THE LORD'S FEET
THE LORD’S FEET
Matthew 28: 9, 10; Luke 7: 44 - 46
I have in mind to speak about the Lord’s feet, first from Matthew and then from Luke. They are presented to us in these gospels. We have them in Matthew, administrative feet: that is, the administration that is carried on in the assembly. In Luke we have evangelistic feet, as I hope to speak of them. And the Lord’s feet in Revelation are seen as judicial feet; they are like fine brass, we are told. Also, we have in the same book the Lord’s feet likened to pillars of fire; this alludes to His rights on the earth, which, of course, are now disputed. It was said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may become ours” (Luke 20:14). This they carried out, but He reserves the means of taking that inheritance up again. He will do it in great dignity. His feet are symbolised by pillars of fire in Revelation 10. He puts His right foot on the sea in that connection, and His left upon the earth, so that these feet refer to His earthly inheritance; that is, the means used by Him of dealing with what is opposed to His rights in connection with the earth. The earth is divided into sea and land. He puts is right foot on the sea — which would mean that He can use the sea — and the left on the land. These are all figures which would require much time to enter into and enlarge on.
But I wish first of all to speak about the ecclesiastical matter. Some of us are accustomed to the word ecclesiastical, taking the dictionary meaning of it, which is not always accurate. Spiritually it refers to what relates to the assembly. That is the modus operandi of all direct divine administration now, because God is not directly administering the affairs of this world yet; He is doing it indirectly. He is not doing it in a direct sense through the assembly, otherwise we [p. 222] should be working with the warring powers. What God is doing directly is through the assembly; all direct administration is in that connection. Other administration goes on indirectly. Of course there is the administration of the physical worlds of which we know almost nothing as to how God keeps them going. We know He does it; not only that He framed them by His word, but that He administers their affairs and keeps them in their order, each in its place so as to function. All that is a creative matter and began far back of Genesis 1; but there are also international matters. There were none in the antediluvian world so far as we can see. There were no nations, but there were administrative services from God. After the flood nations took form, and God set up a nation too. The others set themselves up, they were what we might call a development, or developments; but God set one up of Himself, and in it He administered directly. He had His king there, He had His high priest, and other instruments of direct government. But that failing, He set up indirect government symbolised to us in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in the form of a monstrosity of a man. I can only just mention it, but it was a mixture, running down to our own times; successive features defined run down to our own times. God has never given up His relation with that system, but it is indirect.
At Pentecost, however, He set up a system which He calls His own kingdom, the kingdom of God; and He tells us it is not meat and drink, it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. God administers directly there and Christ is King there, for the moment Lord; He will take up the title of King presently; in the meantime He is Head to the assembly, an ecclesiastical thought. ‘Ecclesiastical’ is not a word in Scripture but it is a word that conveys what is scriptural, and ecclesiastical administration is what I have in mind [p. 223] in reading the verse in Matthew. There were certain women, very worthy women, but somewhat needing adjustment, and it is very rare to find a sister who does not. In fact, it is rare to find a brother, but sisters need more adjustment than brothers. Now as I said, these sisters were very worthy; they loved the Lord, but we are told they held Him by the feet. They could not hold Him by the feet if the feet were like pillars of fire; it would be dangerous work to attempt that; or like fine brass, as He presents Himself to the assembly at Thyatira. It is in these assembly addresses in Revelation that we get what I have been speaking about; ecclesiastical administration. When things have gone wrong the Lord asserts Himself; and instead of saying, as He does in the end of Matthew, that He is with them all the days until the completion of the age, He says He is the One that walks in the midst of the seven assemblies. He walks in a judicial sense.
