THE FEET OF JESUS
[p. 462] THE FEET OF JESUS
Luke 10:39,42; John 11:32; John 12:3 - 7
I have in mind to speak about the feet of Jesus. The Spirit of God would, I believe, help us to understand the passages that speak of the Lord’s feet in the gospels. What He was as seen in the gospels has in mind formation in view of one that is coming, so that we may be superior to and overcomers of the antichristian spirit. The Lord Himself says: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if another come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43).
Much is current now in the minds of men as to these people to whom the Lord spoke these words. They are compassionated by many, and rightly; but still it is said of them that they will receive the one who comes in his own name — a very solemn consideration! They refused Him who came in His Father’s name, and the feet of Jesus, as rightly understood in their settings in the gospels and the scriptures in which they are presented, will help us to overcome him whom the unregenerate Jews presently in their own lusts will receive. They will receive him, and it may be well as a background to allude for a moment to the feet of him who is to come in his own name.
What will culminate in him first of all is the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his vision. As God handed over authority and rule to the gentiles, He furnished the first gentile monarch with a view of the whole governmental system, of which he was the head and the beginning. The feet were composed of iron and clay, that which is strong and brittle, and the last great empire is marked by strength in its feet, by breaking up in pieces with its feet. We also read of another symbol of these ferocious powers, the last who arises up out of the east, having seven heads and ten horns. It says, “its feet as of a bear” (Revelation 13:2). It is perhaps [p. 463] helpful by way of contrast to compare these feet. They are now showing themselves, but it should be understood that what is before our eyes today is simply premonitory and not the real thing, not the actual thing. The antichrist will come, we are told, and he that has understanding or wisdom is called upon to count the number of the beast. It is a matter to be arrived at by understanding the education that God gives us beforehand, so that his number is countable by those who have understanding, those who are taught of God. Daniel speaks of the wise: “And none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand” (chapter 12:10). None of the wicked shall understand, not one of them, however clever or educated. They do not understand, but the wise shall understand, and they shine as the brightness of the expanse, we are told. We want to be among the wise in that sense so that we observe; “And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse” (Daniel 12:3). We observe and learn how to count; that is, that particular number, the number of the beast. So that we can see, if we have learned in any way, that he is not yet visible, nor will he be until He that now lets is taken out of the way. Our very presence here tonight is the evidence that He who now hinders is not yet taken out of the way, evidence of power staying what is antichristian, real power, prayer or whatever it may be, supported by the Spirit of God. Other elements of a governmental nature, too, are operative. I speak thus, dear brethren, so that we may not be deceived or carried away. The Lord quietens his disciples, saying, “But ye will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not disturbed” (Matthew 24:6). Do not be disturbed; the thing is not immediately. The Lord would have us to be restful and know that God is God. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Now when the Lord Jesus’ feet are seen in a judicial way, as they are, they are of such quality as to meet what is antichristian in a military [p. 464] way. We read of them in the book of Revelation as of fine brass, a very strong metal, refined in the fire. It is strength intensified. That is how He is seen judicially as dealing with the assembly. He addressed Thyatira in this way, as He whose feet are like fine brass; as much as to notify her that she has to do with heaven, not in love any more but in judgment. A most solemn thing, as if the Lord were to notify some one, ‘You are not going to do with me in direct love any more! I have made all possible overtures and you have been adamant; you will never have to do with me in that way any more’. That is Thyatira — Jezebel, a most solemn thing! In the meantime, He casts her into a bed. She will not repent. It is a sad matter, but it is not that she is going to be left. He is coming back to deal with her, for we are told that even the beasts and the ten kings are empowered of God and that He puts it into their hearts to destroy Babylon. God uses one instrumentality against another. He will then turn and use that instrumentality. Nothing would be impaired, but He uses one instrumentality against another in that way. And then the Lord is seen, too, in His covenant and creative rights with feet as pillars of fire — a remarkable figure as to His feet. He plants one of those pillars, those feet thus described, on the sea, and the other on the land, and cries as a lion roars (Revelation 10:2,3).
