The Suffering Servant
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Good Friday.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12;
Psalm 22;
Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9;
The Passion according to John.
[The Good Friday readings in Biblical
Words – the Lectionary studies blog– include commentaries on the complete
Passion narratives for the Gospels of Matthew (2020), Mark (2021), and Luke (2022).
Those readings suggest the full force of Good Friday.]
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
“Do
you understand what you are reading?”
Acts 8:30 .
Background: the First Three Servant Songs.
Throughout the twentieth century
scholars recognized that these four “Servant Songs” go together. The “servant” is presented differently here
than in the rest of Isaiah 40-55.
The first three “Songs” are given here without commentary. It is good to read them as background to the Fourth Song to catch the atmosphere of the whole Servant presentation. The commentary on the Fourth Song given below has been used in the Lectionary studies for Good Friday for some years, and is only slightly revised here.
The First song: God speaks.
1Here 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.
2He will
not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3a
bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not
quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4He will
not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the
earth [land];
and the coastlands wait for his teaching
[torah].
5Thus says
God, the Lord,
who
created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes
from it,
who gives breath to
the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6I am
the Lord, I have called you in
righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as
a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the
prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8I am
the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.
9See,
the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring
forth,
I tell you of them.
(Isaiah 42:1-9, NRSV.)
[This passage was
commented on in the Lectionary Studies Blog for January 12, 2020 .]
The Second song: the Servant speaks.
1Listen
to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me
before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named
me.
2He made
my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a
polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3And he
said to me, “You are my servant,
4But I
said, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and
vanity;
yet surely my cause
is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.”
5And now
the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his
servant,
to bring Jacob back
to him,
and that Israel
might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in
the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength –
6he
says,
“It is too light a
thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel ;
I will give you as
a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of
the earth.”
(Isaiah 49:1-6, NRSV.)
[This passage was
commented on in the Lectionary Studies Blog for January 19, 2020 .]
Third song: the Servant speaks.
4The
Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher [or “disciples”]
that I may know how
to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning
he wakens –
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5The
Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backward.
6I gave
my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the
beard;
I did not hide my
face
from insult and spitting.
7The
Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have
set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to
shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend
with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my
adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9It is
the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will
wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
(Isaiah 50:4-9, NRSV.)
The
Fourth Servant Song.
This song is the actual prophetic
reading for Good Friday. It is one of
the most important passages in the entire Jewish scriptures for
Christians.
This is a complex text. It involves different scenes and speakers,
and we need a map to follow the full drama.
Here is a rather simplified one.
- The text makes clear that God is speaking in 52:13-15 and in at least 53:11b-12.
- It is equally clear that someone else is speaking – a plural, as in “we” and “for our…” – in 53:1-6 at least, and perhaps all the way to 53:11a.
Thus we have the following
structure:
God introduces the Servant as newly
exalted , 52:13-15.
A group proclaims that the Servant’s
suffering was for their sins, 53:1-11a.
God announces the Servant’s reward
for that suffering, 53:11b-12.
What the “we” passages describe is
the astonishing career of the Servant (whom God introduced). A remarkable series of words and phrases
describes the disfigurement, rejection, and general suffering of this
figure.
Let’s begin
by focusing on the God speeches together, without being distracted by
the details of the Servant’s labors.
13See,
my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.
14Just
as there were many who were astonished at him
– so marred was his appearance, beyond
human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals –
15so
he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of
him;
for that
which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they
shall contemplate.
(52:13-15, NRSV.)
11Out
of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his
knowledge.
The
righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore
I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong;
because
he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the
transgressors;
yet he
bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the
transgressors.
(53:11-12, NRSV.)
In between these
two God speeches, the “many” speak. Many
scholars think that in at least verses 1-6, if not throughout, it is the nations
that speak. Others think that in at
least verses 7-10, if not the whole passage, Israel,
or a saving remnant of Israel,
speaks.
1Who
has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been
revealed?
2For
he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no
form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should
desire him.
3He
was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering [sorrows] and
acquainted with infirmity;
and as one
from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no
account.
