When I have had the privilege of touring the medieval cathedrals of Europe, I found the medieval tombs standing in the buildings to be fascinating. The persons buried in those tombs are frequently memorialized by reclining effigies on the lid of the monument in which their remains repose. Often their hands are clasped in prayer and their feet rest upon a creature such as a lion. I suppose that these two elements recognize the claim of the church and the state upon such long-deceased nobles. Their temporal power could be symbolized by feet standing upon this supine creature. Certainly, when you are able to place your feet upon the head of your enemy, he is powerless to harm you. The kings of the ancient near east would so treat a defeated king to indicate that he had now become a vassal under the complete power of the victor. I wonder if this tradition hadn't arisen from the ancient memory of the divine promise to Adam and Eve that our inveterate enemy, Satan, would be crushed under the feet of the Messiah ( Gn 3:15).

 

When Paul says, " The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Rm 16:20), he seems to be going beyond what God had said in His promise to Adam and Eve about the victory of the Messiah. How is it that what has been attributed to the Messiah is now placed under our feet? We are found to be in Him by faith, so that whatever He has done for our salvation is attributed to us. Our feet scarred by the nails of the Christ now stand over our old enemy. What He has crushed we stand upon with no fear of opposition. Satan can pose no threat to the church or her children because the Lord has crushed his head and placed him as a trophy under our feet. We are kings and priests in His kingdom and sanctuary, with all the titles and authorities that accrue to those who are elevated in this way by the King of kings and Priest of priests. What is said of Him is also ours.

 

These marks of faith are the true stigmata of the holy people. Occasionally, people who have meditated upon the death of Christ with sufficient intensity claim to begin bleeding from their hands, feet, and side, like the suffering Christ. Such things are difficult to verify and of dubious provenance and value. However, there is a way in which all Christians are marked by the wounds of Christ. We all have stigmata, because Christ has been superimposed upon all of us by faith. We have the marks of life upon us because His death becomes our death, and His wounds become our wounds. If we are His and He is ours this is the way it has to be. We are the living icons in the world of the living Lord Jesus. He will soon crush Satan under our feet because He has crushed Satan under His feet.