Matins Devotion: April 25, 2023
Yesterday, in our text about the Roman Centurion who asks for Jesus to heal his servant, I talked about the beautiful irony of it all. The man who is most worthy to have Jesus come under his roof is the man who confesses that he is utterly unworthy to have Jesus come under his roof. It’s the man who knows he’s not a child of Abraham who is the greatest child of Abraham.
Today, we have another beautiful irony in these words of Isaiah, “how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace and salvation.” So whose feet are these specifically? Well, at the beginning of Isaiah 52, the Lord is lamenting the state of His people, His rebellious children who sold themselves into slavery for nothing, who traded the love of their God for something utterly worthless–the violence and oppression of the Assyrians. But at this point, God begins to speak a word of comfort. He tells of how He will speak peace to His scattered people. And at the end of chapter 52, God shows them the one who will give them peace, the suffering servant of Israel, the one who will be pierced for their transgressions and crushed for their iniquities.
So, then, whose beautiful feet are these that bring good news and publish peace and salvation? They’re the feet of the Savior, the feet of the Messiah, the feet of Jesus Christ. How beautiful are the sweat-dripping, dirt-covered, blistered feet that carried a cross up Mount Calvary in order to rescue you from condemnation. How beautiful are the blood-soaked feet of Jesus Christ that have been pierced for your sins and crushed for your iniquities. How beautiful are the hideous feet of our Lord that twitched and died upon the cross in order to pull you out of slavery and death and give you the right to live with Him forever. How beautifully ironic it is that you have been made beautiful to God by something so ugly that men could not stand to look at it. And how beautiful are the once dead, but now living feet of Jesus Christ that walked out of the tomb and carried you into the Kingdom of God.
Comments