4Surely
he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we
accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5But
he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was
the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
6All
we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord
has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He
was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb
that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep [ewe] that before its
shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8By
a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined [or declared] his
future [or generation]?
For he was
cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my
people.
9They
[or He] made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich,
although he
had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10Yet
it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make
his life an offering for sin [Hebrew unclear here],
he shall see his offspring, and shall
prolong his days;
through him
the will of the Lord shall prosper.
(Isaiah 53:1-10, NRSV.)
This Servant was disfigured,
despised, and generally hounded to death – a fate that he submitted to like a
sacrificial animal taken to slaughter. (There
are approximately twenty different terms and expressions in 53:2-8 that
express suffering of various kinds. See
the list in the Appendix on Terminology at the end of this article. Some one had an amazing fund of rhetorical
resources to portray this mysterious figure whose suffering determined the
destiny of people far and wide!)
Further, this suffering by the
Servant was on somebody else’s account, or for their benefit. “…[T]he Lord has laid on him the iniquity of
us all” (53:6, NRSV). The Servant
suffers for someone else, and that someone else has finally come to realize
the truth of all this, and is declaring that truth as a new revelation
(“Who has believed what we have heard?”, 53:1).
The whole passage
spoken by the “we” or the “many” is designed to evoke great compassion at the
suffering and disrespect endured by the Servant. But even more, it evokes wonder because this
suffering was not only undeserved but was endured on behalf of others, to spare
them from guilt and punishment because of their transgressions.
What is this really about? What lies behind the imagery of the
Suffering Servant?
A fairly straightforward reading
sees here an interpretation of Israel’s
historic destiny.
The Servant’s career is Israel’s
historical decline, defeat, and apparent extinction – beyond any reasonable
hope of recovery. That is to say, it is
the destruction and exile of first the old Northern Kingdom
(eighth century) and then of the Kingdom
of Judah (sixth century). Ultimately, we are talking about political
entities, that had previously been the objects of God’s favor. As of the time of the composition of the
Servant Songs, no Israelite political entity had existed for two generations.
The divine announcement is
that there was a secret purpose working through that defeat and disaster – a
secret purpose that, when known, will be astonishing to both the other nations
and kings as well as to the defeated and exiled offspring of Israel
themselves.
From the other parts of Isaiah
40-55 we learn the following: The sinfulness of Israelites in running after
other gods (who are really no-gods) has demonstrated to the nations its futility and
falsehood. This is because there is
really only one Lord of history to whom unqualified loyalty is due. It is through Israel
that other nations will learn this. Israel
suffers vicariously so the other nations can learn from the error of its (Israel’s)
ways. It was through Israel’s
sinfulness [apostasy from Yahweh], leading to punishment and death, that the
greatest lesson of all was learned: idolatry
and multiple gods are a way of death.
Israel
has demonstrated this lesson to the world, suffered for its waywardness, but
will be raised up again to live among the nations as Yahweh’s restored and
honored Servant.
The Servant as King.
In the later twentieth century,
scholars shied away from seeing royal features in the Servant. The Servant songs never say clearly that the
Servant is a king. (They are addressed
to people still subject to Babylonian and Persian emperors.)
Nevertheless, the ambiguity of the
collective-individual character of the Servant makes most sense as a royal
figure. He will stand honored among
kings and he certainly plays a representative role: his experience is Israel’s
collective experience. Most likely there
were old rituals and ceremonial rhetoric about sacred kingship remembered by
those exiled from the Jerusalem
royal palace. The language and sacred auras
of such royal traditions were revived and given new power by interpreting Israel’s
destiny as that of the king who, even in his humble and despised condition,
would eventually receive a glorious and honored future.
In any case, the Servant makes
most sense to me as a royal figure, the figure seen also in several psalms (22
and 118, for example). He stands as a
personification of the Israel
whose ritual suffering clears the people of their iniquities from the recent
past.