All these references, dear brethren, are made now that we might be helped as on the Lord’s side, and see how matters are going, the trend, and how they will end up: the final military operation before the millennium is by Christ Himself. He comes out of heaven, and the armies that are in heaven follow Him. It is perhaps the best organised ever seen — that one army and one General, speaking reverently, to deal with these forces that are current today and which are marshalled by the beast and the false prophet. And then something happens that perhaps has never been known before — [p. 465] the general is taken before the army is destroyed. Usually the army is overcome, and then the general, but not in this case. The beast and the false prophet are taken before any battle is fought, and are cast into the lake of fire. That is the end of them.
Now I have made that survey in regard to the feet of our Lord Jesus, as over against the anti-christian feet, and now I would turn to those feet in the gospels. The Lord calls attention to them Himself in the gospel: “Behold my hands and my feet” (Luke 24:39). Surely there is an appeal in that; and the pictures that the gospels present are of persons who have to do with the Lord’s feet; that is, persons who value them. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth glad tidings, that publisheth peace” (Isaiah 52:7). His were the most beautiful of all on the mountains of this world, where there is no sympathy, nought but what would tire or weary; but His feet retained their beauty, and one lover of Jesus stood behind Him as He lay at table. She stood behind Him weeping. It was an eastern position. He was lying at table so that the feet were available; the position was undoubtedly designed so that the feet were available to a lover of Jesus. It is with a hope that I am speaking to lovers of Jesus tonight that I am bringing forward the subject, which is one for lovers of Christ; and I know that I am speaking to lovers of Christ, but there may be some here who are not lovers of Christ. Those who do love Him will listen to what is being said. She stood behind Him weeping, and she washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and she anointed His feet with myrrh. It is remarkable how a lover of Christ is thus pictured; one of the most beautiful, one of the most evangelical pictures in the whole Scriptures is that of a lover of Christ and how she behaved. It was a love of its kind, for there are kinds of love. This is a love usually found in recently converted [p. 466] people. It is a love begotten of grace. It is that kind of love. It is not the love wherewith a father loves his son; that is not begotten of grace; that is the love of the Father for the Son. Luke 7:50 presents one not long in the faith, for the Lord says she had faith, and she had enough to save her. “Thy faith has saved thee”. It is a beautiful picture, but it was a love begotten of grace. She loved much because she was forgiven much; that is, it is not love begotten by the beauty of Christ. That would soon follow. The Song of Songs furnish us with love drawn out by the attractiveness and beauty of the Bridegroom; the bride could describe His Person. This love in Luke 7 is not that; it is initial; it is fundamental love. I hope every one, especially the young people, understands fundamental love; that is, your soul is taken up with this kind of love. You love much because you are forgiven much. The greater sense you have of your sins, the more sins you repent of, the greater sense you have that you are forgiven much, the more you will love. It is a very important matter, the foundation of a christian who will be something in the testimony. That is Luke 7.
