Good Friday
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7-9
As I sit here with you in the uneasy silence of Good Friday I am struck again by the picture of the suffering servant in the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). Christians, from the earliest days, know these words prophesy about Jesus. The servant’s lack of political connections or natural graces to draw people in. The inexplicable way the servant’s suffering sets us free. And of course the grotesque double entendre of the suffering servant being “lifted high.” Why is this the way we are healed? Why does our healing require suffering?
And yet there it is. This is the way. These words lay bare the insane cruelty of human communities. Over and over again our lives together cause the suffering of the weak and the inconvenient. The gears of our systems and lives don’t even spare the innocent suffering servant. These diabolical mechanisms lead to the desolation of communities and ecosystems. To the despoiling of the earth. All the while the powerful and connected work the levers and extract power and profit.
These realities had long been known in Isaiah’s day. Many prophets before and after Isaiah have pointed this gruesome reality out to the people of God. At the time of this writing the people of God were already exhausted by it. They had had enough. They longed for rescue. They wondered who even had the strength to protest any longer. They also dared to hope in the work of God in the world through the suffering servant. Deep down they knew it would heal them. Somehow.
Sadly, the machine would grind on for centuries after these words were recorded. The cast of characters changing from time to time but the plot staying essentially the same. The strong and powerful ascend. The people suffer.
Today as we observe Good Friday, let's not be too quick to jump to Sunday. Receive the gifts that this holy day has to offer. Allow it to work. It can open your heart and mind to the people around you who suffer in ways you don’t understand or imagine.
Pause for a moment and live inside the heart of this holy day.
Join the world in its mourning and longing.
Sit with people for whom justice is delayed and therefore denied.
Wonder along with Isaiah “is anyone planning to mount a convincing protest?”
Who is going to shut this infernal machine off?
Sit with the disciples as they watch in horror as the best and brightest chance they had at freedom was ground up in the gruesome gears of a broken world.
If you can’t relate directly then at least allow their despair and confusion, as they fled and hid, to till the soil of your comfortable life. Let it make deep scars.
Because this is the ground that resurrection springs from.
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