The Suffering Servant - Part 3

In the third Suffering Servant song or poem, the voice is still that of the servant.  Today the servant talks about the suffering that he has endured.  Despite his suffering he says: “The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.”  (Isaiah 50:7)

To better understand this statement, it is important that we recall that this society is driven by the need to avoid shame and preserve one’s honor.  Today we call it “saving face.”  Westerners have a hard time understanding this kind of concern because by and large we don’t really care what others think of us.  We tend to be “rugged individuals” rather than members of a group or commune.  If others don’t like the way we live our lives, they are told to “take a hike.”  However, for the people of the Middle East, honor was everything and shame was the worst thing that could happen.

Now pay attention to what the servant has been asked to suffer: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who tore out my beard; my face I did not hide from insults and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6)

Every society has gestures that are used to insult people.  In the United States, we might “flip them the bird” or make a circle with our index finger while pointing at our head.  In the Middle East, plucking the hairs of someone’s beard or spitting would be considered an insulting gesture.  Of course, we also see in these gestures a proleptic view of what will happen to Jesus at the hands of his persecutors.  Nonetheless, we are talking about gestures which rob a person of honor and make him an object of shame.  So when the Suffering Servant claims that God will not allow him to be put to shame, he is asserting that true honor comes from God and not from other human beings.  Of course, that is exactly what the Church teaches today.  We are not “valuable” because of what we do or because of what we accomplish.  We are valuable precisely because God loves us and cherishes us from the moment of our conception for all eternity.  Our reward will come when we, like Jesus, are raised up and given the gift of everlasting life.  

The last of the Suffering Servant songs will be used in our Good Friday service.  Tomorrow we enter into the Sacred Triduum.  As our Lenten journey comes to an end, I pray that you will all have a very holy and blessed celebration of the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator