Hey. I wanted to share some thoughts with you and flesh out some more content that I wasn’t quite able to do last night. My hope is that you can engage with this blog either on your own time or with a group of friends or your family, and that in doing so you generate more conversation with God.
So last night was really a table setter for our series on Lent where we take a look at 4 prophecies in Isaiah (known as the servant songs) and relate them Jesus, and also think about how it all applies to us. In them is a depiction of a servant. I highlighted some of the examples of Jesus’ life that appear to be foretold Isaiah 42 and that generated some open discussion.
If you weren’t there, I’d encourage you to read it yourself and see what jumps out at you and speaks to you of Jesus.
Isaiah 42:1-9
The Servant of the Lord
42 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”
5 This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
8 “I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”
I want us to be able to recognise Jesus in the text (even though this clearly applies to Israel at the time too) – where and how he fulfills this role of the servant.
over the next 3 weeks we’ll continue to look at more from Isaiah and I hope you’ll be able to see Jesus as this servant. But what’s more is that I hope you understand where you fit into the story, too!
you, too, are a servant of God. So as you read and think about it, consider what it takes to be a good servant:
Am I humble? Does God delight in me? Am I Spirit filled? How do I bring justice? How do I help the blind and free captives?
At the end of the service I switched gears to focus on a theme, that isn’t so much prevalent in this text, but will be a theme moving forward – suffering.
Ultimately, the servant is a suffering servant. I realise that the transition from highlighting how and where Jesus can be seen in this text to talking about suffering wasn’t perfect, but that’s what this blog is for, lol!
But seriously, suffering will be a re-occurring theme in the rest of the series. So by inviting you to see Jesus as the servant NOW, you’ll be able to continue to see Jesus moving forward (as well as how it all applies to you, I hope).
So I did kind of jump into the whole suffering thing last night, but you should be able to now take away the posture of the servant – the attitude and the purpose, too – and put it side by side with suffering as it gets expanded upon over the next few weeks.
But my main point of last night is that servant hood does require humility, justice, and Spirit filled action. It also, as we will see more later, may invite suffering. And it’s important to know that when we suffer Christ suffers with us. Christ, also, has already suffered for us, which makes the suffering now a little more bearable. But our God is one who cares so very much for you and he suffers along side of us when we suffer. You are in Christ and Christ is in you!
Jesus is the servant who suffers and we are called to follow in his footsteps. So what does that mean as far as expecting and embracing suffering?
Questions to consider:
What sort of things have you suffered?
Did you feel God with you helping you through it?
What sort of suffering might you endure for Jesus’ sake?