As Sunday’s first reading, the Church reads two verses from Second Isaiah’s songs about the exiled people of Israel as God’s suffering servant. The Church reads the whole of this fourth servant song on Good Friday. The prophet trusts God has purpose for Israel’s suffering captivity in Babylon; indeed, the people’s afflictions will have the power to make others whole.
Most privileged Christians will hear the servant imagery in Sunday’s first reading as familiar and pious. What do people hear who work as domestic servants? What do the order-taking service workers who keep our hotels clean hear? What do victims of torture hear in this imagery? Servant imagery must not rationalize the abuse of power.
Nonviolent protest proved one way to make a more perfect union in America that respected the human dignity and equality of African Americans. Marchers suffered violence from spitting to beating to shooting but did nothing to escalate the violence. Instead the marches gathered together people who turned the violence into power for good.
The mystery of suffering has concerned humankind throughout its history. The question why rings out poignantly, especially in the suffering of innocent people, of children, of crack-addicted babies. Is there any value at all to such suffering? The servant songs claim there is, but it will only be known in “the fullness of days.”
Israel is God’s servant.
If my servants give their lives as an offering for sin, they shall see their descendants in a long life, and the will of God shall be accomplished in them. Out of their anguish they will see light in fullness of days. Through their suffering my servants shall justify many, and bear their guilt.
Isaiah 53.10-11
- What wisdom do you bring to the mystery of suffering?
- What power do you see or have you experienced in nonviolence?