Read an excerpt from “The Tomb Is Empty… Tell the World” below, then read the full story.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, “Your God is King!”
To the modern reader, it may seem like a burst of whimsy or poetical sport for Isaiah to unite the idea of good news with feet. But in the ancient world, centuries before the advent of electronic means of communication, feet and glad tidings had an immediate and very necessary connection. For in the absence of telephone, telegraph, radio or television, how would joyful news arrive if not by messenger, on foot? Beautiful indeed those feet must have seemed when they had walked and run many rough miles to deliver a longed-for message.
Perhaps there is no better example of the dramatic beauty of Isaiah’s words than the Gospel accounts of the first Easter. All four evangelists impress upon their readers the urgency with which the apostles and disciples spread the word of the Resurrection among themselves, even before they completely understood what had happened. Reading the New Testament narratives, one can almost hear the sound of running feet and breathless voices.
According to Matthew, the women who encountered the angel at Christ’s tomb “departed quickly in fear and great joy” to tell the others. John relates how he and Peter, alerted by Mary Magdalene, ran all the way to the tomb to investigate. John ran so fast that Peter, who was older, could not keep up with him. Christ himself, upon disclosing his identity to Mary in the garden, directed her not to linger, but to bring word immediately to his followers. And the two travelers bound for Emmaus on some unknown errand turned their feet back toward Jerusalem as soon as they realized who it was that had broken bread with them.