Now to walk He requires His feet and He uses His feet, as He tells the angel of the assembly at Thyatira, His feet are like fine brass. Every address is directed to an angel, not directly to the assembly of the place but to the angel of the assembly. The angel is like a cushion between the Lord and the assembly. He cannot take on the assembly as it is; it has failed; still it is the assembly and it has the responsibility of being such, so that He deals with it mediately, and as I said, the angel is like a cushion. The angel is what He can deal with. There is no sense of distance between Christ and the assembly in the epistles, but there is in the Revelation, showing there had been defection, there had been failure. So the seven stars are said to be the angels of the seven assemblies. But I am not speaking of that, I am speaking of the feet. Now He says to the angel of the assembly at Thyatira, “These things says the Son of God”, verse 18. That is, He is dealing with the assembly in His authority as the Son of God;
[p. 224] that is His place in the assembly. That is how He was revealed to Peter, as the Son of God. He is addressing the angel of this assembly, which has failed most grievously; she had Jezebel there: “But I have against thee that thou permittest the woman Jezebel”, verse 20. He is dealing with her in a judicial way but yet indirect. His feet are not as pillars of fire here, as seen in chapter 10, but as fine brass as in chapter 1. “These things says the Son of God, he that has his eyes as a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;” He is walking in the midst of the seven assemblies, walking with feet like fine brass. Wherever He set His foot there would be the suggestion of judicial discernment and corresponding judgment. The eyes of the Son of God are like fire, so that we are in the presence of the most serious matters; but I am only speaking of His feet.
So these women in Matthew 28 are, as I said, most estimable; but in crises our real state appears, and the real state of these dear sisters appeared. The angel had directed them not to fear, but to go to the disciples and tell them that they would see the Lord Jesus in Galilee; and they were going, they were moving. If any of those sisters had been accosted on the way by somebody who said, I want you to come in and rest a little, that would have been like holding them by the feet. When we are on a message, sent directly by an angel from heaven, we cannot afford to be diverted even for a second. Now the Lord met these women on the way and said, “Hail!” He saluted them, and they held Him by the feet. Why did they do that? They would not have admitted it had somebody other than Jesus accosted them and held them, offering some temptation or attraction that they might turn aside for a little and go to see the brethren later. The angel had just said to them, “Behold, I have told you”, verse 7. They are under orders from an angel from God. He is described in the beginning of [p. 225] the chapter as having a countenance like lightning, so there is no denying his authority. But how easily we are turned aside as we are on an errand under the Lord’s orders! Properly speaking we are never other than under orders from the Lord. “And everything, whatever ye may do in word or in deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3: 17). We are always under orders, keeping His commandments. So that the angel says, “Behold, I have told you”, and they were on the errand, they were going. It says, “And going out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to bring his disciples word”. Sisters running as bearing divine orders indicate real subjection and obedience. Mary Magdalene ran, we are told elsewhere. Here they are running under divine orders. It might be a spectacle for an unhallowed eye to see those women running, but they were in earnest; they were under orders. That is the idea of authority affecting us. The Lord says, “Hail!” He did not ask them to stop, He greeted them. But they stopped and held Him by the feet. They must have stopped to do that. Would He ever divert them from an errand like that? “Hail!” He said, that is, All is well, as if to speed them forward in their errand. They held Him by the feet. You may say, Why are you repeating that? Well, it is to be repeated. Why should I hold the Lord Jesus by the feet? You may say, Such a thing is impossible. But the question is, What is meant? Is it not an allusion to Jewish circumstances? They were Jewish; they belonged to the remnant of Israel, of course, but they were Jewish. What did they have in their minds? They would hold Him in relation to the circumstances they had been in. Is that an unfair interpretation? I do not think so. “Lord, is it at this time that thou restorest the kingdom to Israel?” the disciples asked Him in Acts 1: 6. It was a question of Israel, the immediate thing to their minds, what affected them nationally. Many saints are damaged because they take [p. 226] things up nationally. The Lord Jesus according to Acts 1: 3 had been speaking to them about the kingdom of God, and earlier the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the Son of man had been stressed by him. Why did they not think of these great expressions? No: “Lord, is it at this time that thou restorest the kingdom to Israel?”