The chapter that immediately
follows the fourth song (that is, Isaiah 54) presents the exuberant
personification of the Mother City. In the sacral realities and the prophetic
rhetoric of that age, King and City were the makers – and the victims – of all
major historical developments. In our
passage, God declares that such a major development is about to occur for the
insignificant community of exiles that still responds to the name “Israel.” Furthermore, that community will soon be led
in prosperity by God’s Servant, to the astonishment of all the nations!
Psalm 22.
The Psalm for Good Friday has,
with good reason, been read as a Suffering Servant liturgy.
Opening lament.
The first part of this psalm alternates between the
miserable condition of the speaker and the goodness of God’s past actions:
1a. I am
abandoned and unheard, verses 1-2;
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are
you so far from helping me,
from the
words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by
night, but find no rest.
2a. You heard
and saved the Israelite ancestors, verses 3-5;
Yet you are holy,
enthroned
on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
they
trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you
they trusted, and were not put to shame.
1b. I am a
worm, despised and mocked, verses 6-8;
But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned
by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me;
they make
mouths at me, they shake their heads;
“Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver --
let him
rescue the one in whom he delights!”
2b. You have
known and kept me since my birth, verses 9-10.
Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
you kept
me safe on my mother’s breast.
On you I was cast from my birth,
and since
my mother bore me you have been my God.
Do not be far from me,
for
trouble is near
and there
is no one to help.
The logic of this alternation creates a claim upon
God by the speaker, expressed in the simple plea of verse 11: “Do not be far from me … ”
Liturgies of Death.
The piteous descriptions of slaughter in the second part of the psalm (verses 12 to 18)
are intended to evoke indignation at the cruelty suffered by the speaker. Besides the opening line of the psalm (“My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), this description of physical death
has the closest ties with the Passion narratives in the Gospels. (The mocking of verses 6-8 is also echoed in the Passion Narratives, where the mocking is emphasized more than the suffering.)
This passage presents a single sustained metaphor – which is then repeated. It is that of a hunted animal, probably the “Deer of the Dawn” referred to in the
title prefixed to the psalm. This
beautiful wild animal is assaulted by enemies all around, bulls, lions, and
dogs.
The attention is directed steadily from a large ring
surrounding the animal toward the center of its body, as that body is
violated:
Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
As these beasts pierce the skin of the victim, the
inner organs are exposed and torn open:
I am poured out like water,
and all
my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is
melted within my breast.
And the final drained and lifeless carcass is
evidence of a ruthless slaughter:
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my
tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay
me in the dust of death. (Verses 12-15,
NRSV.)
Nothing in the book of Job exceeds this evocation of
compassion.
The imagery of the animal hunted and surrounded by
beasts is repeated, more briefly.
For dogs are all around me;
a company
of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled [been “pierced” in
KJV];
I can
count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
they
divide my clothes among themselves,
and for
my clothing they cast lots. (Verses 16-18, NRSV.)
In this imagery, the “clothes” divided among the
hunters are, of course, the victim’s skin, to become “garments” for the
hunters.
The agonizing and suffering part of the psalm
concludes with the speaker’s final plea for deliverance.
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life
from the power of the dog!
Save me
from the mouth of the lion! (verses 20-21).
The Reversal: Good News to the Nations.
The rest of the psalm proclaims a total
reversal!
The prayer has been answered, and the delivered one thanks God for
salvation. God raised the suffering one
from ignominy to glory.
For he did not despise or abhor
the
affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard
when I cried to him (verse 24).
Furthermore, this deliverance has world-wide
significance:
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn
to the Lord;
and the families of the nations
shall
worship before him (verse 27).
The sufferer in this drama is not just a marginal
resident; this is a figure of destiny (a royal figure) whose rescue from death
is good news for others far and wide.
The basic movement in the psalm is the same as in
the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. Great
suffering to death by a faithful servant is finally rewarded with exaltation by
God. And all of that is recognized by
the nations as an amazing work of God for their benefit!
When the Passion stories report Jesus’ great cry of
god-forsakenness on the cross (Mark 15:34 and Matthew 27:46), the hearers know what’s in the rest of the
psalm! The suffering one was on his way
to exaltation.
