Isaiah 53:10 – 11
This Sunday, we will again hear from the Book of the prophet Isaiah. It is from chapter 53 so we recognize that it is from deutero-Isaiah, which dates to the time of the Babylonian exile. We will hear two verses from the last of four “Servant-of-the-Lord” also known as “Suffering Servant” oracles. Because he fulfilled the divine will by suffering for the sins of others, the Servant will be rewarded by the Lord. I invite you to read from 52:13 to fully understand the two verses we will hear on Sunday.
As we listen to the entire passage, pay special attention to 53:1: “Who would believe what we have heard?” This sentence challenges us to recognize that God works in mysterious, unbelievable ways.
Now, let’s examine more carefully the two verses we hear today:
10 (But the LORD was pleased to crush him in infirmity.) If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
offering for sin: this speaks of offering for sins of inadvertence as well as willful sin. The Hebrew word, ישאם – ‘asham – that is used here, is used in the Hebrew Scripture most in reference to sacrilege, and has a very specific prescription for reparation (cf. Lev 5:14 – 19). Dt-Isaiah calls Israel to a deep awareness of their sinfulness, and during the Exile, there are many examples of penitential liturgies.
Here we hear about the Suffering Servant giving his life as a sin offering, anticipating Jesus’ sacrifice for all of us.
11 Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.
See the light: enjoy happiness. This line may originally have read, “he shall drink and eat to the full” – at the thanksgiving sacrifice at which he shall divide the spoils (53:12).
my servant shall justify many: God speaks, announcing the resurrection of the nation and a worldwide renewal; this comes through justification.
Isaiah’s servant of the Lord, who gives his life as an offering for sin, anticipates Jesus’ own message about the meaning of life and God’s power to save. As the people of God tried to understand the divine plan and will for humanity, they remembered that Moses had promised that if they chose the life plan offered by God’s commands they would “live and grow numerous” (Deuteronomy 30:16). Moses promised that “the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess” (ibid). But too often they saw Moses’ promise contradicted by the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the just. As a result, some chose to adhere to the ambivalent message of Ecclesiastes 3 which ends by saying: “I saw that there is nothing better for mortals than to rejoice in their work; for this is their lot. Who will let them see what is to come after them?” That declaration stops just a half-step short of saying, “Eat, drink and be merry, for we can never know what God is up to.”
The servant of God stands as a stark alternative to both of those approaches. Because the suffering servant is an innocent victim, his example undercuts any self-centered motives for living a just life. Goodness is no guarantee of prosperity; in fact, the way of the world most often seems to prove the opposite. The way to understand the servant cannot be found by starting from human wisdom or ambition or even human hope. The only way to understand the revelation of the servant is by remembering that before anything else, the servant is the servant of God. The servant of whom Isaiah speaks, the servant through whom the early Christians came to understand Christ’s mission, is a human being whose entire identity comes from the love of God and the willingness to make that love palpable in the world.
As is usual, this passage from Isaiah prepares us for the Gospel; let’s look at that now.
Mark 10:35 – 45
This week, we continue to hear from Mark’s Gospel, picking up right where we left off last week, except for the third prediction of our Lord’s passion. This pericope is found in Matthew’s Gospel (20: 20 – 28) but not in Luke; do you know why? On the heels of the lesson we heard last week – about how hard it is to enter the kingdom of heaven (cf. vvs. 23 – 31) – it demonstrates again the blindness of the apostles. And, for everyone, it presents a very strong lesson for those who are ambitious; let’s examine it, beginning, however, at vs 31, where we hear our Lord teach that the “first will be last and the last will be first” and then speak for the third time about his upcoming suffering and death:
31 “But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.
32 They were on their way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
33 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
34 who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.”
This is the most detailed of the three predictions (cf. Mk 8:31; 9:30-31), making the reaction of James and John even more egregious. Let’s examine the passage we will hear on Sunday.
35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
36 He replied, “What do you wish (me) to do for you?”
37 They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
sit one at your right and the other at your left: in Mt 19:28 and Lk 22:28 – 30, Jesus promises them the 12 thrones; this is noticeably absent in Mk. But, here we see the two sons of Zebedee want an even greater place of honor.