What I have read is Luke 10, and I have selected Mary of Bethany as occupied with the Lord’s feet because I think her attitude would help us. She is an advanced christian; her history is given to us insofar as it is given, to show the progress of a christian in appreciation of Christ; that is to say, refined christianity. That is what marks Mary of Bethany. The woman in Luke 7 is possibly Mary Magdalene; she is more like her, for it was out of Mary of Magdala that the Lord cast seven demons; how appreciative she would be of that; that is, she loved because she was forgiven much; she loved much because she was forgiven much; the Lord turns and looks at her and calls attention to her. Mary of Bethany, however, belongs to a family, a family of three and a headless family. The parents have died. It does not appear that any of them was [p. 467] married. Possibly Martha was, but the scripture does not say so. They are viewed as two sisters and a brother, and Mary is presented at the outset, at the first mention of her name, as the one who anointed the Lord and wiped His feet. Now these feet are educational; they are the feet of an Instructor. The feet in chapter 7 are the feet of a Saviour, One who forgives sins, One who dies in order that there should be forgiveness of sins, One who gave Himself: “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). They are the feet of a Saviour, but here they are the feet of an Instructor; I am sitting at His feet and the whole Person is in my mind. The apostle Paul said of himself that he was brought up at the feet of a great instructor, the feet of Gamaliel. It is not for nothing that he knew how to sit at the feet of an instructor from his early days, even though it were a Gamaliel. The schools now hardly convey the idea of one sitting at the feet of an instructor. There is so much rebellion in the children, and so much irreverence, that the recognition of moral greatness in others, the sense that others know and I do not, is hardly to be noticed. This is a great detriment and is present amongst the young of the Lord’s people, too. What I have been is apt to cling to me even as a christian, after I am converted, save as there is deep-rooted self-judgment of the whole matter. Now we get this with Mary of Bethany. She is a person who understands greatness in another. One of the best features in a young person is this: that you understand, you admit and value the measure of superiority in another. You may be sure there are others who are superior to you. We may all take that to heart. She began by sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His word. These were the feet of an Instructor. Now I put that to you, dear brethren, for it is a time in which we need instruction, and instruction not from an equal but from a superior, one who knows more than I do, who is more experienced than I am. It is essential that [p. 468] this should be taken in because the teaching of the day is modernism, or other such “isms”, and they are destructive to the divine order of things. Superiority is one of the great elements in the divine realm; others are superior to you. I have to learn that. There are those superior to me, and I am to learn from them, and to learn from them as I come in contact with them, to humble myself to do so. Now Mary of Bethany, I believe, is the model of that; she brings the Lord’s feet into great prominence, the feet of an Instructor. The Lord is constantly called Rabbi, or Teacher, in the gospels; even at the very end on the mount of Olives, one of His disciples said, “Teacher, when then shall these things be?” (Luke 21:7). Mary understood this, and she sat at His feet, the feet of the greatest Instructor. Dear brethren, it is our privilege to do that; and not only did she discern Him, but heaven had called attention to Him. That is another thing in this way. Heaven had called attention to Him, and that helps me greatly because if God is putting one forward to teach us or help His people, He will call attention to him in some way so that he will be in the minds of the saints as God intends him to be. We are in great need of teachers, instructors, or helps; and, if there are any, we want to know them. It is important that we should know them, and if God has qualified a man to help His people, He will call attention to him; something will happen in his history that calls attention to him. God is saying, ‘There is some one that will be of help’. He has His own way of doing that, and so on the mount of transfiguration, which is recorded in chapter 9:35, the voice out of the cloud says, “This is my beloved Son: hear him”. Peter had rather levelled things. There is very often too much of that, things being applied on the same level, sometimes a levelling up, but it is very solemn to level down. It is not of God at all. The Spirit of God would promote right understanding in measuring; not measuring by ourselves,
[p. 469] but measuring by Christ. You have to think of a man in relation to Christ; how near is he to Christ. Now Peter had levelled things down. He said, “And let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias” (verse 33); that is, he would put them on the same level, although he mentioned Christ first. That is very common, and heaven says, ‘Now that will not do’. Heaven says, “This is my beloved Son”; not Moses or Elijah. They are forgotten. They are brought in, as I may say, miraculously. “But with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). It does not follow that Moses had been raised from the dead for this purpose any more than Samuel was raised from the dead to be brought up before Saul. Elijah never died but Moses did. We do not know where the grave of Moses is; he was buried by Jehovah, but he is brought in on the mount of transfiguration. This is the real Moses. There is no question about it. Peter knows him; John knows him; and James knows him, and they knew Elijah, too; but they are withdrawn. The natural mind in Peter would say, three tabernacles for three great men, but heaven says, ‘No, that will not do’. Heaven says, one great Man, and we shall never be right unless that great Man is everything. “Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:8). We will understand gifts and know how to value them as we understand one great Man. There is no one like Him. “He shall be great”, says the angel (Luke 1:32). We understand one great Man, so the voice out of the cloud is: “This is my beloved Son: hear him”.
