The Path of Love

Wednesday April 8

Readings: Is 50:4-9A; Mt 26:14-25

As is often the case in the lectionary cycle, the church “repeats” readings. Generally when this happens it is meant to slow us down to that we take a second look at something. In this case, it’s the passage from Isaiah 50 that we just heard a few days ago on Palm Sunday.

The early Christians – who were Jewish – went back and re-read their own scriptures from the perspective of the life of Jesus.  And in the prophet Isaiah, they saw reflected a vision of the life of Jesus.  These passages from Isaiah 50 have come to be known as the “suffering servant” passages because they describe the servant who endures mistreatment and does not shy away from the consequences of their actions.

For me it’s really important to understand and unpack this theology.

I know when I was growing up – and in the many years since then – I have heard the theology that God asked Jesus to suffer on our behalf.  It’s sort of the divine placeholder theology – meaning that Jesus took our place and suffered on our behalf.  While I understand what that theology is trying to do, it’s not something I subscribe to.

How I have come to see the “suffering servant” vision of Jesus is, in part, derived from Isaiah 50 itself.  We’re told that this servant has been given a “well trained tongue…to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them,” and that “morning after morning, God opens [the servant’s] ears.”  In short, this servant keeps getting the messages that the people need to hear and delivers it.  The servant has not turned their back on the message nor rebelled against it – even if it meant their own suffering somehow.

I am not sure that God wants anyone to suffer.  While good things can come out of suffering, suffering is, well, suffering!  And I can’t imagine a good God saying to anyone, “Hey, you need to suffer to make me happy…”

What I think is more likely the case is that God – and the servants of God – are asked to stay true to the mission of love even if suffering comes their way.  We do not seek out suffering but neither does it stop us from doing what we are here to do.

I think of so many people throughout history – from labor organizers to feminist leaders to LGBTQ activists to civil rights and environmental advocates – who endured personal consequences for a greater cause.  They did not turn away from their values and purpose because of suffering.

I think of parents, caregivers and anyone in a relationship where we experience some form of hardship or burden.  We don’t just leave the relationship because it is difficult or turn away from loving the other because there is some suffering.  We stay true to our commitment to keep loving and being in relationship.

A few days ago I mentioned Martin Luther King on the anniversary of his death on April 4.  In spite of death threats, he went to Memphis to be with striking sanitation workers.  King did not turn his back because of the danger nor try to shield himself from the consequences of the path of love.

Same with Jesus.  He did not try to stop Judas from approaching the chief priests and elders as they struck a deal and made plans to arrest him.  Nor did Jesus try to avoid a difficult and wrenching path.  The path he was on led him to this place, and he decided to see it through.

Preserving our life is no small thing, and avoiding suffering seems like a pretty sound thing to do.  But Jesus offers us a challenge today – a challenge to find an even bigger self and an even bigger agenda that might require us to let go of our smaller self and smaller agenda.

I am not sure that I have the courage or trust to do this all at once.  Which is why it takes practice.  We must keep practicing surrender and trust so that when it is called forth in bigger ways, we are ready to respond.  People like Jesus and King needed to do a lot of inner work, have some good spiritual guides and be surrounded by a solid community of people in order to do what they did.  But they did it, and many have done it before us.

And it’s not always that we’re called to die or have some grand event happen to us.  There are a thousand small ways that we “die” to ourselves and our own agendas – choosing not prevent our own inconvenience or suffering as we care for others.  This is the practice we need.  Daily sacrifices for others that connect us to a bigger self and a bigger agenda.

For today, release a part of your small self so that a bigger agenda might emerge in the world somehow. Trust that God is with you in this. And remember, God is not “pleased” that you suffer. God is right there with you in the suffering – accompanying you on this path of love.