First, then, she sat at the feet of Jesus. The word to convey this is a strong one, and would seem to show that this was her habit when she had the opportunity. But it is to her sitting that our attention should before all be directed. Of the demoniac it is said that the people found him “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind.” The very attitude therefore betokened that every question for Mary’s soul had been settled, so that, if we give the full Christian interpretation, she had peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, she was delivered from the power of Satan and all that through which Satan acts to keep souls in bondage. At leisure from self in liberty of soul, through the power of the Holy Spirit, she was free to be occupied with the Lord alone. Not that Mary had yet entered upon the enjoyment of these blessings in the full Christian sense, but she had Christ Himself, and in having Him she had everything. Her heart therefore was at rest, yea, she was abundantly satisfied, and He at whose feet she sat was everything to her. With an overflowing heart she could have said, “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me.”
Another thing is comprised in her attitude. Sitting at His feet proclaimed that she had become His disciple. Thus Paul, speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem, reminds them that he had been brought up in the city “at the feet of Gamaliel,” and had been “taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers” (Acts 22:33I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. (Acts 22:3)). It is not all Christians, as before said, who become disciples, and, on this account, we should mark well this position of Mary. And it adds increased significance to it, if we adopt the reading, preferred by most, “at the feet of THE LORD.” It is remarkable to find the Spirit of God thus calling our attention in this narrative to the claims of Jesus as Lord, by giving us an example of one whose whole soul acknowledged them, and who, by sitting at His feet, owned Him in this title of absolute supremacy. It is a blessed moment for any soul when that point is reached, when He is enthroned in the heart as supreme, when His will becomes the only law of our daily lives, because we understand His word, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”
But Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord to hear His word. This was the one thing the Lord delighted in; again and again He had cried, If any man has ears to hear let him hear (see also Rev. 2 and 3), and now He has found one who had received the grace of the hearing ear, and whose heart had been prepared for the divine communications which He had to make. Speaking to His disciples He said, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:1515Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:15)). This will help us to understand the nature of His discourse with Mary. And with what delight the Lord would impart these heavenly things to one who was ready through grace to be thus instructed. Amidst the hearts “waxed gross,” ears which were “dull of hearing,” and eyes which were closed, that surrounded Him on every hand, it must have been an unspeakable refreshment to His soul to meet with this yearning soul who desired to hear His words! And with what holy awe and responsive joy on her part would she listen as He spoke to her of His and the Father’s things. The Father who sent Him had given Him a commandment, what He should say, and what He should speak (John 12:4949For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. (John 12:49)); and it was Mary’s ineffable privilege to listen to the message which the Father had given to the Son to deliver. (Compare Isa. 50:44The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. (Isaiah 50:4).)