Word to the Wise
Monday, March 30, 2015 - 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." [Isaiah]
The "suffering servant" passages from Isaiah appear four times this week - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. While scripture scholars debate about the person who might have served as the model for Isaiah's majestic and poignant portraits, the Christian community throughout the ages, beginning with the gospels, has seen them as prefiguring or as a "type" for the suffering of Jesus. This becomes almost eery in the passage that is read on Good Friday!
Today, we see how the first words from Isaiah echoed in the gospels when we remember the voice at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan or on the mountain of the transfiguration. Isaiah prophesied from the messianic longing of Israel for deliverance, and the Christian community saw that prophetic longing realized in the figure of Jesus. Here is the servant of God whose live is spent for others.
It could be a wonderful Holy Week reflection simply to take Isaiah's words and reflect on them not only in the light of what happens to Jesus during this week, but how they challenge us as those baptized into the life and death of Jesus. Remembrance during Holy Week is not just about the past but a reminding to us in the present of our relationship to those events. AMEN