Sandal Straps And The Marriage Of Eternity

"And he preached, saying, 'After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.'"

The beginning of Mark's gospel contains this proclamation about Jesus. I don't know about you, but this has always been a confusing verse for me. I mean, why would John not be worthy to stoop down and untie Jesus' sandal? It would make more sense to me if John claimed that he wasn't worthy to lead Jesus anywhere, or he wasn't worthy to be the baptizer of Jesus (which I believe John actually does claim right before he baptizes Jesus), but why this obscure statement about untying Jesus' shoes? Firstly, why doesn't John feel worthy to untie Jesus' sandals, and secondly, why does Jesus need his sandals untied? 

Well I did some studying and here is one interesting theory I found about this scripture. In Jewish understanding at the time, the pulling off of one's sandal was representative of a refusal to marry. Let me explain. 

Let's pretend that a Jewish man, Joe, and a Jewish woman, Josephine, were married. Everything was going great in their marriage except that they have not yet had kids. Suddenly Joe fell off a cliff discovering the art of rock climbing and died. After Joe died, his jewish brother, Jordan, now has a pretty serious obligation. Jordan is obligated under Jewish law to marry his dead brother's wife and produce the kids that Joe didn't have a chance to produce. That way, Joe's bloodline would not dissipate. 

Let's further pretend that Joe had bad taste in women and Josephine was particularly unattractive to Jordan. Jordan was allowed to refuse to marry his dead brother's wife. However, and this is where it gets weird, if Jordan did refuse to marry Josephine, then she was to go up to him, spit in his face, and REMOVE HIS SANDAL as a representation that this man refused to marry his brother's wife. 

So perhaps what John is saying is, "I'm not Israel's groom, but Jesus, who's sandal will not be removed, is. Jesus, who won't refuse to marry his groom, even though his groom is particularly unattractive." 

Jesus did not refuse to marry me, to marry us, even though we, his bride, crucified him. He willingly kept his sandals on and followed through with his duty of marrying us, even though we are unworthy of marrying HIM. 

And furthermore, what does it mean that Jesus married us? It means that he is committed to us. It means that he is going to lovingly sit with us as we make mistakes. It means he is going to graciously redirect us when we get off path. Do I trust in Jesus this morning? Am I willing to believe and trust that Jesus followed through with this marriage WHEN HE KNEW what he was doing? And am I equally prepared to follow through with my commitments to people and to God? Am I prepared to follow through with my commitment to my wife and stop looking at other women? Am I prepared to commit to other people and be a disciplined listener and question-asker? 

Jesus' commitment to us is a reminder of the steadfast, no-giving-up sort of commitment we all need to make to each-other. It reminds me this morning that I need to stick with people even when they hurt me. It reminds me that I need to stay committed to loving people when they don't love me back. It reminds me that when other people are tripping up, I need to tighten my sandal straps, wrap some duct tape around my feet, and not allow my sandals to slip off. 

What does it remind you of?