Addendum: The
Triumphant King of Palm Sunday
"Hallelujah," Mike Moyers, courtesy of Vanderbilt University Divinity Library.
As a supplement to the Suffering Servant as king we may
consider the royal figure in Psalm 118.
The use of this psalm in the drama of Palm Sunday focuses on the
triumphant entry into the city and temple (verses 19 to 28). The earlier part of the psalm, however,
indicates that there has been some major action prior to the triumph.
5Out of
my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me in a broad
place.
6With
the Lord on my side I do not fear.
What can mortals do to me?
…
10All
nations surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
11They
surrounded me,
surrounded me on every side;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
12They
surrounded me like bees;
they blazed like a fire of thorns;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
13I was
pushed hard, so that I was falling,
but the Lord helped me.
The king was
surrounded by enemies, against whom he fought valiantly. The details probably reflect ritual actions –
burning thorns, fighting off bees, and the repeated symbolic action of “cutting
off” enemies.
The king’s
successful defense is acclaimed by the desperate people whose fate depends on
the king’s victory.
15There
are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of
the Lord does valiantly;
16 the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
the right hand of the Lord does
valiantly.”
17I
shall not die, but I will live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
18The
Lord has punished me severely,
but he did not give me over to death.
This speaker
(king) has fought a great symbolic battle against enemies (nations) and almost
perished. Many ritual actions have been
performed, accompanied by the choral voices of many “righteous,” who await the
outcome of the struggle with desperate hope.
There is at least one note that it is Yahweh (the Lord) who subjects the
king to this dangerous ordeal (“the Lord has punished me severely”), but it is
also Yahweh who has finally saved him – so he can go forward to the great
triumphant entry into the city and temple!
Half of this psalm
is about the suffering of the king; half of it is about the triumphant
celebration of the king’s victory.
It should be noted
that the ritual battle takes place east of the city and temple. The triumphant entry comes from the Mount
of Olives, down through the Kidron valley (“the valley of the
shadow of death” where the powers of evil assault the king – in Gethsemane).
It then goes up to the temple altar where
the king fulfills his vows to God because of the victory (Psalm 118:27-28).
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9.
(This is the alternate reading;
the first reading is Hebrews 10:16-25. The alternate, however, is closer to the
human suffering Jesus.)
Let’s just listen to this passion
of the human Jesus.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every
respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin….
In the days of his flesh, Jesus
offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who
was able to save him from death [thinking of Jesus reciting Psalm 22?], and he
was heard because of his reverent submission.
Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered
[like the “Israel”
who = the Servant]; and having been made perfect, he became the source of
eternal salvation for all who obey him.
(Hebrews4:15 + 5:7-9, NRSV).
(Hebrews
Appendix on Terminology.
Terminology about the Servant’s suffering (Isaiah 53:2-8)
NRSV translation.
- grew up [like] young plant 53:2 ya‘al kayyōnēq
- no form or majesty 53:2 tō’ar … hādār
- despised 53:3 nibzéh
- rejected 53:3 ḫadal ’îshîm
- man of suffering 53:3 ’îsh mak’ōbōth
- with infirmity 53:3 ḥōlyí
- bore infirmities 53:4 nāśā’ ḥōlyím
- carried diseases 53:4 mak’ōbîm sābāl
- stricken 53:4 nāgūa‘
- struck down 53:4 mukkéh
- afflicted 53:4 me‘ūnéh
- wounded 53:5 meḫōlāl
- crushed 53:5 medukkā’
- [received] punishment 53:5 mūsar
- [received] bruises 53:5 ḥaburāh
- oppressed 53:7 niggaś
- afflicted 53:7 na’anéh
- taken away 53:8 luqqāḥ
- cut off from the living 53:8 nigzar mē’eretz ḫayyîm
- stricken [for them] 53:8 nega‘ lāmô
Terminology about what the Servant removed or bore.
- infirmities 53:4
- diseases 53:4
- transgressions 53:5
- iniquities 53:5, 11
- sheep gone astray 53:6
- iniquity 53:6
- transgression 53:8
- sin of many 53:12
- [interceded for] transgressors 53:12
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