactly what he did.

And about a week after my first consultation appointment with him, he performed another surgery, and he put a bar inside of my bone and connected those two pieces of the bone together. And in about four to six weeks, compared to six to eight months, I was back walking, running, and doing all sorts of things again, because he was able to see the symptoms, make a diagnosis, and administer a cure.

I know that's a little bit of a random story, but this morning, I'd love to look at a passage in Luke's gospel, an account where Jesus interacts with two women, Mary and Martha, and I want us to look at that passage that might be familiar to some of you through the lens of a doctor. And as we look at how Jesus deals with Mary and Martha, but specifically with Martha, I want us to use that lens of a good doctor, of a doctor who sees the symptoms that Martha is experiencing. I wanna see what's going on underneath the surface, what's the actual diagnosis for what's going on in Martha's heart, and then I wanna look at what Jesus offers to her as a cure for what she's dealing with. So if you would, flip with me to Luke chapter 10 verses 38 to 42.

Luke 10:38-42

We read it already this morning. We're gonna take a look at it. And a little bit of context for you, Mary and Martha were sisters who lived in Bethany. We get a couple other accounts in scripture of interactions they have with Jesus, but we know they were good friends of Jesus'. And Jesus and his disciples are coming through town, and Martha invites Jesus in to her home. We know it's Martha's home, and Martha works tirelessly to make sure that this night is perfect, that everything goes smoothly, that Jesus is well taken care of, and she's working and working and working and working, and all the while, her terrible, no good sister named Mary is just sitting at Jesus' feet doing nothing. It says that Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet, and we can imagine that as the night goes on that Martha becomes increasingly frustrated. You can almost imagine if you felt it like I have, where your anger almost just rises up, and you can feel it rising in your body. Your ears start to feel a little bit hot, and then Martha has this sort of outburst, so to speak. And she gets more and more frustrated, and she goes to Jesus, and she says:

"Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me."

And I wasn't in the room, and I don't know exactly how it went, but I can imagine that people were having conversations and everything was just moving on as normal. They were casual side conversations, but in the moment that this happened, everything stopped. The room went radio silent, and everyone's eyes turned to focus on this interaction that was about to happen between Martha and Jesus.

The Three Symptoms

And so, I said, this morning, I'd love for us to look at the symptoms that Martha is experiencing. And after that, I'd love to look at what Jesus sees as a diagnosis for what Martha is dealing with because Jesus so often looks at the heart level. And then I'd love to look at the cure that Jesus offers to her. So let's start with the symptoms, and we can see the symptoms that Martha's experiencing. I think the first one we see is in verse 40 in the first half of what Martha says to Jesus. She says:

"Lord, don't you care?"

And I think what we can call this is vertical suspicion. You see, Martha has begun to question, does Jesus really see me? Martha had a relationship with Jesus. She calls him Lord. She knows him, but she begins to question his goodness. Does he really see how hard I've worked? Does he really know how much effort I've put into this dinner? Doesn't he know all the sacrifices I made? Doesn't he know how much I love him? She begins to experience vertical suspicion. Lord, don't you care?

The second symptom that I think we see Martha experiencing is what I'll call horizontal frustration, and we see it in the second half of what she says. She says:

"Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?"

And I think she's begun to compare herself to the people to her left and to her right in this context, specifically her sister. And if you hear nothing else this morning, I hope you walk away knowing that comparison is the thief of joy in every aspect. But Martha has begun to compare herself to her sister and say, don't you sit? I'm doing more than her. Why is she getting to sit at your feet? I've been working tirelessly. Why are you having this awesome conversation with her? I want to be a part of that. She becomes frustrated with her sister.

And the third and final symptom that I think we see Martha experiencing is what we'll call inner turmoil. We see this in verse 41 when Jesus responds to her, he says:

"You are worried and upset about many things."

See, I think Martha was running around a little bit like a chicken with her head cut off, a little bit like a dog chasing its tail, just frenzied, chaotic, panicked, trying to make sure everything is perfect. She's feeling inner turmoil. She's worried and upset. Other translations say that she's anxious and troubled about many things. I think it's really interesting as we look at these symptoms that Martha's experiencing.

I made myself laugh as I was writing this sermon a few days ago, and I was thinking of the question I want to ask, and I'm going to sound a little bit like a medical commercial that you might see at halftime of a football game, but I'm curious, are you or anyone you know experiencing some of these symptoms that you see Martha experiencing? Because if you're anything like me, I experience these exact symptoms all too often. I find myself more panicked than ever, more stressed, more anxious, more troubled, running around like a chicken with my head cut off. There's so much to do and so little time to do it. And because of that, I find myself becoming frustrated, looking to my left and my right, comparing myself to others. And then I find myself questioning God. Lord, don't you care? Don't you see how much sacrifice I make for you? Don't you see how hard I've worked for you? Don't you care about my situation? Don't you see what I'm dealing with?

