A Christian is truly a Christian when they are reflecting Christ. God has called us to reflect who he is, this is what makes us “his People” because by this we shown that we are representing him. At its core the image of the Suffering Servant is a model of God. It shows us a radical picture of who God is and how God saves. The reason that Jesus better embodies the Servant than either the righteous remnant of Israel or the body of Christ is because Jesus as the truly human person is the perfect reflection of who God is. What Isaiah sets before us in poetry, Jesus sets before us in a living breathing flesh and blood life. Through Isaiah, God paints a picture of His nature and way in a poem. Through Jesus, God paints a picture of His nature and way in a human life. The words of Isaiah have become Jesus “the Word made flesh” (Jn 1). Ultimately the identity of the Servant is God. The Servant reveals who God is and how God saves. Therefore we should not end our focus on the person of Jesus, but rather let Jesus point us to who God is. God is the Servant. God is the one who comes to us in our need, in the middle of our grief. God is the one who enters into the place where the world is hurting and through taking on suffering himself, overcomes it. And God is the one who calls us to follow him in the way of servant-love. The way of the Servant is our way. We are called to imitate the nature and way of the Servant. God sent Jesus to model this way of self-sacrificing love, to model the Kingdom, and as citizens in Gods Kingdom, if we are part of the vine (whether we are grafted in or the original branches), then we are to follow him in that same way. We are to take on the life of the Servant as well. We are to be Christ in a hurting world, salt and light. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Ro 12:1) We should no longer see in the categories the world sees people in, and how we once saw the Servant, but learn to see ourselves and others through the eyes of Jesus. We are called again and again in scripture to “share in the sufferings of Christ”. Clearly the context in which this is said is not of us needing to appease God (as if Jesus sacrifice was not enough), but to join Jesus in the way of self-sacrificing love. Throughout scripture we are called to join Christ in his sufferings Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12-13 see also Ro 8:17; 2 Thes 1:5 ). It is clear in this context that the Apostles were not thinking of the suffering of Christ as an appeasement, because if it were an appeasement, to participate in the sufferings of Christ would in this paradigm conversely mean we should continually perform acts of penance to appease God as well - we should continually buy Gods forgiveness. On the contrary, the sufferings of Christ are to be understood not as an appeasement to God, but as a way of life epitomized in Jesus which we are also to embody, aligning ourselves with love and enduring suffering for the sake of love and justice. Jesus stood up for love regardless of the cost. Taking on the the sufferings and cross of Christ is to follow him in this way of self-sacrificing love. -Derek Flood
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 19:12:17 +0000
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