Well now, Mary of Bethany was not on the mount, but we do not need to be just where things are said to know the value of them, for “great the host of the publishers” (Psalm 68:11). If God says anything for His people, the thing will come to the ears of His people. If I have ears, I will hear, for God will see to that. Mary is in entire accord with the voice from the cloud.
‘Here I am in my sister’s house; I will sit down and listen to Him’, and she was doing it. Well, I have spent a great deal of time on this point, but I feel that it is a great thing to learn how to be quiet, and to look up reverently to a great superior. It is not here the Son of God; it is not here a question of the titles; it is an Instructor, the One that teaches us, the One that is to be heard in teaching. We need to hear Him, and I do not turn aside to speak of Martha, her sister. What she says only brings out more the choice of Mary. The Lord says, “And Mary has chosen the good part, the which shall not be taken from her”. These fixed thoughts that the Lord gives expression to are to be known now. “It shall not be taken away”. Whatever the people may say about that woman or do to her the Lord is her Protector, and this part she has chosen will not be taken away from her. These meetings in which we learn from the Spirit of God, we love them; we have chosen them; we just love these occasions, and the Lord will say, ‘They will not be taken away from you’. I believe it.
Now I go on to John to show the side of power. We are now in a death scene, and in the presence of death what comes into your mind among many other things is the need of power. Death is the very expression of weakness. We are so used to it that we fail to grasp the moral significance of it, the utter weakness. The man Lazarus was four days dead and in the tomb, and Mary moved out of the house. The Jews thought she was going to weep at the tomb, but no, she had a little message from her sister about the Lord Jesus: “The teacher is come and calls thee” (chapter 11:28). There may be some one here tonight; maybe there is a call for some one here tonight, to some sorrowful heart. I see your sorrow. So the Master comes and calls for thee. She arose quickly. It was a message for herself. It does not seem as if Martha spoke loudly, but she brought the message to her, and Mary arose. They [p. 471] thought she went to the tomb, but they were mistaken. How often it happens that spiritual people are utterly misunderstood. She went to the Lord Jesus; she answered to the call. It does not say here that such a message was given to Martha or that Jesus said, Go call Mary; but it would appear that it was so. “The Master is come”, says Martha. What fine relations existed now between the two sisters. How different from what had been earlier! Thank God for these better relations amongst us! And so she comes, and when she sees Him, she falls at His feet. It is not now sitting. Sitting is the proper posture for learning in quietness, but falling at His feet is an expression of need, and what is the need? it is the need of power. The loved one is in the tomb, and only the power of Christ can take him out of that. She falls at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”. That meant power. He had power to keep him alive; she understood that. But there was more power than that in Jesus. It would be a poor thing, dear brethren, for us if the Lord had only power to keep alive; He has power to make alive. “For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is Son of man. Wonder not at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall go forth” (John 5:26 - 29). So it was not simply power to keep alive, but to make alive. And that is what this wonderful passage brings out; that the One at whose feet she rightly fell, had power to make alive, to call her brother out of the tomb; and He does. He had said, “Thy brother shall rise again”, but now He goes on, and as He sees her weeping and the Jews weeping, He weeps. He is, as it were, watering her sorrow with His tears, and she is to stand by at the grave’s mouth and see her brother come up by that voice of power, which he does. So that here is another feature of the [p. 472] feet of Jesus; it is a question of His power, power to raise the dead, power to quicken and power to raise the dead from their very graves. It is full of holy stimulation as we fall at His feet in a sense of need and weakness, to come to know the infinite power that is there; that it is not simply that God raises the dead, but Christ raises the dead. He has power to do it. He, Jesus Christ our Lord, was “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead” (Romans 1:4). So it is the Son of God here. She falls at His feet. It is a question of the power of Christ, and then finally in chapter 12, the progress of this saint is brought out, the refinement that I have spoken of.
