This is
the first Sunday of Lent. Actually, that is not quite true because Sunday’s are
not counted in the 40 days of lent. This is, therefore, the first Sunday of the
Lenten season.
What is
lent about? Some of you may be giving up something; caffeine, smoking, and
deserts you know the list. Others may be taking on something new, as I have
suggested in the past. Take on the discipline of daily scripture reading, prayer,
and devotion. Take on a commitment to serve either in our own community, or at
the food bank, or somewhere else. Take on a commitment to sponsor a compassion
child or commit to tithing. Take on a commitment to the Lenten study.
Those
are all noble Lenten pursuits; but what is their goal? What is the point of
giving up something? What is the point of taking on something new? The whole
point of lent is not what we give up or what we take on. The point of lent, and
the point of any Lenten discipline you choose, is to become more like Jesus. To
think, and act, and talk, and serve more like Jesus Christ.
We have,
however, been studying the Old Testament as we work through THE STORY. How can
we learn about Jesus when we are reading old stories that were written 500 -700
years before he was born? Let’s see.
The book
of Isaiah is an interesting book. It mirrors the Bible...
·
Isaiah has 66 chapters...The Bible has 66
books...
·
Isaiah has 39 chapters dealing primarily with the
history of the Israel...The Bible has 39 Old Testament books dealing primarily
with the history of Israel...
·
Isaiah has 27 chapters dealing with dealing with
the future of the Israelite people...including some beautiful prophesy about
Christ, the coming Messiah...The New Testament has 27 books dealing with the
story of Christ.
It is in
this book of Isaiah that we find some answers to those questions.
Let’s
back up just a little because this 16th chapter of THE STORY bridges
200 years of history.
Remember,
when Solomon died the kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms known as
Israel and Judah. Israel, the northern kingdom, was by far the largest and it
contained 10 of the 12 tribes. There were a variety of kings in Israel, but
every single one of them was wicked and did evil in the sight of the Lord. God’s
patience ran out and in 720 BCE. They were conquered and deported to Assyria,
which roughly corresponds to modern day Syria. Those 10 tribes were assimilated
into Assyrian culture and have since disappeared into the backdrop of history.
That
left only the southern kingdom. They, of course, had a variety of kings, not
all of which were bad, but most were. They found themselves between two of the
greatest armies in the world: the Assyrians to the north and the Egyptians to
the south. This week we read the story of Hezekiah dealing with the Army of
Assyria and the Lord handing him victory by killing 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. This
was the time of Isaiah’s ministry.
In the
next chapter, we will see this conflict play itself out over the next 100
years, and over that time, in three separate deportations, we will see Judah
exiled to Babylon and the temple destroyed.
Now I am not trying to spoil the next chapter, but I have to get to where
this Isaiah passage fits in.
586 BCE was the last deportation and the exile
lasted 48 years. We will read more about that time in chapter 17 and we will
read about the return in chapter 18. The exile was not a dark ages for Israel. Don’t
get me wrong, it was bad, but there were still prophets writing, not the least
of whom were Daniel and Ezekiel. There was also a prophet whose name we do not
know. Because he seems to have been a disciple of Isaiah, and because his work
was published as part of the book of Isaiah, we call him Deutero-Isaiah. (Which
essentially means second Isaiah) He wrote about 200 years after Isaiah. It is
from this second Isaiah that we receive the beautiful servant songs we are
talking about today.
The last
three pages of this week’s reading contain one of the servant songs from
chapter 53. The other three we read just a few moments ago. Scholars have spent
their whole careers studying just these 4 passages but I am going to try to
make sense of them for you in the next few minutes.
The
first song from chapter 42 introduces the servant. The Lord says, “Here is my
servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom I delight
Then he
lays out the servant’s mission, “I have put my spirit upon him; he will
bring forth Justice to the nations.” There’s that word justice again. Remember
that last week I listed Justice as one of the 4 prophetic themes? Here it is. The
Hebrew word here is not a legal justice, but a religious justice. It can be
defined as true religion. “He will bring true religion to the nations.” That is
his mission: to bring holy justice or true religion to the nations. Where have
we heard that before? Isn’t that God’s upper story plan: to bring true religion
to the entire world so that all people will live in love with him and lovingly
toward each other? Sure it is.
How will
he do that? He will not do it by force, as many expected, not by might, and not
by military action.
Isaiah
says,
He will not cry
He will
not lift up his voice
He will
not make it heard in the street
He will
not even break something as fragile as a bruised reed
He will
not even put out a dimly burning candle.
