Beautiful Feet?
Isaiah 52:7-10
Romans 10:5-15
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Beautiful, and feet, are two words that should not be in the same sentence. I mean what’s beautiful about feet? Feet are gross! If your feet are anything like mine, they’re flat, stubby, sometimes smelly, dirty… or their long and bony - which is no better - and have toes that look like they could wrap around a tree limb! It all kinda creeps me out!
I mean, the lack of positive descriptors goes on and on when it comes to feet!
However... I will admit... if you want to see beautiful feet, just look to the feet of a baby… Particularly a newborn baby. Even I can appreciate that those chubby little feet are actually quite beautiful. They’re the only feet I’ve ever been tempted to kiss! But that stage does not last. Baby’s become elementary aged germ factories... who eventually become teenagers... and their feet are one of their smelliest parts! I own stock in “Febreze” because of smelly feet!
In fact, feet were considered disgusting in Jesus’ day, and well before. It’s one of the reasons Peter was so adamantly against Jesus, washing his feet. If you remember that story, Jesus took a towel, wrapped it around his waist, and took a basin filled with water, and set-out with the purpose of washing his disciple’s feet! But Peter said, “NO! You’ll never wash my feet!”
But Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” And after hearing that, Peter, rather reluctantly, agreed.
To wash another person’s feet was to humble oneself... it was to be submissive - setting aside pride, position, status... in service... in humility... it was an expression of extreme devotion and love, as offered by Christ.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Back in biblical times, during battles, conflicts, wars... very fast runners, would be used as couriers/heralds... to bring news between the front lines of and a town or city. Sometimes the runners would run for miles, and miles on end, to bring the news of either defeat, or victory to the people at home.
If the news was bad, if the battle had gone poorly, the news of the herald could bring a drastic change in life. The people of the city may have to prepare for war. They may have to lock the town gates... stock up on essentials, food & water - preparing for a siege... hiding the valuables, and so forth. They may even have to pack up all their belongings and literally head to the hills to get out of the line of fire… the incoming army.
Just like today, bad news was unwelcomed - because it often meant chaos and upheaval... it often meant instability and uncertainty. No one wanted a courier, no matter how far they’d ran, to deliver bad news.
But... if the news was good… Victory… The people would celebrate. Good News meant deliverance from their enemy... peace, safety, security! And the bearer of the good news, the Messenger… the Runner… whose feet had been battered, and bruised, and blooded… as he ran over miles of coarse path, rocky roads, steep hills, rugged plains… to bring the good news of victory… That runner would be celebrated as a hero! A person who had delivered the best possible news of the day to a people living in anxiety and fear. Good news delivered to a people who needed hope.
Seems to me, that you and I are those messengers today. We’re the couriers... we’re the runners who have received the good news of Christ’s victory…
And, as such, we’re called to run, to go, to share the good news that we’ve received with the community around us, that desperately needs to hear it.
Of course, that means you and I’ll have to move... we have to do something... we have to engage the world around us, using our hands, our feet, our voices, as I often say. Our hands represent our service, our voices represent our proclamation, and our feet represent our carrying, our transport, of the good news to the world around us.
The good news that Christ has won the ultimate victory! The victory over sin and death. “It is finished”, Jesus said. The battle is over. Our eternity, our eternal security, is fixed. Unchanging. Once, and forever established, on the foundation of Christ himself. That’s the best news we can possibly offer our world today. We have been rescued, delivered, redeemed!
Of course, sharing Good News isn’t always easy! Sometimes the rocky, jagged and rough roads of life push back... and we find our feet are dirty, and bruised, and worn. But the calling doesn’t change! The urgency and need do not change. We have a message to share... and we must proclaim it... no matter the cost.
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Of course, it turns out, that the most beautiful feet of all, are the battered, scarred, bloody feet… of Jesus, himself.
Feet that traveled all the way from heaven, to the cross, to the empty grave, to bring you and me, that greatest news of all… “for God, so loved the world that he gave his one, and only, Son... that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Amen.
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