THE LORD’S APPROVAL

Luke 7:44-50; 10:38-42; 21:1-4

When the Lord was here in manhood, and as He moved about, He would have had a perfect assessment of everything, and He approved of each of these three women.

The first woman had just begun her spiritual history. We do not need to be long on the Christian way to have a sense of the Lord’s approval. It is not a matter of having great experience or a long history in the testimony, or anything like that. She would not have had to do with the Lord for long, but she had the Lord’s approval for what she did. That is why the Lord says, “Seest thou this woman?”. He pointed her out to Simon as one that He approved of, and it was because she appreciated Him. Simon did not appreciate Him. Simon spoke with himself saying, “This person if he were a prophet …” (v 39); he was even doubting that. But the Lord Jesus is far more than a prophet – He is God manifest in flesh. Think of the wonder of that. He came into manhood in view of meeting the needs of persons, and bringing God’s grace right to persons in need. No one else could have done it, and this woman appreciated Him on account of that. She showed her appreciation of Him by what she did to Him, and that is what the Lord is commending here. She did not say anything, it was just what she did, even in the face of a withering rebuke from the Pharisee, for she appreciated the Lord and the Lord noticed everything that she did. It was proof that she loved Him and appreciated Him. He said, “she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair” and “from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet”. The Lord appreciated all that this woman did because she was a lover of Himself. It is vital for all of us that we appreciate the Person and grow in our appreciation of the person of Christ – what He has done for us, but also who He is in Himself. We are to appreciate Him because of who He is Himself.

There are different ways in which we can show that appreciation. He appreciates our personal, secret affection, and there is also our collective remembrance of Him. It shows that we appreciate Him and the way that He has gone in love. That would draw out the Lord’s approval because we are doing it for Him. There is no person in the universe like Him. He appreciates persons who appreciate Him, and He approved of this woman; He actually defended her. I like that expression, “from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet”, the feet of the One who was God manifest in flesh, moving about in such a lowly way, meeting need wherever it was, bringing in peace and calm to souls.

In the second scripture read, Mary appreciated the teaching of the Lord and the Lord approved of that. She appreciated it so much that she took time to sit at His feet and listen to His word. Again, the Lord, you might say, defends her. The Lord is not hard on Martha. The Lord felt for her and that is seen in the way He spoke to her; “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things”. The Lord realised that things needed to be done, but “Mary has chosen the good part, the which shall not be taken from her”. When Lazarus their brother died, the Lord first spoke to Martha and Martha went and called her sister, Mary, and said, “The teacher is come and calls thee,” John.11:28. So they knew the Lord as Teacher. The Lord appreciates persons who value His teaching. We all need divine teaching. We have the Scriptures and we have ‘helps’ to help us to understand the Scriptures; right teaching is very much needed. The Lord brought in teaching that had never been before. God’s people Israel had the law, but what the Lord brought in superseded the law. He said, “But I say unto you”, Matt.5:22. The Lord appreciates and commends persons who appreciate His teaching. What else is to regulate us? Man’s mind? Man’s thoughts – what men make up, what suits them? But there is the Lord’s teaching and Mary appreciated it. Peter said, “thou hast words of life eternal” (John 6:68); a different kind of words. So Mary took the time; “having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word”. She did not just hear it, she was paying attention to it.

In John’s gospel, you get so many of the Lord’s words, and the apostles’ teaching, which is so necessary, is an extension of that because it also came from the Lord. It is how we grow, it is how we are kept right in the pathway – by listening to, and being guided and regulated by, right teaching. The Lord approves of such persons; “Mary has chosen the good part, the which shall not be taken from her”.

Then in chapter 21, the Lord approved of this widow’s devotion and sacrifice. The situation here was not easy. In the first scripture, it was not easy; it would have been more congenial in chapter 10 in the house at Bethany, but now at Jerusalem it was not easy. All the persons in prominent places were against the Lord. Just before where we read, He said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk about in long robes, and who love salutations in the market-places, and first seats in the synagogues, and first places at suppers; who devour the houses of widows, and as a pretext make long prayers”, Luke20:46,47. That was the situation in Jerusalem and the Lord felt it. But this poor widow made no show. She had nothing to make a show of in any case, but the little she did have she sacrificed in commitment to the Lord’s interests at that time. The Lord appreciated that; it cost her something to be committed to the Lord’s interests in this devoted way. The Lord needs persons who are committed, devoted, and prepared for sacrifice. Jerusalem was not an easy place to be in but that did not hinder this woman. In principle, she was devoted to the Lord. I remember a brother saying about this scripture, ‘it is only the Lord who can evaluate devotion rightly’. We might look at someone and say, ‘he is very devoted and committed’, but it is only the Lord who really knows. He approved of this woman. She sets out someone who has love for the Lord and devotion to Him, has love for the Lord’s interests and is committed to them. The Lord saw all that was going on. Imagine it – she had two mites, but in proportion, the Lord could say that she “has cast in more than all” and “has cast in all the living which she had”. Her whole life was in principle related to the Lord’s interests at that time, even though it was a very difficult situation. The Lord was soon to be crucified but this poor widow woman gave all that she had.

I have never known a person like this who has given all they have. You get something a little like it at the beginning of the Acts, after Pentecost. As the testimony proceeded, we get Paul’s ministry as to stewardship and thus we are not intended to give all our material things away. But the spirit of what this woman did is to mark us in our devotion to the Lord in some little way, so that in whatever way we can, we are to be committed to His interests. The great thing is to have some little sense of the Lord’s approval of what we are going on with or doing for Him.

May the Lord bless the word.

Word in a meeting for ministry, Dundee

1 May 2018

G.B. Grant