The Lord's Servant
The Lord's Servant
Students of Isaiah have noted that this long, multi-faceted book has four different "servant songs" or passages about the servant of the Lord. Now as we sit 2,700 years after Isaiah's era, it's very difficult to know exactly who or what he was referring to in these songs. We can't know for sure if he was intending to refer to a servant ruler of his own day or to someone yet to come. As Christians though, we legitimately look at these songs and see in them a beautiful portrait of Christ. One of the remarkable things about the prophets of old is that they could envision things they could not understand.
These four "servant songs" are found in Isaiah 42, 49, 50 and 52-53. Certainly one can know the story of Jesus' atoning death and resurrection without having opened Isaiah. Just read the Gospels. We see the story told four times, slightly differently yes, but the same story nonetheless. These poignant and majestic passages from Isaiah fill it out for us. In his great little book Christians at the Cross, the prominent New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has likened these passages to the bass part of a piece of music. One can sing the melody, or even hum along with it quite nicely, but only when the whole harmony is heard does one get the full affect. Beethoven's 9th symphony has such a familiar melody that many beginning violin students learn it early on, and it is the basis for the hymn "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee." To hear the student violinist play that famous melody, even if done very skillfully, is not the same as hearing the full symphony with chorus perform it.
Palm Sunday has a very triumphant air to it, and it is even referred to as Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem. He's surrounded by a great throng of disciples, followers, and curiosity seekers. According to John's account of it, his followers were waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!" This indeed was the Chosen One, Messiah or Christ. This is God's anointed one who is coming into the holy city. Isaiah 42 says, "behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights... he will bring forth justice to the nations." As this Holy Week unfolds, we'll see that God has a very different way of bringing justice to the nations than what they envisioned.
In the recent DC Comics movie, "Justice League," the villain, an evil monster named Steppenwolf and a horde of demons are giving the assembled heroes Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, and the Flash a terrible time of it, and as he picks Cyborg up over his head he shouts "you're all too weak to see the truth!" At that very moment, Superman the "man of steel" shows up and shouts, "I believe in truth, and I'm also a big fan of justice," and gives a superhero-sized whipping to the villain. The other heroes are powerful in their own ways, but none was Superman. None could dispense justice like the blue suited, red caped survivor of the planet Krypton.
That's how Jesus' contemporaries saw the establishment of justice in the world. There was lots of justice that needed to be distributed. The chosen nation had been victims of Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and now Romans. Sin, poverty, corruption, decadence, and decay were the order of the day. The crowds saw in Jesus the Superman who would deal with their demons. Jesus was truth incarnate, but didn't establish justice by crushing evil and injustice as much as by simply absorbing it. As Isaiah put it: he won't lift up his voice, break a bruised reed, or extinguish the faintly burning wick. Currently in our sanctuary, we are having difficulty with the wicks in our oil candles. Each week we fill them with oil, the acolytes light them, and each week they quickly turn into "faintly burning wicks" barely holding onto their flame. The powerful one to dispense justice will be so humble and gentle that were he to enter our house of worship the faintest glimmer of flame on our candles would not be blown out.
Palm Sunday's crowds anticipated a Superhero and the manner in which he entered the city was overtly Messianic. The jarring transition that we as modern Christians must make is to understand that the one to dispense justice wouldn't do so as a superhero but as a servant and sufferer.
Students of Isaiah have noted that this long, multi-faceted book has four different "servant songs" or passages about the servant of the Lord. Now as we sit 2,700 years after Isaiah's era, it's very difficult to know exactly who or what he was referring to in these songs. We can't know for sure if he was intending to refer to a servant ruler of his own day or to someone yet to come. As Christians though, we legitimately look at these songs and see in them a beautiful portrait of Christ. One of the remarkable things about the prophets of old is that they could envision things they could not understand.
These four "servant songs" are found in Isaiah 42, 49, 50 and 52-53. Certainly one can know the story of Jesus' atoning death and resurrection without having opened Isaiah. Just read the Gospels. We see the story told four times, slightly differently yes, but the same story nonetheless. These poignant and majestic passages from Isaiah fill it out for us. In his great little book Christians at the Cross, the prominent New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has likened these passages to the bass part of a piece of music. One can sing the melody, or even hum along with it quite nicely, but only when the whole harmony is heard does one get the full affect. Beethoven's 9th symphony has such a familiar melody that many beginning violin students learn it early on, and it is the basis for the hymn "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee." To hear the student violinist play that famous melody, even if done very skillfully, is not the same as hearing the full symphony with chorus perform it.
Palm Sunday has a very triumphant air to it, and it is even referred to as Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem. He's surrounded by a great throng of disciples, followers, and curiosity seekers. According to John's account of it, his followers were waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!" This indeed was the Chosen One, Messiah or Christ. This is God's anointed one who is coming into the holy city. Isaiah 42 says, "behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights... he will bring forth justice to the nations." As this Holy Week unfolds, we'll see that God has a very different way of bringing justice to the nations than what they envisioned.
In the recent DC Comics movie, "Justice League," the villain, an evil monster named Steppenwolf and a horde of demons are giving the assembled heroes Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, and the Flash a terrible time of it, and as he picks Cyborg up over his head he shouts "you're all too weak to see the truth!" At that very moment, Superman the "man of steel" shows up and shouts, "I believe in truth, and I'm also a big fan of justice," and gives a superhero-sized whipping to the villain. The other heroes are powerful in their own ways, but none was Superman. None could dispense justice like the blue suited, red caped survivor of the planet Krypton.
That's how Jesus' contemporaries saw the establishment of justice in the world. There was lots of justice that needed to be distributed. The chosen nation had been victims of Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and now Romans. Sin, poverty, corruption, decadence, and decay were the order of the day. The crowds saw in Jesus the Superman who would deal with their demons. Jesus was truth incarnate, but didn't establish justice by crushing evil and injustice as much as by simply absorbing it. As Isaiah put it: he won't lift up his voice, break a bruised reed, or extinguish the faintly burning wick. Currently in our sanctuary, we are having difficulty with the wicks in our oil candles. Each week we fill them with oil, the acolytes light them, and each week they quickly turn into "faintly burning wicks" barely holding onto their flame. The powerful one to dispense justice will be so humble and gentle that were he to enter our house of worship the faintest glimmer of flame on our candles would not be blown out.
Palm Sunday's crowds anticipated a Superhero and the manner in which he entered the city was overtly Messianic. The jarring transition that we as modern Christians must make is to understand that the one to dispense justice wouldn't do so as a superhero but as a servant and sufferer.
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