And so here it is as if they said, We will keep you here. You will remember in John 6 how they sought to take the Lord to make Him king. Why did they do that? Because He had fed a multitude of people with a few loaves and fishes. The miracle was great; there would be no rationing if we had the Lord Jesus on that line here. There would be plenty, because He could turn stones into bread if He wished. They would make Him king because He could do such things. And no doubt these women had in their minds, however vaguely, that in holding the Lord by the feet they would keep Him in relation to something that was near to them, something that affected them personally. That is my first point, and it is, dear brethren, that we may not hold the Lord by the feet because of any personal or local considerations. “Thus I ordain in all the assemblies”, Paul says. Very often the thought arises with local brethren to build up something locally, but you must keep in line with all the other assemblies. The building inspector will come around, you know, and he will condemn anything you are building which is not according to specification! So it was that the Thessalonians imitated the churches that were very far away from them, the churches in Judea. We will make them our model, they said. The twelve were there; the great builders were there. But later the assemblies of Judea and others turned to the Jewish pattern. Some turned back to Judaism, or if they did not turn back altogether they tried to keep the Lord where they were. The Lord would say, I must go elsewhere. As He said to some, “I must needs announce the glad tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also” (Luke 4: 43). So that we must not appropriate Him to ourselves exclusively. He belongs to others also. The ten tribes said, We have ten parts in David, but what were the parts? What did they care about David? They revolted against him in another day or two. That is the kind of thing you get behind all this. If I am thinking of a local position or of adding to it to make something of myself in the locality, I am holding the Lord by the feet.
You can see by a little thought how much could be said about this, how the whole economy of the assembly might be disjointed if we were to pursue this matter of holding the Lord by the feet. That is, we want Him for ourselves, but it will not do. We should not be as these women were; not that the Lord rebuked them, but what did He say to them? He says, so to speak, The angel has told you to go and take word to My disciples; now I want you to go to “my brethren”. They were to be accelerated in their movements. How far away was Galilee? He would never get there if they held Him by the feet, if He permitted it. The Lord could say in effect, I am going a long way to meet My brethren, and I need My feet; and you need to accelerate your pace and get this message to them soon. Do not hold Me by the feet, nor let anybody hold you by the feet; proceed with your message; I am not coming to the disciples now — they have to go to Galilee. Do not let us practise this feet-holding, dear brethren. If it is a cold night let us not say, Do not go out to the meeting! Let the feet of love be free. These are the feet of Jesus. So He says, “go, bring word to my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see me”, verse 10. Why did He not go and see them where they were? No; this is an orderly situation; we are under administrative circumstances now. Let us understand what it is to be in administrative circumstances [p. 228] If it is a matter of the king, then have respect for the king; if it is his first officers, have respect for them. We are even told in Matthew that you can use the name of a righteous man. It is a poor name that cannot be used in some sense in the way of incentive or authority. So we must respect the order and dignity of the kingdom; democratic principles are not for the kingdom of God. There is such a thing as mutuality; there is such a thing as the mass of the saints being allowed to make choice, as in the case of the deacons in Acts 6; but the apostles say, It is not suitable for us to leave the word of God to serve tables. And yet tables have to be served. So, as I was saying, this is a matter to be considered. In Matthew we are in administrative circumstances, and there are personalities there. The Lord is a great personality, He is Head of the assembly. So He says, They will see Me in Galilee; not, I will see them, but, They will see Me. They have to go there to do it. Let us understand that we cannot just do as we will in these matters. If you want to see the Lord, then go to Galilee. You must go there, because that is where He has appointed you to go, and if you do not want to go you are not worthy of the name of Christ. If He wishes you to go, you are to go, and if you do not go, it is disaster. People want to do as they like, whereas He says, “there they shall see me”. That needs feet. If they are to go and see Me there they must have their feet; and I need My feet too, My administrative feet. Do not try to appropriate them exclusively to yourself. Think of others.
