Sitting at Jesus Feet
Photo by Igor Sergeyev on Unsplash.
Who are you learning from? What and who is shaping your life as you submit yourself, your attention, and your time?
To learn from someone and to be a disciple in the first century, the time of Jesus, you would sit at your teacher’s feet. You would sit at your rabbi’s feet as his disciple.
In sharing his testimony of his own growth and development in the Jewish faith, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.” (Acts 22:3, ESV).
Paul described himself as submissive and receptive to his rabbi, saying he was “educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law.”
We see this same posture of discipleship in the submissive reception of the demoniac man after Jesus healed him. Luke tells us, “Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.” (Luke 8:35, ESV).
Nowhere is someone sitting at the feet of Jesus more radical and pronounced than Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet in Luke chapter ten. Women were not taught in the schools of the rabbis and would not take the position of sitting at a rabbi’s feet in this culture.
However, Luke tells us Mary “sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching” while her older sister Martha took on the more traditional role of serving. Mary was accepted by Jesus as student—a disciple of Jesus—by taking this posture, and she was praised by Jesus for choosing the better thing. (Luke 10:38-42, ESV).
May we choose to take the humble posture of as students of Jesus and sit as his feet and learn from him as his disciples.
A Collect for the Renewal of Life: “O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness during the day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Begin the month with a #dailydevotional. I have created a #devotional book for each month, a devotional for every day of the year, and offering them for #free by subscribing. Get a link to #Grow365: #July2022—A #Daily Devotional here: robbiepruitt.com.
Photo by Igor Sergeyev on Unsplash.
