How
beautiful are our feet?!!! (Isaiah 52:7)
A reflection by my dear buddy Rev. Samuel Anbarasu / CSI Madras Diocese
Shane Claiborne
wrote about one of his experiences with Mother Teresa. He says, “People often
ask me ‘What was Mother Teresa like?’ The usual reply that I give is that
Mother Teresa was a short, wrinkled, beautiful, wise old granny. But there is
one thing I will never forget about her - her feet. Mother Teresa’s feet were
deformed. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had
contracted leprosy. But I didn’t have the courage to ask her. One day a sister
said to us, “Have you noticed Mother’s feet?” We nodded. She said: “Her feet
are deformed because we do not get a sufficient number of donated shoes for
everyone. Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she
digs through the pile of donated shoes and finds the worst pair for herself.
And years of doing that, have deformed her feet”. Years of loving her neighbor
as herself have deformed her feet.
The
passage that was read, Isaiah 52:7-9, visualizes the feet of the messenger who
announces the good news of the liberation act of Yahweh to redeem the people of
Israel from the captivity of the Babylonians. I would like to focus on verse 7 for
our morning reflection entitled “How beautiful are our feet?”
On
looking at the historical setting, the text that was read is from
Deutero – Isaiah (Isaiah chapters 40 - 55). The Israelites were taken as
captives under the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. The Israelites had no hope
of returning to their own homeland. It is in this context that we hear a
brilliant message of deliverance and salvation to the people in exile through
Deutero - Isaiah. The message of salvation was that the Persian king Cyrus was
opposing the neo-Babylonian empire thereby affirming the opportunities for a
restored Jewish community back in Palestine and for Yahwism to become the professed
religion. Deutero - Isaiah expressed the absolute conviction that ‘Restoration
is the doing of Yahweh’ (Isaiah 41:2-3; 44:28; 52:9).
Now
I would like to move our focus on to verse 7. It says
“How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, "Your God
reigns.”
In
Isaiah chapter 52:1-6 we see that Isaiah calls Zion to wake up and rejoice
because of the assurance of their freedom by Yahweh. Now in verses, 7 – 9,
Yahweh explains his plans to reign as King among his redeemed people in an era
of joy and peace. The text Isaiah 52:7-9 depicts three things. In verse 7, the
feet of the messengers who announce good tidings, in verse 8, the sentinels are
called to see the return of Yahweh to Zion and in verse 9, we read about the
invitation to Jerusalem to sing praises to Yahweh.
The
one thing that struck me was the phrase about the beautiful feet of the
messengers in verse 7. Here, the foot, the least considered part of our body,
is explained as the beautiful one. We usually never consider much about our
feet. We walk, run, play and do all things on our feet but we never think of
them as being important. But here, in this Deutero-Isaiah passage, the feet are
referred to as “Beautiful”. On further reading of the text, we see that the
feet are not covered with costly shoes or sandals, but just feet upon the
mountains. We can assume that the feet of the messenger who travels through the
mountains will not be nice but stale. Deutero - Isaiah addresses this stale
feet as “How beautiful” they are. The feet of the messenger who carries the message
of the salvation is wounded and yet beautiful.
In
verse 7, we can see that the message brought by the messenger has four
proclamations. They are peace, good news, salvation and the reign of God.
The
peace announced by the messenger refers to the absence of enmity
and conflict and hence the institution of a time of unity and togetherness
among the people and with the other nations.
The
good news announced was the freedom for the people
of Israelites from their captivity. This good news also emphasize that it is
not only freedom but also to come back to the own covenantal life with Yahweh.
The
salvation is that Yahweh will deliver his people from the
captivity and empower them to be the chosen people of Yahweh again. Then,
Yahweh will reign over his people and in that reign, joy, peace, salvation
becomes a reality. The feet of the messenger are beautiful because of the news
that the messenger brought across the mountains.
The
significance of this metaphor ‘the feet’ is also seen in many
places in the Bible. In Joshua 3:16, we see that when the feet of the priest
who were bearing the ark touched the waters of Jordan, immediately the water
stood still. In Matthew 15:30, we see that many people came to the feet of
Jesus and Jesus cured all of them. There are much more texts in the Bible
depicting the image of feet. Even at the anointing at Bethany, the woman poured
an alabaster jar of oil on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair.
In
conclusion, the feet of Jesus, the priests and messengers were
beautiful because of the good deeds they did, because of their voice against injustice
and oppression, because they stood on the side of righteousness and the
wellbeing of all the people who were dehumanized. The feet of Mother Teresa
were beautiful because of her devoted service to humanity.
What
do our feet look like? Do our feet stand for God and his will? Do our feet
stand against all the dehumanizing powers of dominant structures? Solomon says
in Proverbs 1:16, the feet of the sinners run to do evil. Where are our feet
going? Do our feet stand on the side of the oppressed or do we stand in a
neutral position without concern for anything that happens around us? How
beautiful are our feet really? Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment