lenten blog | March 25, 2024

Heroic as the "Suffering Servant"

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 25th:  Psalm 36:5-11; Isaiah 42:1-9; and Hebrews 9:11-15.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is the Monday of Holy Week.  Yesterday, Palm Sunday, Jesus entered into Jerusalem.  According to Mark’s Gospel (11:12), today is the day on which Jesus cleansed the Temple.  He disrupts the Temple commerce.  He yells, “‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.’”  Jesus became enraged when He witnessed the corruption of religion by money.  It would be easier to limit this righteous anger to the Temple, but it is an open-ended condemnation of any pollution of religion in which the faith is used to mask the abuse of power and to cover greed with a holy shroud.

The cleansing of the Temple stands-out as the example of Jesus’ righteous anger.  It is an important testimony at the start of the week to Jesus’ fearlessness.  Jesus knows well that the Temple authorities are watching and that Fortress Antonia is situated above the Temple courtyard with its Roman soldiers.  He had just paraded into the holy city the day earlier in a counter-procession to that of Pilate, the Roman Governor.  Pilate entered with pomp and circumstance, surrounded by the conquering Roman army.  Jesus entered “humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey,” (Zechariah 9:9; cf. Mark 11:7) surrounded by the masses proclaiming the Messianic attestation of “Hosanna,” which means, “‘Save, we pray’” (Ps. 118:25).  Jesus is not frightened of the power situated in Jerusalem, and this is an important context established as the week begins.  It helps to clarify Jesus’ passive acceptance of what will unfold at the end of the week. 

This needs to be stated and restated because of the violence-loving culture that pervades the world.  Jesus’ fearlessness does not register as heroic.  The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the son of a Lutheran clergyman, for example, was repulsed by Jesus’ example (and the Nazis glommed onto him as their “Superman”).  To march in formation with weapons at the ready in imitation of Pilate is understood.  Jesus’ passive resistance is confounding.  Holy Week asks us which procession into Jerusalem we would have gone to see.

Today’s Isaiah passage is one of the Suffering Servant epiphanies.  As the earliest Christians read Holy Scripture, which would be what we call today the Old Testament, they recognized Jesus immediately as the Suffering Servant.  In Isaiah we read today, “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.”

God reveals that in the Suffering Servant justice will be brought forth, not by amassing an always more powerful army, because rather the Suffering Servant will not “lift up his voice,” will not quench even a “dimly burning wick.”  Justice will be brought forth not by power, but by the integrity of example, the world will “wait for his teaching.”  When Jesus accepts the mockery, abuse and torturous crucifixion later in this Holy Week without replying in kind, it is not because Jesus lacks righteous anger, it is not because Jesus is afraid.  It is because “he will bring forth justice to the nations” by another way.  At some point, before it is too late, I pray that we may recognize and honour Jesus’ other way and see the truly heroic in it. 
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.