Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. Isaiah 53:10
I grow less and less comfortable with this verse as I get older. My body and mind recoil from the implications.
The passage comes from an unusual section of the book. Written while the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, most of Isaiah addresses the reason for the exile (sin) and God’s plan, even though their oppressors, to reconcile and save His people. However, this portion (in chapters 52 and 53) is about what is commonly called the Suffering Servant, and strikingly different from the rest of the book.
Most Christians have come to view this material as referring to Jesus, the Christ, who would, by his terrible death, rescue us from exile from God. As we know that Jesus rose from the dead, we have a tendency, I believe, to distance ourselves from the implications of His suffering. The sacrifice is over, and the victory won. This is true, but it does not mean any more pain for His people.
We can make the passion of Jesus a simple transaction between God and humanity. However, this would be to make the death and resurrection little more than an inspirational story. If we are to grow and know our God, the narrative must be painfully real to us. We are entreated to be like Jesus, but usually associate that idea with being good or avoiding sin in some general sense.
We also may have to suffer along our journey. The Suffering Servant was “oppressed” and “afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.” He was convicted “by a perversion of justice.” If I feel someone is oppressing me, I jump up ready for a fight. The prophet says the Messiah would be “despised and rejected by others.” If someone ignores me or puts down an idea, I have a tendency to go into a self-pitying funk. How am I supposed to “let go and let God,” as so many well-meaning people, who do not understand my troubles, tell me?
Perhaps one way is to see that for God history is less about the events and people of the past and more about how our present connection as we live toward a future in His hands. The history of God is full of trouble and wrongs, particularly for those who love him, but also of action which comes through or out of the evil done to us by the world. This pain isn’t forever; God’s love is.
God our Father and Jesus our Brother: you have always been where we are, and ached with us as well as for us. For this we thank and praise You. If we cannot see well enough to envision redemption, help us to know and remember that You are carrying more of the load than we can imagine. In the name of our suffering Christ, Amen.
