Year C. Passion/Palm Sunday April 8th, 2001 Isaiah 50 : 4-9
Title: “Suffering Servant”
In Isaiah Chapters 40 – 55, there are four “songs” or poems, 42: 1-7; 49: 1-7; 50: 4-9; 52: 13 – 53: 12 that stand out as having a distinct character. In fact, if they were removed from the text along with their surrounding fragments the text would flow quite easily and they would not be missed. They were obviously “sewn into” the text and stitched onto it. They are known as either the “Servant Songs” or the “Suffering Servant Songs.” The “Servant” is depicted as both Israel and as an individual, who’s suffering, because he is innocent, counts towards the suffering of others required by their guilt and sin. Seen as an individual, he redeems Israel by paying the price with his life, after undergoing undeserved punishment. As Israel, the servant is either the “faithful remnant,” those Israelites who remained faithful to Yahweh despite their circumstances and who redeem the rest of Israel, or faithful Israel who redeems all the other nations and peoples of the world.
These four songs were quite influential in Jesus’ understanding of himself and his mission. While others expected a political victor, conquering through military might, he saw himself as the suffering servant of Isaiah, conquering through his innocent suffering, his example of fidelity at all costs, and his absolute confidence in God. Jesus meditated on these songs and saw their truth coming true in his life. Much of his behavior, especially at the time of his Passion and death, can be explained by his fidelity to the teaching of these songs. Our present text is the third song. Curiously the word “servant” does not appear until verse 10. It is absent from the song proper. The word was used to “stitch” the song’s contents into the context of the existing text at hand. In this song the servant is much more clearly an individual figure, possibly even the prophet himself speaking. The situation of the speaker and his reaction to it strongly resemble the “confessions” of Jeremiah 11: 18-20; 15: 15-18; 18: 19-23, another prophet whom Jesus closely imitated. Unlike Jeremiah, the servant accepts his sufferings willingly and does not complain about them. He is confident of eventual vindication.
In verse four, “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher,” The essence of prophecy is that it is the Lord’s word, not the prophet’s. His ability to speak at all and his message are not self-created or self-serving. Though it is an awesome claim, to speak for God, without it the prophet has no authority and no credibility. “That I may know how to sustain the weary with a word,” in some versions “Well-trained,” This translates the Hebrew, “of those who are taught.” Obviously, he is taught by God. The prophet refers to himself as Yahweh’s pupil rather than as his servant. Although the word “servant” does not appear in the song, the idea of a servant as a pupil helps to expand the notion. He is receiving God’s message like a pupil in a classroom, being “taught by God” as Jeremiah and Jesus would remark. When Jesus was explaining the implications and applications of receiving and carrying his message he frequently used the teacher-student metaphor as well. “No servant is greater than his master; no disciple -learner, pupil- greater than his teacher,” he would say.
That I might know how to speak: The pupil learns, not for knowledge sake or for his own, but to communicate that knowledge to others. One must first experience something before one can transmit it to others. As logic dictates: No one gives what he does not have.
“How to sustain the weary with a word,” this is a key word, appearing frequently, throughout chapters 40-66. Weariness seems to be a major obstacle in the ministry of the Isaian prophets, although we are given no specifics. No doubt it is a weariness caused by prolonged or repeated oppression. Here it may allude to the weariness or boredom of the pupil who has heard it all, the Word of God before and has been lulled by its familiarity.
A word that will rouse them: The prophet is convinced of the urgency of the message. Whether he can convince others and convey that urgency is another matter.
“Morning by morning he wakens--wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught,” this refers to the daily meditation on and mediation of the word of God. God’s word is always there for those who will open themselves to it and it is always revelatory, if not always revolutionary.
In verse five, “I have not rebelled, he withstood the temptation to turn a deaf ear.
In verse six, “I gave my back to those who beat me,” This means that he willingly suffered the consequences of delivering the unpopular message from God. Like the prophets before and after him he would be mistreated. Those who do not like the message take it out on the messenger.
“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. Pulling the hairs from a man’s beard was considered a major insult, even humiliation.
Buffets and spitting: He was publicly shamed, but he did nothing to stop it or lighten it. He let it happen. We can imagine Jesus’ reaction to these words when he first realized they pertained to him!
In verse seven, “I am not disgraced,” the only one who could really disgrace him was the Lord, and since he was delivering his message, it was they who rejected him who had fallen out of grace. The humiliation described in verses six and seven, could be metaphors for the kind of treatment the prophet received in his ordinary, daily life. More likely, it refers to what happened to him after he was arrested and before trial. It certainly describes quite accurately what happened to Jesus before his trial. Though the humiliation is real, it has failed in its purpose.
In verses eight and nine, the imagery has moved from the classroom at the beginning of these verses to the courtroom. Terms like “vindicate “upholds my right” in this translation, “contend”, “oppose”, “appear together” in a court of law, “disputes my right,” “prove me wrong” “declare …guilty” are all the language of the lawsuit used by many prophets to make their case. Yahweh is the prophet’s Advocate in court. What human accuser dare come forward? In the end, but not before suffering the consequences injustice brings in its wake, victory is certain, because Yahweh is on his side.
Jesus knew ahead of time that he would suffer, die and rise. The image of the suffering servant of Isaiah was a major source of that knowledge. We can only imagine the experience of Jesus, who, because he read, meditated on and contemplated the Word of God, realized all that was said there was true or would be true of him. Jesus encounter with God’s Word must have been both profoundly revealing and profoundly disturbing.
