I don’t know if any of you have ever had a “servant” or perhaps you have been someone else’s “servant.”
The word itself does not have the most flattering connotations in the English language. We often associate the role of a “servant” as one who is employed by another to do work that the employer is unable or unwilling to do.
In modern times, a “servant” may be given compensation for her service, although usually not very much.
In our nation’s past, a “servant” might even have taken the role of a slave, treated as his master’s property, compensated with nothing more than room and board, and looked upon with disdain and contempt.
Such a person was held by society as one without any power to determine her destiny—a destiny which was held in the powerful hands of the “master.”
The opening words of Isaiah, record the voice of God who says:
“See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.” Is 52:13
At first, it boggles the mind that anyone who is declared as “prosperous and exalted” would also bear the marks of one who must endure much suffering and misunderstanding.
The suffering, Isaiah tells us, is primarily physical: the servant is disfigured, so ugly that he is hardly recognizable as a human being.
His afflictions are described as
pains and
sicknesses. We are given a picture of one who is wracked with disease, spoiled by sores and deformities
“... so marred was his look beyond human semblance ... that people [hid] their faces ... and we held him in no esteem.” Is 52:14, 53:3
Isaiah has introduced to us a servant who is suffering. And yet, is this shocking to us?
In our own experience, do not the lowly and the despised of this world bear the brunt of its harshness?
What parent desires that their child cultivate aspirations of growing up to be a servant?
Isaiah continues to describe the servant’s suffering. This time it is depicted in terms of oppression and injustice: one falsely accused and put to death as a common criminal, and yet innocent of any wrongdoing— nothing more than a lamb led to the slaughter.
The most challenging and demanding aspect of this Good Friday is that it unveils for us one of the harshest realities of our faith.
So unflattering, so unworldly, so opposed is our human nature to this truth: suffering is all a part of God’s plan.
“The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.” Is 53:10
The suffering of the servant— undeserved and unmerited, even unto death— can only have one interpretation: it was God’s will.
The same God, who has the power to create the heavens and the earth out of nothing, decides that this is the best way to bring about his plan of salvation.
“Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living and smitten for the sin of his people . . . though he had done no wrong, nor spoken any falsehood.” Is 53:8,9b
In the name of Love, we know, Jesus embraced the Cross.
And yet, the Cross is not the point – it is His love. The Cross only makes it even more evident how much Jesus loves us. And it is the Cross that frees us to love.