The Good Portion

"But the Lord replied to her by saying, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the good portion (that which is to her advantage), which shall not be taken away from her."
(Luke 10:41,42, The Amplified Study Bible)

Mary has chosen the good portion.

Mary...has...chosen...the...good...PORTION.

When I read the word, portion, that The Amplified Bible uses in this verse, I suddenly gained further insight into this familiar Bible passage. Let me say this, The Amplified Bible chose the word portion because the original text, written in Greek, uses the word, meris (mer-ece') which means "a portion, share of, participation in or partaker of". See what I mean? The original text gives us understanding.

Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus whereas Martha busied herself with serving her Lord. And yes, Mary blessed Jesus by doing so. But He was actually saying something more than, "Good job, Mary. You made the right choice."

In the Old Testament, the priests were given portions of the animal and grain sacrifices. These portions sustained them. This was possible because the portions had been made holy and the priests had been consecrated, otherwise, the priests could not have received any part of the sacrifice.

Who was the perfect sacrifice offered for the atonement of our sins? Yes, JESUS!
Who are the priests that have been consecrated to serve Jesus? Yes, us! The Body of Christ! (Revelation 1:6)
Hmmm...

Jesus was Mary's portion - the life-sustaining portion of the perfect sacrifice. By dropping all the busyness and sitting at her Master's feet to listen to Him and learn from Him and fall in love with Him - by doing that she became a partaker (meris) in the covenant of God. Her portion that could "never be taken away from her" was her faith, her salvation, her relationship with Jesus.

And the life that Mary's portion brings? No amount of busyness, accolades or achievements could ever match.

Psalm 73:26 reads, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the Rock and firm strength of my heart and my PORTION forever."

The Lord is our portion!
But, like Mary, we must choose.

Father, I pray that you will make this message clear to my readers, that you will use my words to give them understanding and new insight into a very familiar story. Open our eyes to see what it means to choose you as our portion. We are saying, "Yes!" to Your joy, Your peace, Your protection and provision. We are saying, "Yes!" to Your Lordship and Your purposes. We choose to be still and rest in Your arms listening to Your gentle whispers of love. We love You, Lord.