Monday of Holy Week - Here is my servant
"My servant will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth..." Isaiah 42:4
The suffering servant songs of the prophet Isaiah are seen as prophecies of, and ways to understand, the Messiah Jesus.
You can see the palms and perhaps hear the Hosannas in the background. Jesus looks over Jerusalem and weeps (Luke 19:41). He knows what is likely to come. By Friday afternoon, he will be crushed, and justice will appear to have been crucified.
Does the Empire always win? Will might always make its own right?
The question is still with us. We are still blind and lack the courage to break chains. Prisoners still being led into dungeons, and blindness is touted as right.
It is all the more troubling to us when this same servant song says that the hoped-for savior "will not cry or lift up his voice."
The prophet's song goes on to declare that new things are coming. That takes the eyes of faith. The crucifiers are still before us, blinding us to that kind of vision. Lord, be not silent. Open our eyes to injustice and suffering. Give us the gift of tears, that sharing the world's pain may wash away all that occludes our vision. Give us the grace to walk the servant-way, even to the cross.
Credits:
Enrique_Simonet. Flevit super illam (He wept over it), 1892. Museo del Prado. The author died in 1927, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less.
The suffering servant songs of the prophet Isaiah are seen as prophecies of, and ways to understand, the Messiah Jesus.
You can see the palms and perhaps hear the Hosannas in the background. Jesus looks over Jerusalem and weeps (Luke 19:41). He knows what is likely to come. By Friday afternoon, he will be crushed, and justice will appear to have been crucified.
Does the Empire always win? Will might always make its own right?
The question is still with us. We are still blind and lack the courage to break chains. Prisoners still being led into dungeons, and blindness is touted as right.
It is all the more troubling to us when this same servant song says that the hoped-for savior "will not cry or lift up his voice."
The prophet's song goes on to declare that new things are coming. That takes the eyes of faith. The crucifiers are still before us, blinding us to that kind of vision. Lord, be not silent. Open our eyes to injustice and suffering. Give us the gift of tears, that sharing the world's pain may wash away all that occludes our vision. Give us the grace to walk the servant-way, even to the cross.
Credits:
Enrique_Simonet. Flevit super illam (He wept over it), 1892. Museo del Prado. The author died in 1927, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less.
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