Sunday Service | The Fourth Sunday of Lent: March 14, 2021
We long for justice. This year has shown that desire in us more than ever. So here’s a question for us to sit with today:
What does Justice mean to you? What does it look like for you?
The media is full of stories of injustice—from the mistakes of politicians to the crimes of those in authority to how the royal family treats its own. We complain when we’re wronged. We protest when we’re abused. And we tell our stories with every expectation that other people will share our outrage.
But the servant in Isaiah 53.7-9—Jesus the Servant—is silent.
“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.”
Last week April called our attention to sin and our own sin, just as Isaiah is doing.
Also- she led us in some breathing exercises. Let’s repeat that today:
Breathe in: “I return to God’s presence”
Breathe out- “I return to God’s rest”
There is no accusation in this passage, or in her sermon last week to nit pick our every action, but that does not mean we can dismiss the weight of sin in our lives or the effects of sin around us.
It is good, especially in this Lent season, to reacquaint ourselves with the effects of separation from God--sin--in our life and in the world around us.
And to remember and embrace that Jesus reunites us with God and begins to bring justice to our lives where sin has taken from us.
This passage of Scripture is hard to look at because it draws us into the conversation of sin and its effects. But this passage also continues to call us to look at the servant that has and is transforming and repairing the effects of sin in our lives and in the world.
As I have said to you all, this year I am making the effort to re-read the entire bible. And to be honest it's been hard and really life giving at the same time.
Do you remember the passage in Exodus 3 where Moses meets God in a burning bush?
Moses is going along tending to his sheep when he sees a bush on fire. Not necessarily out of the norm in the desert, yet very peculiar because it was not being consumed by the flames. So Moses goes to check it out, and God begins to speak to him out of the bush. Take off your sandals because you are on holy ground!
This is where God calls Moses to lead his people out of slavery. They have been oppressed by the Egyptians for 400 years. They were invited to live in the region, but then they were made to work for others. They were wondering--just like the people in Isaiah’s day, who were in exile under a foreign government--where is the justice?
In the burning bush, God begins his conversation with Moses like this in Exodus 3.7:
“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering”.
Does this sound familiar? The word “oppressed” in Isaiah 53.7 is the word translated “slave drivers” in Exodus 3.7; the servant is “oppressed” just as the Israelites were oppressed by their slave drivers. The word “afflicted” in Isaiah 53.7 is related to the word “misery” in Exodus 3.7. And the word “suffering” in Exodus 3.7 is used of the servant in Isaiah 53.3-4.
Putting these together, we can see that when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he experienced what the Israelites experienced in Egypt. What the Israelites experienced from the Babylonians in Isaiah’s time. And, ultimately, what we experience from the effects of sin in our lives and in the world.
Could this prophetic song in Isaiah be the beginning of another exodus? Could this be another defining moment for God’s people?
As Isaiah calls us to look at his servant who will suffer for us, he prophetically draws our attention to Jesus on the cross.
How will the new exodus be achieved? In the same way as the first exodus—through a lamb substituted in the place of the people: the Passover Lamb.
As we thought about what Justice is and what it looks like, did a picture of Jesus come to your mind?
What if Jesus is justice? What if justice is that we can find peace in the tension of the already/not yet: We are sinners and we are redeemed. We are sinners and we are Saints.
I think this is what Isaiah is trying to turn our attention too.
Sometimes our old, independent ways of life seem very attractive. Just as the people of Israel sometimes wanted to return to Egypt, sometimes we want to go back to our sin.
In those moments of temptation, we can remember that Jesus knows these feelings intimately and yet chooses to stay connected with God. This is what is meant when Paul and the church say “we were bought with the precious blood of Christ.” Jesus willingly entered into our injustice in order for us to find and know justice.
This is another reason this scripture is so astounding! Let’s look at Isaiah’s words again:
“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.”
What do people normally do when they’re accused? They raise their voices in protest.
And what do people do when faced with the threat of violence? Fight or flight. They either put up a struggle or they do their best to run away.
But not Jesus the Servant, the good shepherd.
The point Isaiah wants to make is that Jesus the Servant goes to his death of his own accord. His silence speaks eloquently of his willingness. His apparent passivity is actually a powerful sign of his determination to face death.
Why? Because he wanted the world to know justice.
So he became flesh as us, to become afflicted like us, to become cut off from the land of the living like us--so that we, by believing his message and by following him, can know justice.
We can experience and exercise true justice.
We can come back home.
His story, Jesus’ story, is our story. From exile to homecoming.
1 Peter 2:23 says:
“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
Tim Chester writes this:
“Jesus the Servant has set an example we should follow. In the process, Peter provides his own take on the servant’s silence. It is not that he never speaks. It’s not even that he never defends himself. Though there were moments during his trials when Jesus was silent, there were also moments when he spoke up.”
The point is he never retaliated and he never made threats. He never responded to violence with violence, to violent words with violent words.
We can defend ourselves when accused. But our attitude and our actions must not become aggressive.
How can we remain calm in the face of provocation? Like the servant, we can entrust ourselves to him who judges justly (1 Peter 2.23).
You don’t need to retaliate. What difference will that make next time you are wronged?
You don’t need to make threats. What difference will that make next time you’re treated unfairly?
Jesus was silent before his accusers because he knew that what was happening was God’s plan, and he knew God would have the last word. And so can we.
Now that’s going deep. Jesus was silent because:
1. He was willing to go forward, so that he will share in our story
2. Jesus wanted us to see how to trust in the Justice of a good God.
Moses to the hebrews, Isaiah to the Israelites, Jesus to us now:
The call is to be free by being dependent on God.
That seems so backwards to our way of thinking. Freedom comes from independence not dependence.
Is that the kingdom of God? To be independent? How independent do YOU want to be?
Jesus is taking our sin, our pain, our suffering, so that we will be free to be WITH him, not separated.
Many times we become confused to think that justice brings freedom that gives us independence, but our dependence on Jesus gives us the freedom to live in justice. True justice comes from being connected, united, and dependent.
And the God who heard the cries of his people and sent Moses, and the God who sends Isaiah to draw their eyes to Him, sends Jesus as the suffering servant that leads humanity to justice, freedom, and dependence on God.
We find ourselves in a tension between trusting God and not. In becoming dependent on Jesus for all things or becoming independent and on our own merits and skills. In becoming free in love or enslaved in sin.
Tim Chester also wrote this:
“The silence of Jesus speaks powerfully of his willingness to die in our place. Our silence speaks powerfully of our need for him to die in our place. His trial proves his innocence, but his trial also demonstrates humanity’s guilt. Jesus has surrendered himself to our will, and our will is his death. We push him out of our lives and onto the cross.”
Justin Harvey shared something he read on the group me this week that said--
“The crucifixion of Jesus was not a response to our sin, it was our response to God’s love.”
What do we do with this?
What do we do with our sin?
What do we do for our longing of Justice?
We look to Jesus.
This is where he meets us in the tension of separation and unity, and he uses the circumstances of our life, whether joyful or hard, to draw us into his life: the kingdom of God
And many times we have to ask for help:
God, will you give me the grace to do this with you?
Spend some timing reading through a meditation written almost 1800 years ago by Clement of Alexandria:
In our sickness we need a Saviour,
in our wanderings a guide,
in our blindness someone to show us the light,
in our thirst the fountain of living water
that quenches for ever the thirst of those
who drink from it.
We dead people need life,
we sheep need a shepherd,
we children need a teacher,
the whole world needs Jesus!
Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215)