Will We Glorify The Suffering Servant Through The Sounds Of Honor And Shame In Passover?
Good Morning Friends,
To glorify God in the full spectrum of human experience and emotions is a challenge but that is exactly what today’s scripture calls us to do in a testimony of song of the events of Holy Week. For this week we have both the heavy burden and the rest…we have the close of Jesus’ public ministry and the experience of life breathed into something that had ended. The stage is set for Jesus’ betrayal, death and resurrection. We have the songs of the drama that take our emotions a full 360. And the sounds of this special Passover are woven into the sing of hosannas, laments and hallelujahs. For our minds seek to hear the fulfillment of scripture, in hearing the clip clock of a colt and the breaking of an alabaster jar of perfume. In our minds we hear the tear of flesh as whips lash out with a crack and the sound of nails being hammered through flesh into wood to reinforce the horror of the time before us. We imagine Mary anointing Jesus as worship as we hear her hair wipe his feet. We consider Lazarus being raised in the sounds of celebration as a testimony and hear Martha, working and serving so others might put their attention to Jesus. Everything is jumbled together in the songs of lament and praise that lead us to pray Jesus to sort out our senses even as we ask, Will We Glorify The Suffering Servant Through The Sounds Of Honor And Shame In Passover?
Scripture: Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
Isaiah 42:1-7 (NRSV)
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
Isaiah 61: 1-2 (NRSV)
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.
John 12:1-11 (NRSV)
Message: Yesterday we played handbells and sang hymns and an anthem with our choir. And
on Thursday our choir will sing Ubi Caritas, a chant claiming that the love of Christ has gathered us together as one, and on Easter Sunday we will ring handbells with a trumpet player and sing the Halleluiah Chorus. Such are the sounds of holy week now, but there are more if we let our imaginations inform us of the sounds of Jerusalem during the time of the Passover in today’s texts. For me the text certainly identifies with Jesus being the Suffering Servant Isaiah prophesied as a reality in which we are to lift our voices in song. Certainly, Jesus sang hymns during the Passover, maybe even new ones born out of his unique ministry fulfilling the law and the prophets. Jesus quotes from Isaiah several times and claims the prophecies for himself that many of his contemporaries thought should be reserved for the collective nation of Israel. In the synagogue at Nazareth he reads from the book of Isaiah 61: 1-2, which mirrors Isaiah 42: 1 -7. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” And that would make me to wonder if we might in the fulness of scripture hear pigeons cooing, or the bleating of sheep or coins being rattled or thrown onto a tile floor as part of the song too. Perhaps we would hear the cheers of people shouting or the marching of soldiers or a wooden spoon scrapping a serving platter at a Passover meal or the sound of feet being washed, or a drink being poured into a cup or the breaking of bread. We might even hear Jesus singing a hymn or hear a wooden cross being dragged on gravel or a cock crowing, or dice being rolled, or the sound of cloth being torn or the sound of thunder and rain on a hill outside of Jerusalem. Yes, Jesus identified himself as the Suffering Servant, the Messiah and there are lots of sounds and silences served up in the experience. But still it seems odd that we would lift in song such a horrific event as the crucifixion. The reality is that what Jesus is claiming in Nazareth as the fulfilling of scripture to start his ministry indeed eventually results in him being killed as part of a divine plan. Interestingly the evidence Jesus offers to support his claim is that he is fulfilling the messianic promises to heal, to deliver, and to set the captives free only makes sense in song after the horrific death makes possible the resurrection. No one before, or since, has even come close to fulfilling the promises of the songs of the Suffering Servant like Jesus. The early Christian identified Jesus as the Suffering Servant who will redeem God’s people from their sins…taking shame and turning it into something that honors God. And we too need to experience Jesus as the Messiah in this way. In fact, associating Christ’s death with the redemption of sins, is based on the concept of the Suffering Servant. Of course, there has always been disagreement over whether Isaiah is referring to the Nation of Israel as the Suffering Servant or whether the servant is an individual, in either case the servant is thought of in Messianic terms. And there was disagreement at the time of Jesus about Jesus and there is disagreement today. Christians identify Jesus as the Messiah and Jews are still waiting for the Nation of Israel to be led by a new, heavenly, king. When the two converge I imagine we will experience this season in a new way with a new song. Until then we have the sounds of this season.
And So, we are to listen to the sounds of the season. We are to realize that Jesus’ loss on the cross is our gain. Here sorrow turns to the platform for joy to resurrect our spirit in the hope for our souls and the soul of the nations. Here we discover that the Messianic servant’s purpose is God’s glory that is exacted on the cross in a way that is saturated with the realities of both honor and shame. Here the Messiah’s justice restoring salvation is humble but in retrospect glorious given it broader historical context revealed as the salvation of nations as well as people. Here the Suffering Servant bears unspeakable shame from other’s sins. Rejection and ridicule characterize the servant’s ministry. And vindication from the sufferings and insults comes only by way of divine elevation. The Servant is uniquely honored by God to an exalted position that we need to affirm in song. We are to reconcile the experience in a way that takes away our shame and glorifies God.
Pray God hear us and help us to experience this season through the songs and sounds of Passover. Pray we realize that how we love and what we love brings us together in a way to glorify God. Pray we are thankful that God knew from the beginning that we would yield to the tempter and was prepared to love us anyway. Pray we appreciate the plan of redemption and love both individually and collectively. Pray we appreciate the Servant’s purpose of glorifying God and restoring justice through a nation but also through Jesus glorified. Pray we realize that God chooses and empowers servants to endure the shame of others and then lifts them up in honor. Pray we become as instruments of peace in God’s plan. Pray we too serve to Glorify God in the songs and sounds of our lives lived with purpose.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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