38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
Can you drink the cup . . . I am baptized?: as you will read in your footnotes, the metaphor of drinking the cup is used in the Old Testament to refer to acceptance of the destiny assigned by God; see the note on Ps 11, 6. It can speak of abundance and comfort (Ps 23:5, Jer 16:7) and of woe and judgment (Ps 75:9; Jer 25:15 -18). In Jesus’ case, this involves divine judgment on sin that Jesus the innocent one is to expiate on behalf of the guilty (Mark 14:24; Isaiah 53:5). His baptism is to be his crucifixion and death for the salvation of the human race; cf Luke 12:50. The request of James and John for a share in the glory (Mark 10:35-37) must of necessity involve a share in Jesus’ sufferings, the endurance of tribulation and suffering for the gospel (Mark 10:39). The authority of assigning places of honor in the kingdom is reserved to God (Mark 10:40).
39 They said to him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
you will be baptized: they will be drowned in similar troubles as Christ suffered. The image of water as a metaphor for extreme distress is found throughout the Bible (cf. Ps 69:1-3; Is 43:1-2).
40 but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41 When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
42 Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
great ones make their authority over them felt: Look at your footnote and you will read that whatever authority is to be exercised by the disciples must, like that of Jesus, be rendered as service to others (Mark 10:45) rather than for personal aggrandizement (Mark 10:42-44). This new norm of conduct – to be the servant of all – is made possible by Jesus’ own mission of service. The service of Jesus is his passion and death for the sins of the human race (Mark 10:45); cf. Mark 14:24; Isaiah 53:11-12; Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:19-20.
43 But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
44 whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
45 For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
give his life as a ransom for many: this echoes Is 53:11 that we heard in the first reading. Clearly, Jesus is seen as the Suffering Servant presented in Isaiah and we, who wish to follow in his footsteps, must be willing to be the same.
Hebrews 4:14 – 16
We hear the next two verses from the letter to the Hebrews, that wonderful Christological homily. Remember, we will be hearing from this letter for the next several weeks. The author is unknown. With the exception of 1 John, it is the only New Testament epistle that begins without a greeting mentioning the writer’s name. Although there are many early Church figures who ascribe this to Paul, stylistic, vocabulary and theological differences between it and other Pauline letters have led most to consider this to be the work of a Jewish Christian of Hellenistic background. It was probably written to a Jewish Christian audience familiar with the covenant that God had with his people Israel. Most scholars believe it was written after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70AD and it must have been written before the time that Clement of Rome (d. 96AD), since he uses it. Since the author greets “those from Italy” (13:24), there are those who believe it was written in Rome, but this text could mean no more than that people who were natives of Italy were in the author’s company when he wrote, so we really do not know where it was written.
The two verses we will hear on Sunday encourage us to be strong in our faith. These verses, which return to the theme first sounded in Hebrews 2:16 – 3:1, serve as an introduction to the section that follows. He has been tested in every way, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15); this indicates an acquaintance with the tradition of Jesus’ temptations, not only at the beginning (as in Mark 1:13) but throughout his public life (cf. Luke 22:28). Although the reign of the exalted Jesus is a theme that occurs elsewhere in Hebrews, and Jesus’ throne is mentioned in Hebrews 1:8, the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) refers to the throne of God. The similarity of Hebrews 4:16 to Hebrews 10:19-22 indicates that the author is thinking of our confident access to God, made possible by the priestly work of Jesus.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
great high priest: this is the only place where the author of Hebrews speaks of Jesus as a great high priest, perhaps to emphasize his superiority over the Jewish high priest, with whom he is constantly compared. Unlike the Jewish high priest who was able to pass through various areas of the Temple until reaching the Holy of Holies where the Jews believed God dwelt – a symbolic journey from the profane world to the presence of God here on earth, Jesus has passed from this world into the living presence of God. So, he is the high priest par excellence.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.
similarly been tested: clearly the author knows of the Gospel tradition of Christ’s temptations.
16 So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
This selection from the Letter to the Hebrews focuses on Jesus as the Son of God who knows exactly what it feels like to be human, to be tempted, to be afraid. The author of Hebrews wants us to know that as the human face of God, there is nothing in our experience that Jesus does not comprehend from the inside out. In fact, says the author, Jesus feels with us so profoundly that his response is a continual offer of the graces of solidarity and the strength to share in his victory over the powers of death.
If all of that sounds like too much for us, we are in fine company. Today’s Gospel paints a picture of Jesus’ closest disciples as Olympic champions in the contest of denial and self-serving misinterpretation. No matter how much Jesus talked about the first being last and his upcoming suffering, the disciples could not or would not move beyond their own glorious expectations for a messiah and his victory.
Each of these three readings offer a message about the good news of salvation. Together, they keep us aware that God’s ways are not our ways. They are not always what we would expect and often not what we, at first, would desire. But, God’s surprising grace active in our midst works transformations that we will eventually recognize, in Paul’s words, are far more than we could have asked or imagined.