At the Feet of Jesus

At the feet of Jesus, people found healing, learning, and peace. This reflection invites us to do the same.

By GEORGE BOOKER

Read Time: 4 minutes

In earlier times, people often sat at the feet of their superiors. Small children might sit and play at the feet of their parents. Students might gather around their respected teacher and sit on the ground while they listened to their lectures. Grown men or women might kneel at the feet of their rulers, especially if they were asking for a favor.

The Apostle Paul said that he had sat at the feet of Gamaliel—a scholar and teacher of great renown—while he learned the Law of Moses.

When he lived on earth and walked among men and women, Jesus was a great “rabbi,” or teacher, more famous than even Gamaliel. Jesus taught his followers with stories and parables, while quoting from his Father’s Holy Scriptures.

Jesus also went about Israel and its surrounding regions to heal people. Many other people fell down before him and begged for his hands of healing. Let us see what we can learn by sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Luke 8:26-35¹

Jesus and his disciples were sailing to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town.

For a long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived among the tombs. Many times the “demons”—the thoughts of his addled mind—had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the “demon” of his mind into solitary places.

When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” At this point, Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because “many demons” resided in his mind. A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. Legion’s “demons” begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. As the demons came out of Legion’s mind, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. In this way, Jesus healed Legion, while he also showed the crazed man that the “spirit demons” would no longer plague him.

When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When “they came to Jesus, they found the man who had been afflicted by the demons, now sitting at Jesus’s feet, dressed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.”

Jesus’ feet were a place of rest. Legion, the man whom Jesus healed, had a mind that was so confused that he didn’t know where to go or what to do. But Jesus, with a brief command, removed the terrible madness from Legion’s mind, while showing the poor fellow he was healed when he saw the pigs run down the cliff into the sea.

No matter what angers or fears or bad thoughts may “possess” us, Jesus can remove them from our troubled minds if we only kneel at his feet.

Luke 17:11-19

While Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing through the regions of Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one of the villages, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance and raised their voices, shouting, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (ESV).

When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were on their way, they were cleansed.

When one of them, a Samaritan, saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice. He fell facedown at Jesus’s feet in thanksgiving to him.

Jesus asked: “Were not all ten cleansed? Where then are the other nine? Was no one found except this foreigner to return and give glory to God?” Then Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well!”

The feet of Jesus were a place of healing. No matter how bad the illness, if a man or woman has faith, Jesus can heal them—whether it be in this world or even in the world to come.

Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” Jesus answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

A note to the reader: As you read through the Gospels, notice that many other men, women and children who found their way to Jesus, and sat down or knelt down or even fell down at his feet. Under his loving care, each of them took the first steps to become a follower of the Son of God.

Symbolically, the feet of Jesus are a place of teaching, healing, learning, and—yes—a place of love and worship too.

Stop, sit down, kneel down, or fall down, if it suits you, at the feet of Jesus. Then listen to him—and you will learn all you ever need to know.

Finally, when you understand the faith, do all you can to share that knowledge, and that love, with others.

When you do that, the blind will find a way to receive sight, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the sick to be healed.

And, in one way or another, the good news will be preached.

George Booker,
Austin Leander Ecclesia, TX