By Such Stripes Are We Healed
by Jack Shaver
©The United Church of Canada, 1985
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0-88622-196-X
7M/12/85/APL
Used with Permission
Saturday
The suffering of God's chosen one
Isaiah 52: 13 - 53: 12
This won't be the first time you have set eyes on this passage. At least it can be counted on that you have heard parts of it before.
Can you imagine hearing it for the first time? Especially when you are a people who have been hearing for centuries that suffering is the result of sin. If you obey God, you will prosper; if you disobey God, you will have it rough. You have been told for generations about the Holy One of Israel. Your God is no capricious power that can be manipulated by the right magic. Yours is a righteous God, maker of heaven and earth, whose righteousness is part of a universal
order .
This theological heritage was no small matter to live with. It was no small gift to bear to the world.
However, here and there in the writings of the people of Israel there is a protest that the righteous don't always prosper - at least, not immediately. In Jeremiah you have a preacher whose heart breaks because of the disobedience of his people. In Ezekiel you have the report that God is looking for someone to take responsibility for faults in the social fabric. And now this passage on the suffering servant!
What is it doing in the middle of what often sounds like never-say-die nationalism? What can possibly have given rise to these remarks? Who is it about? The blinded king Zedekiah? Some other leader of the people? The people of Israel themselves or a remnant of them? Or is it the unknowing repetition of some divine dictation foretelling the life of Jesus Christ? Or is it all of these? I don't know. I think we will never know the answers to these questions.
But we do know that in the context of the Babylonian exile, with the bitter death of hope and the birth of a new hope, this notion got put forward that God's servant suffered. God's servant was called to suffer.
Verses 13-15 admit that such is an astonishing matter. People are going to stand around dumbfounded. A rejected one, an afflicted one, a grieving one, was God's servant. An innocent sufferer is called God's chosen one.
God is seen as having something to do with suffering besides inflicting it on the wicked. It is the lot of those who care, as well as of those who disobey. God's righteousness is seen as seeking restoration and not just a balance of accounts. God is seen not only as just and patient and faithful but also as loving the erring one. Suffering is seen as having a redemptive role.
In most cases with us, whenever we encounter unjust suffering, the cry goes up, "How can God be a loving God?" Israel's breakthrough to the penetrating insight that God is love came when it was confronted by innocent suffering.
Thanksgiving
- Gracious God,
- When was the last time we waved at you, let alone shouted hosanna?
It's astonishing how feeble our praise is. - But base gratitude is no cure.
- When we let the mystery of creation interrupt our business,
- we are lost in wonder.
- When we let the goodness of life overwhelm our grumbling,
- we discover all your works praismg you.
- The trees speak, the hills give back the sound
and the seas clap their hands. - When our lives are shaken down by the intrusion of some human reality,
- we give thanks to you for discovered treasure.
- When grief invades our indifference,
- we bless you for the gift of caring for another.
- When we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ,
- we wonder where we can borrow
the language to thank you. - When we see what you are like with us, even while we are your enemy, we join the angels and archangels in amazed song:
- Heaven and earth are full of your glory,
- Glory be to you, O God most high.
Amen