Dirty Feet

Brothers and sisters: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.

The Scripture says, No one who believes in him will be put to shame. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, enriching all who call upon him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!

But not everyone has heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what was heard from us? Thus, faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. But I ask, did they not hear? Certainly, they did for Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. (Romans 10:9-18)

Quite the reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans!  The prized status of uprightness before God is available to everyone, and it is achieved not through the Law, but through faith in Christ.  Paul seemed to say that salvation comes through Christ.  

No wonder Paul was so controversial among the Jewish people.  He lived his life among Jews and Gentiles (the Greeks).  He defended the rights of Gentile converts to be full and genuine heirs to the promises of God to Israel.  He did not speak of Christianity versus Judaism.  He spoke about Jews and Gentiles and their coexistence.

Very unfortunately and tragically, many Gentiles, later called Christians, concluded the Jewish people were “God-killers.” This label has haunted Jews for centuries with the Church not doing enough to correct this interpretation.  The Gospel of John with its Passion, in particular, cast the Jews in this role.  

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news! Until Christians shed this cruel misinterpretation of Jesus versus the Jews, or Christianity versus Judaism, we will have “dirty and ugly feet.” Very bad news.

Deacon David Pierce