The text reads “morning after morning he opens my ear.” Jesus, no doubt, meditated on the Word daily, if not throughout the day. Revelation came to him just like it comes to us, after a daily diet of reflection. No doubt, as a human being, Jesus had his peak experiences in prayer. Yet, if he was fully human, he must have had the experience of a daily familiarity with the presence of God, which comes through meditation and contemplation. Through the daily sitting in the presence of the Word and over time it must have gradually dawned on him that everything he read was about his identity and mission. He found out who he was, what he was to do and, as in the text here, how he was to do it. God’s Word does not always get so specific. He was not only to suffer, but was to willingly accept it for the sake of others.
He willingly accepted the insults, ridicule, misunderstanding, dismissal and rejection not because he liked those experiences or because in some perverted way, he enjoyed them. Much less did he accept them because he wanted to trap his enemies into committing injustices against him so he could punish them in vengeance. He accepted suffering because he was obedient to his Father’s will as revealed in his Father’s Word. He also knew that the suffering of today leads to the glory of tomorrow. What his enemies would do to him would not be the last chapter in the book. He was supremely confident of vindication and victory. That awareness long before it actually happened, empowered him to accept willingly.
Willing acceptance of suffering, especially unjust, unjustified, and unjustifiable, is not passivity. In a very qualified sense, it is resignation, but only temporary resignation. When we imitate the Lord, we do not resign from life, we embrace it in all its dimensions, suffering, even unjustly, being one of them. But because it is not the only dimension, we also trust that vindication and victory will come in its time, in God’s time. “See, the Lord God is my help, who will prove me wrong?” That is not really resignation; it is confidence. Such confidence got Jesus through and beyond. Confidence in him will do the same for us.
We do not really have to preach anything to become an innocent target of injustice. By the very fact that a person is good, just, fair, kind and merciful, a person can stand out enough to irritate a lesser person. Goodness acts as a light shone upon evil, revealing its deficiencies. The mere presence of a good and godly person will alert evil present in another person and cause the evil to react. Christians are targets of evil without being aware of it and without realizing their very presence provokes evil to attack them. That is because the presence of Christ within a person, though most often invisible to other humans, is painfully obvious to evil spirits. And they react, maybe just negatively, often conspiratorially, and sometimes even violently. Jesus was quite familiar with all of this and he showed no fear of evil spirits. That made them all the more determined to do him harm. How dare he not fear them! Jesus knew and taught his pupils -servants that such innocent suffering, be it in the form of false accusation or mockery or lethal attack, was “par for the course” of Christian living and should not be feared. Victory is assured, even though the suffering entailed to get to the victory is inevitable. It must have been Jesus’ experience when he first read the words contained in the Suffering Servant motif that he had a very unpleasant reaction. But when he came to believe that victory was assured after all the negatives it must have been a very positive experience. Indeed, it was good news, even if wrapped in innocent suffering.
Because the prophet speaks God’s word and not his own, that word has all the power of God behind it.
Because it is God’s word it also has all the ambiguity characteristic of God.
The word of God comes with the power of persuasion, not the persuasion of power. God will not force his word upon people.
Refusal to hear and accept God’s word has negative consequences, even for the innocent messenger.
In the end, where it really counts, God’s word is victorious and effective over all opposition.
The ambiguity of God’s word: God’s word is his own interpretation of reality; the way God sees things. However, that interpretation is given to us mixed within human language. Human language is notorious for being ambiguous. While humans can manage to communicate honestly and effectively through words, they can just as easily lie, mislead and confuse others by them. So, it is not really God’s interpretation or “word” that is ambiguous, but the medium through which it comes, that is, human language. Remember the tower of Babel. That is one problem, but there is another. The word seems so weak when compared to the sword. Could not God have chosen a more powerful way to let us know how he thinks and see things, what he wants done, rather than through the relatively “weak” medium of words? Why the word? Why not the sword? Why persuasion? Why not force? Answer: God is like that. Would not it be really inconsistent of God to say to us that he is loving, kind and merciful and at the same time be holding a sword in his hand saying, “And you better believe it or else!”? God has made us in his image and likeness and given us free will. He wants us to freely choose good over evil, as he freely does. Thus, his word comes as an invitation from him to be like him and brings with it the very power to do so. The power is not force but overwhelming love.
The “weakness” of God’s messengers: Would not you think that God could do better than to send the defenseless, even sometimes “wimpy,” messengers he sends. Should not they be more intimidating? After all, this “Servant” in Isaiah might be a good guy, but really? Who is going to believe him? Here he is a victim of innocent suffering and all he can say or do is, “I trust in God. Tomorrow you will see I was right.” We would at least send in somebody with a temper who would rain down thunder and lightning at a bare minimum. What is it about God, with all his power and possibilities, that he doesn’t show a little of it to keep his kids in line? What is with this “Suffering Servant?” Answer: God is like that. He knows more than humans. He does not want to scare us into loving him, but to convince us by his own behavior that he loves us. He knows that the rest will follow, once we are convinced of his love. But there is ambiguity here. He shows us his glory through the medium of humiliation. He shows us his love through the medium of hatred. He shows us his justice through the medium of injustice. He does not prevent these ugly realities. He lets them be and has trust in his own creations, creatures, humans, made in his image, that most if not all will freely choose his way and accept his vision of reality. There is even ambiguity in the weakness of his messengers. God knows that it is the message not the messenger that has the power unless, of course, we are speaking of Christ who is both message and messenger. It is the content what is inside not the wrapping the visible form it which it comes, that matters in the long run. Humans might be scared for a day, but they would calm down and lose their resolve soon. If they freely accept the message, their attitude will permanently change, unlike fickle feelings of fear. The “Servant” is not weak at all, only meek. He turns out to be stronger than the whole nation put together. His ways are different. The old ways of violence and force never worked anyway. So, the “Servant” says, “Let us try God’s way. Let us let God be God.” And what happened is now history, yet still mystery. Amen.