You see, I think that me and you, just like Martha, are experiencing a lot of these symptoms. Like I said, I want to look at the symptoms, but a good doctor doesn't just look at and treat the symptoms. Instead, they ask, what's going on underneath the surface? It would be crazy if someone went to a doctor and they had a brain tumor, and they said, doctor, I'm experiencing insane migraines every single day, and the doctor said, okay. Here's a bottle of ibuprofen that should treat the migraines. Right? No. A good doctor looks underneath the surface and says, what's causing the symptoms? And I think that Jesus does the same thing. He doesn't just look at the symptoms. He says, what's going on beneath the surface?

It's a lot like an iceberg. Right? We know that icebergs, there's 25% of an iceberg above the waterline, 75% is actually beneath the surface, and I think that what we see here is the symptoms—vertical suspicion, horizontal frustration, inner turmoil—that's just the tip of the iceberg, but so much more is going on underneath the surface, and thank goodness that Jesus doesn't just look at the symptoms, but he looks at the heart.

And, I think Luke gives us an indication as to what was going on in Martha's heart, and we see it in verse 40. And, it says this:

Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. — Luke 10:40

What's going on underneath the surface? Martha had a distracted heart. I did a little bit of research as I was preparing for this sermon, and I found three things that you might find interesting about distraction that I'm going to share with you now.

The Nature of Distraction

The first is distraction. The word actually comes from a form of torture, and I won't say too many of the details because it's a little bit gruesome, and you don't need to know all of it. But essentially, what would happen is they would take someone, and they would stretch them in multiple directions. And it was very painful, and it was very difficult for the body to be held together. It was a form of torture. I'm not sure if there's a better way to describe distraction than we're pulled in a million different directions, and it feels impossible for us to hold it together and focus on one thing because we're distracted by so many things.

Another thing that I found interesting about distraction is we often find ourselves distracted because we try to do this fancy thing we like to call multitasking. Multitasking is a word that was actually invented just thirty years ago by a company by the name of IBM, and that word was created to describe a computer. That word was never actually intended to describe a human being. In fact, researchers would say when humans try to multitask, they actually just do two or more tasks, and they do them one at a time. They're just switching back and forth between all those tasks, and they're doing all of them less efficiently and less effectively because they're distracted.

And the third and final that I think is the most interesting, and perhaps you will too, is most counselors, most relational experts would say the number one destroyer of relationships is distraction. That the hurdle for any relationship, be it a marriage, a friendship, a family relationship, the hurdle that they usually cannot get over is that of distraction. Why? Because distraction and intimacy cannot coexist. The two cannot exist in the same space. Distraction is a destroyer of relationships.

And every single time that I read this passage, I find myself haunted that Mary—who I can see a lot of myself in—has Jesus, God with skin on, in her own living room, but it seems as if she misses him because she's dealing with a distracted heart. I wonder if you, like me and like Martha, are suffering from a distracted heart.

But the good news is Jesus doesn't just see the symptoms, he doesn't just make a diagnosis, but he offers a cure because he wants to deal with Martha's distracted heart, and perhaps he wants to deal with my distracted heart and your distracted heart this morning as well. So, as we close, I'd love to look at how Jesus deals with Martha. We can see it here, and we won't get very far. We'll start in verse 41 because the first thing that Jesus says to Martha is this: he says, "Martha, Martha."

Now, tone doesn't convey over text. We don't know if this statement was full of grace or if it was more full of truth, if it was very stern, if it was more intense. We don't know exactly what this conversation looked like. We don't know exactly how Jesus said this, but what we do know is when he says "Martha, Martha," he's using a literary term called magnification. He says a word or a name twice. Anytime that you see a word or name in the Bible twice, you should stop and take a closer look because there's emphasis for a reason when there's names. And what we see is that Jesus says Martha's name twice.

And so what I'd love to do is take a quick look at a few of the other times that Jesus uses magnification to say people's names in the New Testament, and perhaps that will give us a closer look as to how Jesus is talking to Martha. The first that I want us to see is Jesus is up on a mountain, and he overlooks the city of Jerusalem, and he knows that he's about to enter into that city, and he knows that he's about to die, and he knows what will happen shortly thereafter to the city of Jerusalem. You know what he does? He weeps, and he says, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem."

A short time after that, he's having his final dinner with his dear friends, the disciples, and he's telling them what's about to happen. And he has a conversation with Simon Peter, who he knows is about to deny him three times. He knows that he's about to call curses down on himself. And he looks at Simon Peter, and he says, "Simon, Simon"—because Jesus loves Simon and he's concerned for Simon. He loves Jerusalem and he's concerned for Jerusalem.

And then another time that I want to look at is when Jesus is on the cross and he's momentarily separated from God. Knowing the triumph that's to come, quoting a psalm, he cries out, and what does he say?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

You see, each time that Jesus says someone's name twice, it's coupled with deep love and deep concern. You see, what I think we see here is it's no different when he's talking to Martha. He looks at Martha, and he loves her deeply, but he's also concerned because Jesus doesn't take the condition of a distracted heart lightly. I don't think we should either.

