The verses of Sunday’s first reading, spoken initially to exiles in Babylon, highlight a theme familiar in the psalms: those who commit their causes to God often experience humiliation and ridicule. Prophets dare such things because they trust God will not allow the righteous to be put to shame.
Jesus’ death tests God’s faithfulness. He is slapped, spit upon, humiliated publicly, and abandoned by God in death. Because of Easter, we dare still to commit our causes to God.
God’s servant speaks.
The Lord God has given me
a well-trained tongue
that I might know
how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
God opens
my ear that I may hear:
And I have not rebelled
nor turned back.
I gave my back to those
who beat me,
my cheeks to those
who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord God is my help;
therefore, I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be
put to shame.
Isaiah 50.4-7
- What causes do I entrust to God?