Well, now, I want to go on to Luke. The evangelical feet are the most lovely of all the characters of the feet of Jesus. They are worthy of kissing. I suppose most of us have noticed the recurrence of the word ‘feet’ in the few verses read. We did not read the whole passage, only the verses that refer to the Lord’s feet. Of course when I speak in this way I refer to the [p. 229] Sunday evening preachings. They have become a custom. I suppose in a way the Lord falls in with our customs. He leaves things with us and He would say, in effect, If the Lord’s day evening is the freest evening you have for gospel preaching, I am entirely with you. That is what He would say to us. I am sure He would put it on the hearts of the brethren to pray about the gospel on Sunday night; I am sure He is in that. And I am sure, too, that He does not like anyone making it optional whether he should go to the gospel meeting or not, assuming that it is for sinners. The person who comes there to preach is sent by the Lord, and all the way there he is using evangelical feet. If he has difficulties on the way, if he has not got a car, if he has to walk, it is like crossing a mountain. How beautiful! That is really where you get the word ‘beautiful’ attaching to feet. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth glad tidings, that publisheth peace” (Isaiah 52: 7). That is the preacher, if he is a preacher at all, if he is a preacher according to God. How can he preach unless he be sent? Not all the persons in the meeting can preach, because it is a question of gift, but it is also a question of feet. You say, it is a question of mouth. It is, of course, and of heart, but it is a question of feet too, and that implies difficulties, sacrifices. I have to travel, maybe in the night time, or under the hot sun. “How beautiful”, says the Spirit of God. It is one of the most lovely passages; some of us have read it many times. It is quoted in Romans, but the original is in Isaiah 52: 7. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth glad tidings, that publisheth peace; that announceth glad tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” That is beautiful language. Evangelical feet are alluded to here and they are on the mountains, the feet of him “that announceth glad tidings of good”. That is how [p. 230] it reads, he has these tidings. It is not a question of the words he is going to use; it is what he has. It is tidings; he has them in his heart, but the feet are noted; that is to say, you see them climbing the mountain. As we remember about the shepherd in Luke 15 going off into the mountains to find the lost sheep — his are evangelical feet.
But I just dwell for a moment on this matter of travel. This rationing matter has brought up a good deal, and perhaps it is not noticeable by many of us that God is testing us out. The whole machinery of the world is turned around to deal with what God is doing directly, that is, His work in the people. It is a wonderful time, but the apparent result is very small now and we want to make it larger; and whatever it is, to make it better. A commodious car with plenty of equipment, of course, makes travel easy; though expensive, there is nothing in the way of stress attached to it. But the Lord had to travel in Palestine on foot. I do not know how many miles He travelled. It is well worth noting His travels. And when you come to Paul and his journeyings — his ‘missionary journeys’ as they are usually designated on the maps in the Bible — think of the distances! He says, “I, from Jerusalem, and in a circuit round to Illyricum, have fully preached the glad tidings of the Christ” (Romans 15: 19). Think of what he had to encounter! There were robbers by the way, highwaymen, and other difficulties like that. We are speaking about the present day difficulties and what God is doing; how He is testing us out as to where we are. Are we ready to sit down, allowing difficulties to stop us and to wait until they are removed? But why not you remove them? The Lord says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Be transported hence there, and it shall transport itself” (Matthew 17: 20). Is that nothing? You say, What do you mean by that? Well, read it. I want to know more fully what it means [p. 231] myself; but I am telling you that the Lord Jesus said it, and that that mountain is a great difficulty; insurmountable in the eyes of the apostles, but He says, Have faith. So that I must not sit down because there is no gasoline; the thing is that the journey is to be taken, the beautiful feet are to be seen moving. That is what God is aiming at at the present time. How much manhood is there amongst us?
Well, I am dealing with this evangelical matter, and this woman is not holding the Lord by the feet, she is kissing His feet. First of all the Spirit of God tells us what she did, and then He tells us what the Lord thought about what she did. There are these two parts in the record. The first is what she did, beginning with verse 37, “And behold, a woman in the city, who was a sinner, and knew that he was sitting at meat in the house of the Pharisee, having taken an alabaster box of myrrh, and standing at his feet behind him weeping, began to wash his feet with tears; and she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the myrrh”. That is what she did. That is what the Spirit of God says she did. Now we want to see what the Lord thinks about what she did. I would picture any of us, any brother or sister, doing any service for the Lord. The first thing is what they do, the next thing is what the Lord thinks of what they do. Let Him review us; let Him speak about it. Of course, He will use the saints to do it now; you will get the Lord’s mind normally among the brethren. He is not here personally, but His mind will surely be asserted, His commendatory mind, His judicial mind; He will not fail to use whom He will to make it known. We have to be always ready to listen to what is going on, especially at prophetic meetings, so that we may hear His mind. This passage is like a prophetic meeting: we will say the Lord is the Prophet. Simon is there, an unconverted man; others are there and this woman is [p. 232] there. The Spirit of God tells us what she did. There are five things: the weeping; the washing, with the use of her tears; the wiping, with the use of her hair; the kissing of His feet; and finally the anointing. These feet are dignified, and they are to remain dignified in their movements; they are to remain in power. That would be in the woman’s mind, as loving much. These feet, she is saying, have come a long way to reach me and I want to show what they are to me.
