How beautiful are our feet?!!! (Isaiah 52:7)

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 messenger who announces 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 messenger in verse 7. Here, the foot, the least considered part of our body, is explained as the beautiful one. We usually never consider our feet much. 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 are 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 emphasizes 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 priests, 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 well-being 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? This Monday near Pulakeshi Nagar police station, we had a protest against the rape of two girls. How many of our feet went and stood there showing solidarity? 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.

  

P. Samuel Anbarasu

B.D. II