04 Lent 6th Sunday in Lent Palm Sunday

            My friends, I greet you today in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our lesson comes to us from the 50th chapter of the book of Isaiah. 

These verses in our first reading are known as the third servant song.  There are three others of these in the book of Isaiah.  These verses paint for us a picture of the servant.  But before we look at that, let’s take a moment to think about what a servant is, and what a servant does. 

            So what comes to mind when you think about a servant?  Do you think of a butler or maid?  Or perhaps the person in the restaurant who brings your food?  This is how Webster’s Dictionary defines the word.  “One that serves others; especially one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer.”

We could broaden that definition a bit as we also consider those people who have dedicated their lives to others, doctors and EMTs, Law enforcement officers and military personal, we would say that all these people live lives of service.  And we thank and praise God for them.

But is this the kind of servant spoken of here in Isaiah?  No.  Not necessarily.  This servant is different.  The work of this servant is different.  That is the key.  Well, then who is this servant?  It’s not really a great mystery.  Though there is much debate amongst the scholars as to the identity of this servant, the introduction to these words in our celebrate insert says it well.  “When early Christians read this text they heard in this servant of God the voice of Jesus.  Thus, the reading was associated with the Lord’s passion.”

It is easy to hear the voice of Jesus in these verses.  After all he did say, “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a Ransom for many.”  So now the question is, what kind of picture of Jesus do these verses paint?  This is a good one isn’t it?   Jesus washing Peter’s feet, Ford Madox Brown I believe.  A young strong Jesus, serving his disciples by washing their feet.  Now this was the work of the house servants.  It was done by those on the bottom of the latter, and yet the king and creator of the universe is here, washing the feet of his disciples.  It is truly an act of love. 

And yet, as good and true as this picture of Jesus is, there is more to it.  Verses four reads, “The Lord God has give me the tongue of a teacher, 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.” 

So here is another picture.  This time we have a picture of Jesus and his words.  About which Jesus said, “I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father has instructed me.”  But this is nothing new either, I mean you know that the Gospels often mention Jesus going off to pray. 

And the word that he has is a powerful word.  It is the word that tells of God’s love for all people.  It is the word that says your sins are forgiven, now go and sin no more.  It is the word that says, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may no perish but may have eternal life.”  This word does indeed sustain the weary.  For in this word there is hope and forgiveness, salvation and life everlasting. 

And Jesus not only spoke these words, but he lived them as well.  He would eat with sinners and tax collectors.  He would talk to women who had been rejected by their community.  He would reach out his hands and touch lepers and drive demons out of people.  Those who had been forgotten by society were not forgotten by Jesus and the words that he spoke to them were also accompanied by actions that showed his love for them. 

But our picture in these verses is not limited to the ways that Jesus speaks and shows God’s love.  Beginning with verses five and six we get another angle on the servant.  “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.  I 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.” 

So now our focus shifts from the one who washes feet and teaches what God has said to him, to one who suffers and is mocked.  We see this in the gospel lesson for today as the account of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus are told.  “For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony did not agree.”  “Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, ‘Prophesy!’  The guards also took him over and beat him.”  “They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him.  After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him.  Then they led him out to crucify him.”

These actions are disgraceful.  They were normally done to a person who deserved them.  And yet Jesus was innocent, without spot, blemish or sin.  Verses 7-9. “The 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; he who vindicates me is near.  Who will contend with me?  Let us stand up together.  Who are my adversaries?  Let them confront me.  It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?”

Though he was innocent, and though there was no deceit or sin in him, he suffered.  And in these actions, on this road that will lead to the cross we begin to see just how great God’s love for you and me is.  Because this road that he is walking, is the road that you and I earned.  We are the ones who deserve to be treated like this, because we are sinners.  There is nothing good in you or me.  There is nothing within us that would warrant any treatment less than what Jesus is here experiencing.  And yet this is not what we have to face.

Because he loves you and me so very much the king and creator of the universe became one of us so that he could serve and through his service save us.  Through his service save you.  Does that make you feel special, important of great value?  Well, it should.  Because he deemed you valuable enough to go through this.  You are important enough that God did not want to be apart from you, and so he made you his own.

His powerful word, which comforts the weary, is the same word that was joined with water at your baptism.  And through that water and word you were made God’s own dear child.  The life you live is now lived in him.  “3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Through the water of baptism you have newness of life.  Our lives have been connected to Christ.  We are members of his body, and so that means that we are to continue the mission that he began.  You and I have the honor of sharing in God’s mission to reconcile the world to himself.  This mission is not one where we see ourselves as better than others, but where we see ourselves as servants to them.  This mission is where we see ourselves as here to sustain the weary with a word and with our actions, just as we have seen Jesus do.  This mission is one where we hear from God as he speaks to us in his word and gives us the words to speak as we proclaim his love to the world around us. 

Now the world around us will not always be happy to hear the message we have to share.  In those times we can take comfort in knowing that the Lord God helps us.  Therefore we will not be disgraced, we will not be put to shame. 

Because Jesus walked the road to the cross it is no longer a shameful road.  It is now the road to victory, because he was not defeated on the cross.  He rose from the dead.  And so you and I can look to the cross for hope and strength and comfort.  Because there we see the great love of our Great God for you and me.  Amen.