Did you know that you can get insurance on your legs and feet? Yeah. Lloyds of London, one of the world’s largest and oldest insurance companies, will insure your lower limbs if you want. And that is what runway models, professional dancers, and premiere soccer players want. Some models won’t stroll down a catwalk in high heels unless their feet are insured for at least a hundred thousand dollars. The dancing phenom, Fred Astaire, insured his legs for seventy-five thousand bucks apiece. But world-famous soccer player, David Beckham, takes the cake. He’s insured his athletic pegs for an astounding seventy million dollars! (get-great-legs.com)
While the health of his legs and feet are essential to David Beckham, they’re probably not important to you. I mean if Beckham shattered his ankle so that he was no longer able to play soccer, it wouldn’t change your life would it? There are, however, a pair of feet besides your own that should be of great interest to you. What happens to these feet affects us…eternally. I’m talking about the amazing feet of Christ, your king. Those feet were once pierced, are now prevailing, and will soon be parading.
I don’t suppose Jesus’ feet looked very extraordinary. Like your feet, they had once been tiny - kicking the inside of his mother’s tummy. By the time Jesus was an adult, his feet were probably like most First Century A.D. feet: calloused and dusty from wearing open-toed sandals on dirt roads. But Jesus’ feet were extraordinary. In fact the first description in the Bible we have of Jesus is not of the color of his eyes or the shape of his jaw; it’s of his feet. What makes this description especially interesting is that it was given thousands of years before his birth. In the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, we hear God promise Adam and Eve a savior from sin. This savior, God explained, would crush the head of Satan but in the process would bruise his own heel (Genesis 3:15). Now fast forward to the cross of Calvary. What did the Roman soldiers do to Jesus’ feet? They nailed them to that wooden cross. As far as they were concerned, these were feet that would no longer walk from Galilee to Judea, or mount a donkey for a procession into Jerusalem again. They were going to put a stop to this “supposed” king’s activities. That’s what Satan thought too. But in driving a spike through those feet the soldiers inadvertently fulfilled Christ the King’s mission: to pay for the world’s sin with the blood that flowed from his wounds. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah put it this way: “…he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Because Jesus has paid for our sins on the cross, Satan, the accuser, as his name means, can no longer insist that God punish us for our sins. Oh, he still insists it but God the Father doesn’t listen to him any more than a store manager would listen to an accusation that you have shoplifted CDs after you’ve presented him the receipt for those CDs. The pierced feet of Jesus are your receipt that the punishment for your sins have been paid so that you no longer have to fear God’s eternal judgment in hell.
It’s awesome that Jesus allowed his feet to be pierced for our sins but where are those feet now? Were they mummified when Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus’ corpse down from the cross to care for it? If so, are they stuck in a church museum somewhere ready for viewing by the faithful? That’s kind of what some of the Corinthian Christians thought. They knew Christ had died but didn’t believe he had risen. The Apostle Paul was quick to set them straight. He wrote: “3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time... 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6a, 7, 8a).
Even though Jesus’ disciples themselves didn’t think they’d ever see Jesus’ feet move again the way they had over water, to the bedside of the sick, or up mountains to pray, Jesus’ feet did not remain cold and lifeless. Three days after his death those feet stepped out of the dark tomb into the sunlight of Easter morning and when they did, the didn’t just step over the threshold of a tomb, they crossed the threshold of death itself. Paul explains: “20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep... 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20, 22).
The pierced feet of Jesus may have succumbed to death but they now prevail over it. This prevailing is not like the prevailing of Sir Edmund Hillary over Mt. Everest. When Hillary conquered that mountain he inspired thousands of other climbers to do what was once unthinkable: put the world’s tallest peak beneath one’s feet. By his resurrection Jesus didn’t inspire others to rise from the dead, as if this was something they could accomplish with the right equipment and proper training. No, Jesus’ prevailing feet kicked a hole in death so that death can no longer forever swallow the rest of us. One day, Judgment Day, death will be forced to give up all its victims. And on that day Jesus’ feet will not just prevail, they’ll parade. Paul wrote: “Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).
When Paul said that on Judgment Day Jesus will destroy death he used one of my favorite Greek words: katargeo. This word means, “to render inoperable.” It’s the Greek word you would use to describe what a two-year old can do to a TV remote while you’re engrossed in the newspaper: pull it apart so that it never works again. That’s what Jesus will do to death. Come Judgment Day he will stomp on it so severely that it will never rear its ugly head again. Once pierced, now prevailing, soon parading. That’s what’s amazing about the feet of Christ our king.
But now death is not the only enemy that Jesus will stomp all over come Judgment Day. He will stomp on the devil and render him inoperable. He will stomp on evil dictators who opposed him. He will stomp on all those who have mocked you for your faith. Yes, that prevailing foot is poised ready to come crashing down in judgment. “So what’s Jesus waiting for!” we wonder. The Apostle Peter has the answer. He wrote: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Jesus has not yet brought his prevailing foot down on the people of this world because he’s waiting for a college student, who in spite of all the fun he’s having, still finds there’s something missing in his life. He’s waiting for that person who’s been giving Christianity a second thought. He’s waiting for a family that hasn’t been to church in awhile but knows that they should be here to learn more about what Jesus has done for them (adapted from Michael Vogel). Perhaps he’s even waiting for you and for me to turn away from an unrepented sin - like the sin of dwelling on the weaknesses of our parents, our teachers, our called workers, or our employers. That sin leads us to tear down instead of to build up. Perhaps Jesus is waiting for us to repent of the sin of laziness. We have gifts in music but don’t practice. We are gifted to teach but don’t prepare our Sunday School lessons as well as we should. We have the gift of organizing but use that gift for ourselves and not for the community or even for God’s people. We have the gift of time but spend the day complaining about how bored we are instead of using that time to pray. Thank God Jesus’ foot hasn’t come down yet because if it would have, we would have been among the unfortunate targets! So repent of your sins, Brothers and Sisters, no matter how small those sins may seem to you. Then look up to see the nail marks in Jesus’ feet, for they proclaim: “Sins forgiven!”
I’m sure David Beckham is wise to insure his feet for seventy million dollars. After all, his feet are how he makes his living, and a good one at that. Although it may not make sense for you to insure your feet, our text has taught us that the pierced feet of Jesus insure us that our sins are forgiven. Not only that, those pierced feet have prevailed over death and will one day will parade all over it. So come now and fall in worship at the amazing feet of Christ your King. Then one day your feet too will parade over death and the devil. Amen.
