Why does it seem that following God requires suffering? Do you think that God takes satisfaction (or even pleasure) when chosen ones suffer? Where does tragedy come from? From ourselves? From God? From Satan? From other bad people? How can we Christians begin to make sense out of suffering? Or isn’t that possible?
Pastors and theologians have wrestled with these enormous questions for thousands of years. Today’s reading from Isaiah about God’s “Suffering Servant” (which is one of several such stories in Isaiah) pushes the issue squarely before our faces.
Often it can be tempting to spin theories that attempt to make sense out of what seems to be absurd suffering. But part of the very mystery of suffering for a Christian believer is that it resists being figured out. That can certainly be disconcerting, but the life of Christ gives us reason not to despair.
Jesus, like so many of the Jewish prophets before him, went to his death as an apparent failure. It was only at his resurrection that we were assured of victory, and even then God offered no explanation for why it had to be that way. As we are told elsewhere in the scriptures, we walk by faith and not by sight, and so we endure through suffering with the knowledge that vindication is to follow.
The scriptures we read on this day situate us exactly there. The prophet Isaiah describes Israel as God’s suffering servant who, although required to bear hardship with faith, is called to be a herald of good news, to announce God is here. Israel must trust God will shepherd them home, feed and lead the people, carry the lambs and lead the ewes. The glory of the Lord will be revealed and all will see it.
While the prophet credits God’s power for leading Israel, God’s servant must do more than just sit there. We are to be attentive to the real concrete work and ministry that God beckons us into here and now.
Israel Is God’s Servant
Thus says the Holy One:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one
with whom I am well pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice
to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick
he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands
will wait for his teaching.
I, the Holy One, have call you
to the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Isaiah 42.1-4,6-7
- How has suffering in your life made you more open to other’s pain?