Christian Friend vol. 19, 1892, p. 141.
To be at the feet of Jesus is the commencement, continuation, and fruition of all blessing. And beyond this, as being our only suited place, to be there is to give joy to the heart of Christ Himself. Two or three illustrations from the gospels will explain and enforce the above statements.
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Take first the woman "who was a sinner," of whom we read in Luke 7. Two things led her into the presence of Christ. First, there was the heavy burden of guilt which was lying upon her soul. On this side of the case it might be said that she was driven to Christ by her needs; and it is ever true that it is only through our needs that we learn what Christ is. But just because she was weighted with such a burden of shame and sorrow, she was drawn to Christ by the attractions of His grace, and this is the special aspect presented in the narrative. She had learned in some way what He was for poor sinners like herself, that there was no heart in all the world which could understand her need, or on which she could rest, but His; and the effect was that she was irresistibly drawn to His feet.
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Standing there behind Him, she lavished upon Him all her heart's affection - affection wrought surely by grace in the power of the Holy Spirit. She "brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment." The Lord Himself has interpreted for us the meaning of her action. Defending her from Simon's reproach, He said, "She loved much." A true penitent, as shown by her tears (and she wept doubtless because she had been made to feel her moral unsuitability to His holy presence), her heart had responded to Him and to His grace with a love that could only express itself in her tears, in her kissing His feet, and anointing them with her precious ointment.
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She was absorbed in her heart's object, and hence, though others were present, she saw no man save Jesus only; for He was all her hope and all her desire. The Lord could not be insensible to her devotedness, which was the offspring of faith working by love. He therefore interposed at once to shield her from Simon's reproach; and with what manifest delight, while contrasting! her attentions with Simon's neglect, He described what she had done! The lesson for the Pharisee was, "Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Blessed testimony to a poor despised woman - a testimony which reveals at the same time that what the Lord prizes, as beyond all price, is a heart devoted to Himself.
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Two distinct blessings were found by this weeping penitent at the feet of Jesus. She received the authoritative forgiveness of her sins, and, the faith which attached her to the Person of Christ being acknowledged as the means of her salvation, she was sent away with the unspeakable possession of everlasting peace. If, moreover, she had gratified her own affections, she had also been permitted to render joy to the heart of Christ. And Simon? Still loveless, he was unforgiven, blind, and in darkness, outside the blessed circle of light and love into which the object of his reproach had been drawn.
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Passing now to Luke 10, we are introduced to Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His word. Both her attitude and her action are significant. The woman who was a sinner stood at the feet of Jesus, for as yet she was not in the enjoyment of forgiveness and peace. Mary, on the other hand, sat; a sign that every question concerning the state of her soul had been settled, and consequently that she was at rest. Like the man out of whom the Lord had expelled the demons, she was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in her right mind. That is, we take our place at the feet of Jesus first of all as penitents, and we continue there as His servants and disciples.
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But she was not only sitting in peace before the Lord; she was also hearing His word. It is this feature that marks the difference so distinctly between her and her sister. Martha was governed in what she was doing by her own inclination. She was ministering to the Lord in the way she deemed suitable, according to her own thoughts of what was required. Mary desired to learn the Lord's mind, to be formed by His word, to act according to the Lord's own thoughts, and to be well-pleasing to Him. She thus chose the good part which should not be taken from her, for she was in communion with the mind of Him at whose feet she sat.
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It should be very distinctly observed that the place Mary occupied should characterise every believer. If the penitent found it the place of blessing, it is the place of blessing likewise for the saint. What a revolution would be made in the lives of many of us if we were continually engaged as Mary was! Morally outside of the world and its restlessness, and undistracted by its manifold and discordant voices, overshadowed by the presence of Jesus, at home in it, with what joy we should look up into His face to catch the intimations of His will. Like Himself, we should seek to have our ears wakened morning by morning to hear as the learner. (Isaiah 50:4.) Then we should enter upon the blessed experience of the bride when she says, "I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste"; and we should have no mean anticipation of the blessedness of heaven as expressed in the words, "His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads."
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If now we turn to the gospel of John (John 12), we shall meet with another instance of being at the feet of Jesus. The same Mary who sat at His feet and heard His word, took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. The one who had sat at His feet, heard His word, and received those divine communications which revealed Himself to her soul, is here seen as a worshipper. When the King sitteth at His table, says the bride, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. It as ever so, and it was so with Mary. It was, in fact, the disclosure of Christ to her soul, and her divinely-given apprehension of who and what He was that made her a worshipper. She too was absorbed with the One whose beauty and perfections had dawned upon her, and her heart overflowed with adoration. She therefore brought her costliest treasure, and poured it out at His feet.
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The gratefulness of her act to the heart of Christ is shown in two ways. The house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Its precious fragrance spread throughout (we speak of its typical import) all the habitation of God. Secondly, the Lord expressed His appreciation of her act, as done in communion with His own mind. "Against the day of my burying hath she kept this." Mary alone, as far as revealed, had entered into the truth of the Lord's rejection and death; and, in truth, it was her communion with Him in His rejection that qualified her to be a worshipper. She shared, in her measure, in God's delight in the One who was about to be crucified.
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Worship is eternal; that is to say, it will never cease. To be at the feet of Jesus as a penitent, or as a learner belongs to the present time; but to be at His feet as worshippers will characterise the redeemed for ever. Our highest exaltation, moreover, is connected with our occupancy of this place. As another has written: "When the elders, crowned and seated around the throne in heaven, leave their thrones and fall upon their faces before God, they are in a higher position when they seize and estimate His glory than when displayed in their own." What infinite grace then is it which permits us even now to anticipate this blessedness by being, even while on earth, at the feet of our adorable Lord as worshippers! And the more habitually we are at His feet as hearers of His word, the more constantly will our souls be drawn forth in praise and adoration.