IX.
This week’s Scripture passage seems especially fitting for today, Good Friday.

I invite you to first read the passage in light of today’s recollection of the trials and crucifixion of Jesus.

Isaiah 53:4-11

Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.

But 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.

All 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.

He 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 that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.

They 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.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.

Out 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.

X.
This scripture speaks of, “The righteous one, my servant …”

While there is little doubt most who call themselves disciples of Jesus also are willing to call Jesus righteous and a servant of God.

Who else might be called righteous and a servant of God?

Do you think it proper to call Jesus’ disciples servants of God?

If that is the case what do you see in Isaiah’s description of the servant that can or should characterize those of us who claim to be Jesus’ disciples today?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}