At His Feet!

In India, falling at some one’s feet can either mean respect or an act of desperate plea. I was amazed when I studied the life of Mary of Bethany in the gospels to find her on three occasions at the feet of Jesus, each time her actions signifying great truths.

Attitude of Learning - Sitting at His Feet (Luke 10:38-42)

In this incident, Mary sat at the Lord’s feet listening to her teachings. But Martha, sister of Mary was deeply concerned and worried to feed Jesus and his twelve disciples. She was distracted by all the preparations as she was trying to fix a big dinner for them. Martha complained. Jesus judged between the women by favoring Mary’s choice of learning at his feet than feeding him with delicacies. Jesus was a radical here because he negated the prevalent teaching of Rabbi Eliezer who said that a man who who teaches his daughter the Jewish Scriptures is teaching her obscenity.

All over the world be it professionals or home-makers, women spend more time in “kitchen”. Jesus wants men and women to understand the fact that the latter have to spend more time learning the Scriptures than getting confined to cooking. Sitting at the feet is typical of a disciple who learns under a master. Jesus wants his followers very specially women to learn “one thing” for sure, to learn things about God and his words in par with men.

Attitude of Faith – Falling at His Feet (John 11)

In this second incident, the brother of the sisters, Lazarus is dead. Martha runs to Jesus. Mary sits at home. After Martha tells about Jesus’ coming to the village, Mary quickly ran to him and fell at his feet and cried. Jesus then walks to the tomb. Martha who moments back confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world, now stumbles in her faith by warning Jesus about the stench that would come out of the dead body of her brother (v.27). Martha confessed her faith by mouth but had trouble to put her faith in action. Mary on the other hand, true to God’s promise in Isaiah 28:16,  trusted in God and showed her faith in him by not acting in haste. Her faith came through hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17).   

Mere confession does not account to one’s faith in God. But committing us to his care is accounted as faith. Mary demonstrated this by falling at his feet and she remained confident thereafter. Hannah in the Old Testament too was confident and her face was no longer sad after pouring out her heart to God (1 Samuel 1:18).

Attitude of Love – Anointing His Feet (John 12:1-8)

The sisters who received Lazarus back from death honored Jesus by inviting him to their home again. As was usual Martha serves Jesus food. Mary sees the feet of Jesus as he was reclining. Mary who chose to learn from Jesus by sitting at his feet, knew that his life in earth is coming to a close by death on a cross. Her heart was filled with such love that she poured an expensive perfume, worth a year’s wages on the feet of Jesus. She wiped his feet with her hair. She knew that these feet would be pierced with nails few days from then. A true knowledge of God demonstrated by learning at his feet led to demonstration of her faith and love in action. We can see Jesus appreciating Mary’s love and defending her against the accusation of Judas, the betrayer.

I derive tremendous strength from the life of Mary. I am motivated to keep learning truths from the word of God all through my life.  It is the enlightenment we derive from his words that gives us faith in God to get through tough situations in life. More of learning God’s word would in turn make us fall in love for him. We would then look forward to kiss his nail-pierced feet the day when we would meet Jesus in person!

Women are like Trees! Stop Abusing Them

Women are like trees. Solomon compares his lady love to a palm tree! (Song of Solomon 7:7)  We know that to save a nation we need to save trees. So also to save homes and nation, we need to save women. Countless girl babies are aborted.  We lose precious women in the way of dowry deaths and brutal killings. When trees are cut, they lead to an ecological imbalance on earth. In the same way, our society is going to be disproportionate without women. Think a moment about a home and a society minus women.

Biblical Stories

The Levite’s concubine whose story comes in the book of Judges was betrayed by her lover and the host of the house. She was raped, tortured and murdered (Judges 19 &20). The world over these years has been unjust to women many a times in many ways. We also need to take note that the perpetrator of the crime in this Biblical story is a Levite. Even today researches tell about spiritual leaders who are abusing their wives at home and women in the church. No wonder the author of book of Judges told this fact to his readers that everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes (21:25). This is more close to the individualistic ideology of human nature that has been picking up fast in our generation.

As a woman I also should tell the fact that women themselves are abusive of their own breed. A woman in need runs from pillar to post to find refuge in a fellow woman who would understand her pleas and empathize with her struggles. We know how Sarah and Hagar had bitter feelings for one another. They vented it out leading to disasters in family and we reap the repercussions in history until today. We also see Miriam the sister of Moses speaking against his Ethiopian wife. God did not favour Miriam but he sides the Ethiopian wife’s cause (Numbers 12). However the book of Ruth is an ideal story of women caring for one another in a family domain. We also come to know of how Mary who was in trauma and need of help and encouragement could find what she wanted in her senior family member Elizabeth (Luke 1).

Our Responsibility

When an abused woman asks us or the church for help, it is important to remember that God has always asked people of strength to come to the assistance of those who are weak and oppressed. Ezekiel 34:4 says that it is a sin to shirk such a responsibility  Godly people need to do everything possible to provide whatever is legal and give protection to abused women. They must not send such women back to their homes or work places with the advice to "be more submissive." The Biblical intent is not to help abusive men to indulge even more in their childish lust for power and sick control (Mark 10:42-43; 1 Peter. 3:7).

The Bible admonishes husbands not to be harsh (Colossians 3:19). They need to nourish and cherish their wives as their own bodies (Ephesians 5:25-29). Overall men need to respect the bodies of women as temples of the Holy Spirit, not as objects of lust (1 Corinthians 6:15-20).

Victims of lust, power and abuse can always find freedom and strength by looking to Jesus who identifies with such women for he underwent abuse at its highest on the cross. Human agencies may fail in bringing justice. But God never fails. How ever he needs human agents of justice. Let us respond!

Trees cause rain. So are women.  Save them for a greater blessing at homes and work places. May we fulfill this year’s theme for International Women’s Day: “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women.”