LISTENING TO CHRIST
[p. 13] LISTENING TO CHRIST
In Mary is seeing a person who has a sound mind, and she is using it; she is sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing His word. That is what I want you to recognise. You can use your mind in no better way than listening to Christ. We are living in a day of many books; it is the printing age; but books have been used to shut out Christ from the mind. The mind must certainly be fed, but God has given us a right mind, and that mind must be ministered to. But how ministered to? I think you see it in Mary. Supposing you had come to Mary with a novel as she sat at the feet of Jesus, what would she have thought of you? She would have said to you, No product of man’s mind can minister to mine, you cannot feed my mind with that; you may feed the swine with that. The prodigal in the far country “he longed to fill his belly with the husks which the swine were eating”, but he was not satisfied. Mary was not going to feed upon that; she had a divinely given mind, it was a right one, and she would feed it on Christ. It was not simply that He was saying something to her. She was listening to what he was saying; if He spoke to Martha, she heard it; or if He spoke to Lazarus she heard it. You want to hear every word of Christ, not only what He has to say to you. It is a question of the mind; the divinely given mind has to be ministered to, and the Lord Jesus has spoken, and is speaking, and the thing for us is to listen to what He is saying. There are many voices in the world; there is the pulpit, and the platform, and the press; but if you have a right mind, you will listen alone to Christ. What does Mary learn from Christ? Do you think the Lord would limit anything — do you think He would hold anything back from one who listened to Him? No; it was the delight of His heart to speak in her hearing all that was in His mind.
[p. 14] Oh, beloved, think of the mind of Christ! — think of the infinite richness of the mind, coming out from the Father, freighted with all the Father’s affections in the one hand, and with all the Father’s thoughts on the other hand! She was listening to what He was saying. He came out from God to make known what was in the mind of God; He was opening up that, and Mary is singled out by the Spirit as the example of a right-minded person, and the proof of it is that she listened to Christ. That is simple christianity — to listen to Christ.
May we then be like Mary — restful. I would remind you of the beautiful touch in John 11. Of Mary it is said, She “sat in the house”; she had a habit of being quiet. Whilst Martha rushed out to meet the Lord, Mary remained till He called for her: “The teacher is come and calls thee”. May the Lord give us that restfulness of spirit, and then to listen to what He is saying.