And then, let's look at what Jesus says next. He says:

You are worried and upset. You are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needed.

You see, what Jesus offers is simplification. Just like my bone was distracted, the problem with what was going on with my leg was that the two pieces of bone weren't touching. They weren't connected. So in that condition, it was never going to be healed. It needed to be connected at the source. That's exactly what Jesus offers to Martha. He says, you're distracted. You're not connected to the source. What do you need to do? Sit at my feet. Experience intimacy with me. Intimacy with Jesus is a solution to a distracted heart.

Mary's Example of Intimacy

What's interesting in this passage is I think we see that Martha seems to struggle with this, but Mary seems to get it right. In fact, he says:

Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

We get a little bit of a hint into this intimate relationship that Mary has with Jesus because we see this account where Jesus talks to Martha and Mary in Luke chapter 10, but then if we flash forward to John chapter 12, we see that again, Jesus has entered into the home of Mary and Martha. And Mary again sits at Jesus' feet, only this time, she cracks open an expensive jar of perfume, and she begins to anoint Jesus' feet with her tears and her hair. And some of the disciples try to stop her, and they say, "Don't waste this money," but Jesus stops them and allows Mary to keep doing it.

What's interesting is John reveals to us in that passage that Mary was actually probably anointing Jesus' body for burial, knowing his death was to come a few short days later. As far as I can tell, Jesus told a lot of people that he was going to come and live and die, but his disciples, Peter, a lot of people didn't seem to understand it. But we see Mary understand the secrets of his heart because she sat at his feet, because she was connected to the source, because she experienced intimacy with him.

But I don't think that Luke's reason for giving us this story is so that we'd pit two sisters against each other, that we'd say there's team Mary and there's team Martha, or that we'd identify with one or the other.

I've heard people say before, "I'm just more like a Mary. That's just who I am." Or "I'm just more like a Martha. That's just who I am." But I don't believe that that is what Luke is doing here. Because what I actually think, if we take a closer look, we can see is that Jesus is a better picture of both Mary and Martha.

You see, just like Mary sat at Jesus' feet and she experienced intimacy with him, Jesus sat at his Father's feet. We see that when Jesus was 12 years old, when he was just a boy, he gets separated from his parents, and they panic, and they start to look for him. And where is he? He's in the temple. He says, "I have to be in my Father's house." Jesus is baptized, and his ministry begins, and what does he do? He heads into the wilderness where he spends forty days out there being tempted and spending time alone with his Father. And countless other times, we see in scripture that it says, "Early in the morning, Jesus went off to a solitary place." To do what? To be connected to the source. To experience intimacy with his Father.

Jesus is a better picture of Mary, and Jesus is a better picture of Martha. He doesn't just stay at his Father's feet. He gets up, and he goes, and he serves. He teaches all day. He heals people sick. He heads into town and village after village sharing the good news. He even becomes obedient to death on a cross, dying for my sin and for yours.

See, the gospel of Mark says that Jesus didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The Real Message

So if you hear nothing else this morning, don't miss it. This passage is not an indictment on serving, and it's not an indictment on work, but this passage that Luke's giving to us is a caution against distraction, and it's an invitation into intimacy.

Charles Spurgeon says it well when he preaches on this passage. He says, "If you want revival in your life and in the world around you, you must first follow Mary to Jesus' feet, and afterward, you may get up and work with Martha."

I wonder if you have found yourself suffering from a distracted heart. I wonder if you're experiencing inner turmoil, if you're experiencing horizontal frustration, and if you're experiencing vertical suspicion. I wonder if in your life Jesus is waiting in the living room, but we are distracted and we're missing him all the same.

We need to be connected to the source. We need to sit at his feet. We need to experience intimacy with him. And I believe that he looks at me and he looks at you the same way he did Martha with deep love and deep concern. And he says, "Landon, Landon, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is needed."

Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. — Luke 10:42

All of those things that Martha was concerned about that night, that meal that she put together, it's gone. That house that she was serving in is history. All of those things fade away. But intimacy with Jesus, being connected to the source, sitting at his feet, that will not be taken away from you.

And he's looking at you with great love and great concern and inviting you to sit at his feet here and now to experience intimacy with him.

I'm going to pray and these curved rails will be open and there's space for you to come and pray alone, and these straight rails will be available for you to come and pray with someone else. And what I would ask is, is your heart distracted? Do you need to sit at his feet? Do you need to be connected to the source? Come and experience intimacy with him.

Lord, thank you for the ways that you love us. Thank you for the ways that you see our symptoms, the way that you make a diagnosis, and the way that you offer a cure. I pray that we would experience intimacy with you, that we wouldn't miss you being distracted and miss you sitting in the living room of our lives. It's in your name we pray. Amen.