It is a great occasion, and, dear brethren, what is needed for a great occasion is refinement; not crudeness. We can see in social matters that refinement is necessary for great occasions. There is always a certain etiquette needed for each occasion. This chapter is to bring out the great spiritual occasion, and to show that there were persons equal to it. I should not like to be a crude foreigner in heaven; not that I ever shall be, nor will any one, but it is only to carry the thought forward. You would not like to be crude, a stranger to the code of what is needed for such a place. Think of divine Persons, think of the holy angels, of the myriads of them and the ranks of them, the graded ranks, and then think of the apostles and the prophets! Think of the dignitaries, dear brethren, that we shall be associated with in that great day! We shall want to be there in keeping with the place, each fulfilling his part rightly, and I believe this is the idea. This is a picture, not of heaven, but of a refined feature on earth among the Jewish remnant. The book of Revelation says that they shall be wonderfully instructed. We have one hundred and forty-four thousand in chapter 7, but then we have them in chapter 14 with the Lamb, and they follow Him whithersoever He goes. They are bought from the [p. 473] earth; they are refined; they have such keen ears on earth, they can discern the song in heaven, and learn it, too. This group here is entirely outside of what is current in Judaea at that time. They are with Jesus on a great occasion. One of them had been in the grave. Think of the experience of that man; what he could tell you. The Spirit of God draws a veil over it. You do not get any one inquiring, ‘Lazarus, what was it like to be in the grave’! The Spirit of God shuts all that out throughout the whole Scripture. Our natural curiosity would like to inquire, but there is no light on this save what is spiritual: “the dead man Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from among the dead. There therefore they made him a supper, and Martha served” (verses 1,2), as much as to say, This is her finest service. She began with it and now she is so taken up with it and she has no complaint. She complained about others; now she is doing it without any complaint, and you may be sure she is doing it well. “Mary therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment”. See what a contribution this is, but it is the feet of Jesus I am speaking of, how they come into view in connection with this spiritual moment. They are enhanced, if you understand me. The spirituality of Mary, what she is now, makes the feet, as it were, greater in my eyes; not that they are really greater. We have been saying lately that the ark of the covenant was never any different; it was always the same size, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come” (Hebrews 13:8), and the feet of Jesus were always the feet of Jesus, but if you have spiritual freshness and energy, the truth shines out and becomes amplified, so that they seem more beautiful than ever. It is a question of light and love all centred in this moment, in this person who has made such progress since she sat at the feet of Jesus.
[p. 474] She is emptying on Him all the ointment; it was not bought for ordinary use; it was kept for this purpose. It was not boxed; it was what she had in herself, as it were, in a refined person, “pure nard of great price”, and she anointed His feet with it. The Lord says, “Suffer her to have kept this for the day of my preparation for burial”. He is protecting her again. He protected her at the beginning. He said, It “shall not be taken from her”, and now this is the worshipping side. The learning side is our reading and ministry meetings. The Lord says, ‘They shall not be taken away from you’. I am sure this is the word. Now we are here in assembly in a worship meeting, and the Lord says, “Suffer her to have kept this for the day of my preparation for burial”. This is a deliberate matter. She is an intelligent worshipper. She knows the value of what she has kept. She has kept it. She understands that the Lord is going to die. She is intelligent, and let no one complain about her. The Lord says, ‘Do not say anything about her’. He protects her, and we may be sure that these meetings are continued to us, so the assembly meetings, too. The Lord will see to it; no one will interfere. How He says to Philadelphia, “Behold, I will cause that they shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that I have loved thee” (Revelation 3:9). I do not know how it is going to work out, but this is one of the promises of Jesus that we can cling to. It is given in connection with another, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (verse 10). That is those who are of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie. That is the idea in Mary here; it is what Christ is to her. Christ is everything to her, and she is like Philadelphia. She is worshipping in the sense that He has this that fills the house with the odour. It is on the feet of Jesus and in her hair, too. She is completely identified with what is in the house.