He will
not grow faint
He will
not be crushed
·
He will establish justice on the earth.
·
He will bring right religion to the world.
·
He will be a light to the nations.
The
first song then lays out the servant’s purpose and methodology.
The
second servant song from Isaiah 49 points to the great difficulty he will face.
It
begins with the servant calling out to the nations, to the coastlands far away
for everyone to listen. Apparently, that doesn’t work because in the next line
he is saying, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing more than
nothing.”
It’s
hard to be a light to the world isn’t it. We have tried and at times if we are
truthful, it is just plain old discouraging and disheartening. Just like he
says here, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for vanity.”
Do you ever feel like you are working for nothing?
·
Kind of like the dishes, as soon as they are done
it seems that more appear.
·
Or the Laundry
·
Or shoveling the walk
·
Or any number of chores.
Do you ever just want to throw up your hands
and Quit? That’s how the servant felt. But he goes on to say, “My
reward is with my God.”
He knows that the world is a hard place. He
knows that people don’t change easily. He knows that in God’s eyes he is not
judged by results, but by faithfulness. His reward is in God and God alone.
The
second servant song deals with the difficulty the servant faces.
The
Third servant song, in Chapter 50, continues that theme and talks about how he
will suffer for the cause of bringing right religion.
“I gave
my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. “ OUCH!
But it is more than the pain, it is about the humiliation he endures.
“I did
not hide my face from insult and spitting.”
That is
beyond what any of us have endured, but who do we know who has endured that.
JESUS!
Do you
see how this begins to connect to Jesus?
We have
never had to endure that kind of humiliation for our faith, but would you? Could you? People do it every day in faraway places like Vietnam,
China, Korea, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. However, in our world, those
places are not really so far away.
When is
the last time you took a risk for your faith? When is the last time that you
actually risked even for Jesus? Would you risk your reputation, or a friendship?
Would you put your heart on the line for Christ? How about your money? Do you
put your money on the line for him by tithing?
The
reason we don’t suffer for our faith is not for lack of opportunity, but for
lack of risk taking. We are pretty
comfortable in our faith and resist taking risk even for the sake of serving
the one who risked everything for us.
So the
third servant song is about the suffering of the servant for the mission he has
been given.
The
final servant song- the one printed in THE STORY is probably the best known
because there are so many New Testament references to it. Along with 18
references to the servant songs there are 8 direct quotes in the New Testament.
6 are from this last song.
The last
servant song describes the redemptive nature of the servant’s suffering. In
other words, he does not suffer in vain.
It
starts with describing how many will be astonished by the servant and
the servant’s appearance. It describes how he will be rejected and despised.
But moves into “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our suffering… he was pierced
for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the punishment
that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” It concludes with
the statement that his life was an offering for sin…. “He bore the sin of many and made
intercession for the transgressors.”
Who does
that sound like? To 6th century Judeans it sounded like hope.
They
were alienated from their temple and their God because of their sins, their parent’s
sins and the sins of the nation. Can you imagine what it was like for the
Israelites to lose the Promised Land and live as captives in a foreign country?
I don’t know that we can, but just try for moment to imagine it. Then try to
imagine hearing these Isaiah passages.
·
Imagine hearing “Here is my servant…I have put my
spirit upon him; he will bring forth Justice to the nations.”
·
Imagine reading that he understands failure “I
have spent my strength on vanity.”
·
Imagine hearing that he is willing to suffer in
order to set you free.
·
Imagine hearing that his suffering would itself actually take away the
sin for which you are being punished, so that you might go home. You may be set
free.
That was
the original context of those who heard this song.
They
might have thought that the servant was Isaiah, or Jeremiah or even king Cyrus
who ultimately sent them home. For them that may have been true.
As for
us… as for us, we know the true identity of the servant of God.
·
We know that God himself came as the servant placed
his spirit in Christ and he came for all the nations.
·
We know that God himself in Jesus Christ
encountered all kinds of barriers and difficulties but didn’t let that stop
him.
·
We know that God himself in Jesus Christ suffered
terribly for the sake of the mission. That he was beaten, and mocked, and
broken.
·
We know that God himself in Jesus Christ was
ultimately killed for speaking the truth about his identity and his mission.
·
And we know that somehow … somehow, miraculously,
mysteriously, inexplicably, and astonishingly somehow his death leads to our
life.
o
In his suffering and death, we receive life.
o
In his suffering and death, we receive
forgiveness.
o
In his suffering and death, we receive salvation.
o
By his stripes we are healed, by his wounds we
are redeemed, by his death we are saved.
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