So the Lord, when the time for His word about her comes, speaks to Simon. We have often had it, but I felt free to repeat it again. He turned to the woman, that was His theme. He had previously spoken a parable to Simon, that was another thing, and Simon spoke right in answer to the parable. The Lord has a man He can speak to on these lines, He has his ear, and now He turns to the woman. “Seest thou this woman?” Simon might have replied, I have seen her here all this time and I am averse to her presence here. Probably that is what he said in his heart. The Lord would say, You do not think much of her; now listen to what I say. “I entered into thy house; thou gavest me not water on my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest me not a kiss, but she from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she has anointed my feet with myrrh”. We are in the presence of the Lord, dear brethren, and He is making comparisons. Do not let anyone think we shall ever escape being compared with others. He is not simply comparing this woman with Himself, He is comparing her with Simon. This goes on; the Lord has His own way of bringing out what we are doing, and comparing what each one of us does with what someone else does. This is a constant thing, a comparative ministry. The Lord would say, Simon, look at this woman. You did not give me so much as a little water [p. 233] to wash My feet. It was a customary thing to do, an ordinary civility that was denied the Lord of glory, by that conceited Pharisee. It was an ordinary courtesy that should not have failed, but it did fail; it failed in Simon, but not in this woman. “Seest thou this woman?” the Lord says, and then He goes on to add something that we should not have known if He had not told us. “From the time I came in”, He says, she has done this service. Earlier it is said, “a woman in the city, who was a sinner, and knew that he was sitting at meat in the house of the Pharisee ... standing at his feet behind him weeping, began”, etc. But the Lord said to Simon, “she from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet”. That is one of the most remarkable statements you could get. It is really an addition to the history. It is the Lord’s own enlargement of something wonderful in itself as He is speaking about this woman.
Well, not to go into detail further, I am speaking about the evangelical feet of Jesus. I want to enlist your sympathy in those feet. They are worthy of your kissing. It might not have been expected from the Pharisee; anointing the head might be in order, but not the kissing of the feet. The washing might have been in order, but not the kissing all the time and the anointing of the feet. The Lord is saying to this Pharisee, You are not in this at all. You do not know love at all, it has never entered your heart. This woman loves. Why does she love? Because she is forgiven much. Why does the Lord say that? Why did He not say, It is because of My beauty, My attractiveness, as in the Song of Solomon? No, it is because she is forgiven much; she had learned forgiveness. Dear brethren, have we all learned forgiveness? You say, Oh, I have confessed the Lord. But do you know the wonderfulness of divine forgiveness in the heart? No christian is really a christian in service who does not [p. 234] learn forgiveness; who does not love because he is forgiven. It is a love you will never lose; you will never forget it. It is a love of service, and that is what the Lord is enlarging on here. She is forgiven much. He would ask, Why is she making so much of My feet? It is because I have come so far for her. Was there another in the town who got blessing that day? We cannot say. We know she did. She was the outstanding product on that day of the evangelical journey of Christ in that community. Well might she kiss those feet! Well might she wash them! Well might she wipe them and anoint them! They have come all that way through difficulties insurmountable to the natural mind; those feet had travelled all that way through the mountains of difficulties to get that soul in such a place. The very house she was in was a difficulty, one of the greatest difficulties. She was surrounded by criticism. In a certain sense she deserved it, but there was no grace in the head of that house. Grace was found there, but it was found when Jesus came, and it was found in this woman when she came in contact with Jesus. She was seeing those feet according to all that they were on the mountains in coming to her. And they have come to all of us. Each one of us ought to see what those evangelical feet are, and in measure to possess them and not allow anyone to hold them. Let them go on, go on with the ministry, go on with the service, go on with the gospel. That is the idea. Do not hold back one whom the Lord has qualified, whether he is your husband or your father. Let his feet be free, and let him keep his feet free. Let them be evangelical feet, or administrative feet, as at the care meeting, or priestly feet as at the prayer meeting; but let his feet be free. Let us not hold him by the feet. Let no Jewish or local condition or household condition interfere with the great services that the Lord has distributed among us; let us be free to fulfil them.