Worshipping feet

"They came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him." Matthew 28.9

I've just come to the end of Matthew in my Quiet Times and had one of those moments with a familiar reading, in which you are struck by something you've not noticed before. In this case it is that Matthew records that the women, when they saw Jesus risen, took hold of his feet. I suppose that, until now, I've not really visualised what this means. It's not an easy thing to take hold of someone's feet - not unless they are sitting down or you rugby tackle them! Certainly a toddler can grab their parent's feet and ask to be dragged along - but for an adult!

So for the women to do this would mean lying on the ground amidst the dust, stones, grass etc. What would cause them to do this? We don't read that they did this to the angel, whose entrance and appearance seems much more dramatic - earthquake, lightning, dazzling light. He simply inspires fear and causes the guards to collapse. With Jesus they fall at his feet, not as though dead like the guards, but in worship. Seeing Jesus standing among them is more amazing to them than all of the visible signs surrounding the arrival of the angel. 

Why is that? The obvious answer is that they knew that people did not rise from the dead. Sometimes people suggest that the accounts of the resurrection were by people who were gullible, who did not realise that resurrection is impossible. But the actual accounts testify that the exact opposite was true (look ahead to v.17 in which Matthew records that some doubted even after seeing the risen Jesus - that really is an illogical scepticism).

The real opportunity of this passage as we look on at the women lying in the dust filled with awe, wonder, love, worship and fear, is to get a glimpse, though their eyes, of just how wonderful Jesus is. If we were to meet him now, we would hurriedly get down on the floor - (some of us with more difficulty than others!). I'm now 42, 6'5", 16 stone, with an arthritic hip, and I know what a big deal it is to get down on the floor. As I was reading this, I was trying to imagine actually doing it. Despite all this though, I would do it because he is so amazing, so glorious; his resurrection is so wonderfully, awe-inspiringly true, that I would fall down (or at least creakily lower myself to the ground) to worship him.

One day we will really see him, and as Philippians 2 tells us, we will bow our knees. In the meantime, the women help us to hold on to his majestic risen glory even as, at the moment, we cannot see him.