Meditation for March 19, 2008

From The Rev. Peter A. Munson

Wednesday in Holy Week

Isaiah 50:4-9a

 

4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.  Morning by morning he wakens - wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.  5 The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.  6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.  7 The Lord God helps me; therefore I will not be disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; 8 he who vindicates me is near.  Who will contend with me?  Let us stand up together.  Who are my adversaries?  Let them confront me.  9 It is the Lord who helps me; who will declare me guilty?

 

The Suffering But Faithful and Vindicated Servant

 

There are four passages in Isaiah, usually identified as "Servant Songs", in which the identified servant, as these scriptures were originally written, was the nation of Israel.  These passages are:  Isaiah 42:1-9; Isa. 49:1-6; Isaiah 50:4-11 (today's passage); and Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (one of the scriptures read on Good Friday).  Though these passages were written in the 6th century before Christ, and were therefore not originally written about our Lord, they came to be identified with him.  In all of these passages, "the servant" goes through suffering.  That fits with a nation living in exile, as was the case when these passages were written.  But it also fits with the sufferings of Christ. (See, for example, verse 6 above.)  So it is probably not surprising that early on - in the very beginnings of Christianity - people read these passages from Isaiah and said something similar to this: "That is what Jesus went through during his Passion!  These are prophetic passages about a suffering Messiah, a suffering Christ.  How can you read these passages and not think about our Lord being whipped and abused and finally dying on the cross?"

 

While each of the four passages contains images of suffering, each of them also brings us a very real word of hope, and speaks of justice being done in the end.  Let's take a look.

 

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations... I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon..." (Isaiah 342:1, 6-7)

 

"But I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.'  And now the Lord says... 'It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.'" (Isaiah 49:4-6)

 

"The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near... It is the Lord who helps me; who will declare me guilty?" (Isaiah 50:7-9)

 

"See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high... Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.  The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors..." (Isaiah 52:13, 53:11-12)

 

Have you experienced any suffering in your life?  If so, perhaps you should meditate on these passages.  You will be reminded that the nation of Israel has suffered.  You will be reminded that the Son of God has suffered, too - even unto death.  You will be reminded that God is a God who comes alongside of us in our times of suffering, and helps us through those times.  You will be reminded that - in the end - the victory belongs to God, and that through a relationship with God in Christ, we are given hope, and become people of hope... no matter what we might experience. 

 

Yes, these Servant Songs are good passages to meditate on during Holy Week.  They bring to my mind one other well-known passage.  It goes like this:

 

"What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?  Who will bring any charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  It is Jesus Christ, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.  Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.'  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39)

 

"... we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."  The One who loved us - and who still loves us - demonstrated that love by his suffering, by his sacrifice, by his death on the cross.  And God has vindicated him - (and us, too!) - by raising him from the dead... never to die again.

 

There is plenty for us to meditate on this Holy Week.  The Servant Songs are a really good place for us to start.