As they went on their way after this, Jesus was welcomed in the home of a woman named Martha. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to Him speaking. Now Martha was distracted with all the serving. She 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." But Jesus answered, "Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things! Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the best part, and it will not be taken away from her."
+ + + Judgment with Love + + +
Jesus used to teach in the Temple in Jerusalem. At night He would stay on the Mount of Olives, which overlooks the Temple mount, often in the nearby town of Bethany, which is a couple of miles from Jerusalem. Early in the morning, He would come to the Temple. All the people would come around Him, and He would sit down and teach them. Once some Pharisees and other teachers brought before Jesus a woman who had been caught doing something bad. They made this woman stand there so everyone could see her. "Master," they said to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the very act of doing something so bad that the Law of Moses says she should be stoned to death. What do You have to say?" This was just another of the many traps they set for Jesus; they were trying to get something to use against Him. Jesus wrote on the ground with his finger. But they kept putting their question, so He looked up and said, "Let the person who has never sinned throw the first stone." And He wrote on the ground again. The people who had brought the woman slunk away, one by one, and Jesus was alone with the woman. "Where are they?" he asked her, "Did any of them condemn you?" "No one, Lord," she replied. "Neither do I condemn you," He said, "Go, and do not sin any more."
+ WHO WILL BE HUMBLED, WHO EXALTED? +
Jesus spoke this parable to those who were proud of being good and despised everyone else:
"Two men went up to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee. The other was a publican, a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and prayed in this way: 'I thank You, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, a playboy, like other men - like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week. I pay a tenth of all the money I make to the Temple.' The tax collector stood some distance away. He did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven. He struck his breast, and said, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.' This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God. The other did not. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled; and he who humbles himself will be raised up."
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