Word to the Wise
Monday, April 2, 2012 - Holy Week - Mon
[Isa 42:1-7 and John 12:1-11]Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations...[Isaiah]
When something tremendous happens, whether good or bad, we often try to understand it by going back to events and statements that happened before it, sometimes long before it. The apparent reason is to learn from the experience and perhaps be able to predict a future occurrence and prevent it (if the event was bad, or promote it, if the event was good). The celebration of Holy Week shows some of this tendency when we note the first scriptures for Palm Sunday and the following three days. These scriptures are all taken from passages in Isaiah that are called "the song of the suffering servant." Good Friday also features one of these "songs," and it is eerily descriptive of what happened to Jesus! The Christian community turned to these scriptures in its effort to understand how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Messianic hope. In Holy Week, we continue that effort to understand the events that we are commemorating and to intensify our own participation. The words on the page are transformed into the body on the cross.
I urge all of us to read and ponder these scriptures from Isaiah as we follow the events unfolding in the gospel accounts. Perhaps the modern word, "interactive," can help us to understand that we are not passive spectators in Holy Week as if we are watching something on the "history channel." We must be fully engaged in this drama. On Palm Sunday, as we joined in the part marked "chorus" in the Passion according to Mark, we changed roles a number of times as the story unfolded. We went from "Hosanna" to "Crucify him!" This person, Jesus, whom we embrace as Savior reminds us of the figure in Isaiah! A larger picture emerges, of which we are all a part. Isaiah is more than a set of "program notes" before the show. Isaiah's "songs" must become our own. AMEN
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