‘What happened before is the best explanation of what happened next.’ I saw that line in a history book recently and I knew that it might come in handy… A counter quote is: ‘The past does not give us answers, but the fabric of history provides tools for self-reflection that help us to frame what we’re looking for.’
Either way, our verses from the Old Testament help us to understand what’s happening in our Gospel reading.
By the beard
The passage from Isaiah comes from when the children of Israel are in the final years of exile in Babylon. Decades before they’d been taken away from their homeland and into captivity. Of all the things that Isaiah could have been given to say, giving a message of comfort to the weary must have felt like a great thing for the prophet to be asked to do.
But almost straight away the author then talks of being struck and insulted and spat at and his beard being pulled. Which is clearly not such a great thing.
If that part looks familiar, then Shakespeare buffs amongst you may remember the scene from King Lear, where Gloucester is bound to a chair and tortured, crying out: ‘By the kind gods, ’tis most ignobly done, to pluck me by the beard.’
Dignity and purpose
Despite that, or maybe because of that, this tough victim of abuse in Isaiah can still say that he is vindicated and not disgraced. He is offered as a symbol of hope and courage in the midst of suffering. Indeed, the prophet likens himself to be a servant to the people and calls them to be like him and to understand their suffering in the same way that he does.
This is one of a number of poems in Isaiah where God calls ‘my servant’. They can be thought of as the prophet’s attempt to inspire a people in exile to see themselves as servants of God who have dignity and purpose – rather than as helpless slaves of Babylon.
The servant of God in these poems is never given a name – which has led commentators over the centuries to speculate on who it may be. Was Isaiah talking about himself? Or was the servant Jeremiah, a contemporary prophet who suffered greatly during his lifetime for the unpopular messages that he brought?
Blameless
Christian writers often see these suffering servant poems as a picture of Jesus and how he saw his role when he was here on Earth. In particular, the verses that we had today about being beaten, are taken as a vision of what happened to Jesus in the lead up to the crucifixion.
But another way of looking at this is that not naming the servant allowed the people of Israel hearing these words to imagine themselves as the servant. All of the people collectively, rather than one individual.
If so, it was a brave move to make. Isaiah was hoping to change the mindset of a people tired of being in exile – whose every move was controlled by Babylon – into seeing themselves as blameless, faithful people, unjustly suffering. That, in reality, they only belonged to God. That called by him and empowered by him they would ultimately be vindicated.
Self-identity
This would boost and reinforce their self-identity as God’s own chosen people, at a time when they were struggling to even remember who they really were, after years of captivity many hundreds of miles from home.
I do wonder though if these lines contain the seed of Israel’s mindset even today, centuries later – that they still see themselves as a blameless, faithful people, unjustly suffering – and thus giving a clue to their current actions.
Encouragement
But back to the passage, the instruction to the servant is not only for their own good, it’s especially for the good of others. And those who teach or preach now have the same responsibility – to offer encouragement when God’s people need help to endure the circumstances that they find themselves in.
And it’s an ongoing, ‘morning by morning’, process. God speaks to us day by day. But there might be a cost to that. Faithful teaching and preaching may mean dangers and difficulties, rejection and opposition.
For the early church you can understand why they would adopt these verses to understand what Jesus did and to make sense of the persecution that they themselves were experiencing. That they needed to embrace that to ultimately gain vindication.
Courage
The words in Isaiah give us a clue to the Gospel reading today. The ‘what happened next’ – or the tool for self-reflection. When Peter objects to Jesus picturing himself suffering greatly, Jesus not only rebukes Peter but tells all who are listening that there is a price to pay if they, and we, wish to follow.
Which is all very nice, but all this takes guts and courage. How brave are we? And if you think I’m talking about someone else, the person next to you or behind you, then think again. Isaiah’s words were to all the people. To everyone. Jesus’ words were to all who would call themselves disciples, Christians.
Your Word
There’s a poem on these passages from Isaiah and the Gospel. It’s written by Walter Brueggemann and is called ‘Your Word’:
Your word is a light to our feet and a lamp to our path.
Your word is a glue of the universe wherein the whole creation coheres.
Your word is the address of promise and command by which we live.
Your word has come fleshed among us full of grace and truth.
We are creatures of your word and we give thanks for it.
For all that we are more dazzled that your word is
carried, uttered, acted by frail vulnerable human agents.
We ponder and give thanks for those who in this day
speak your word where it is desperately needed and deeply resisted.
We ponder and give thanks for those who this day
act your word for newness and peace and justice.
We ponder with trepidation that among us you will
yet designate such carriers, such speakers, such actors.
In our thanks for your word, we pray for courage
in the name of the one who emptied himself. Amen
You and I
You and I are those frail, vulnerable human agents. It might be today that we are asked to speak those words where they’re desperately needed and deeply resisted. Or it may be tomorrow.
Perhaps we’re yet to be designated as such carriers, such speakers, such actors. Yet to be called to the sustain the weary with a word. And there’s plenty of opportunity because there are plenty of weary people! Weary from illness, or overwork, or not enough money coming in, or not having a permanent home. Maybe we are the ones who are weary?
Just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t. Not all calls are eternal, they might ebb and flow with us – with our needs and with those of our community. Those calls are not about proving our worth – they’re more about showing how we might practice that worth.
Risk
Such calls might carry risk and we might never be the same again – but those changes make us more like Christ. I’d like you to think about that as we sing our next hymn which contains this verse:
Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind, and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare,
Will you let me answer prayer in you, and you in me?
Will you let me answer prayer in you, and you in me? Amen
‘The Suffering Servant’ was delivered by Ian Banks at St John and St Mark on 15th Sept 2024. It was based on Isaiah 50:4-9a and Mark 8:27-end.
References:
- Mitchell, D. (2023). Unruly. Penguin.
- Altenberg, K. (2024). The Tablet. 20th July 2024 Issue.
- Cole, A.R. (2024). Black Liturgies. Hodder & Stoughton.
- Brueggemann, W. (2003). Awed to Heaven. Rooted in Earth. Fortress Press.
- Hymn by John Bell and Graham Maule.
- https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-24-2/commentary-on-isaiah-504-9a-12#:~:text=The%20Lord%20opens%20the%20servant’s,to%20us%20day%20by%20day.
- https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sunday-of-the-passion-palm-sunday-2/commentary-on-isaiah-504-9a-15