The biggest question I have ever had of Jesus is, “Why?”  

“Why did you do it?  Why did you go up to Jerusalem when you knew the leaders had it in for you?  Why did you stick around when you saw the darkness gathering?  Why were you so willing to die?”  

 

It’s one of the most challenging points of theology that I know:  “Why?  Why Golgotha?  Why Calvary?  Why, in God’s name, was such suffering of Jesus necessary?”

 

This morning Isaiah has words to share about suffering.  He tells us of one who is “wounded” and “crushed”; one who is “despised”, and “poured out to death” for his people.  Isaiah truly believes that suffering creates the space for transformation.  

 

It’s not a comforting thought.  And I can’t say that I completely understand it.  But I have come to believe with my whole heart that it is true:  A person’s passion—their suffering—creates a space around them that is electric with the power of transformation.  

And it’s not true just of Israel or Christ, it’s true in every case:

 

In June of 1963, a Buddhist monk, set himself on fire in the streets of Saigon in protest of the Vietnam war and that monk’s sacrifice awakened the compassions of people around the world.

 

In November of just this past year (2003), a little girl in Fresno, California, named Angelica Areyano heard that her local zoo was running out of money to care for the animals.  Moved by the suffering of the animals she wrote this letter to her local paper:  

 “Dear Editor:  I heard that the Chaffee Zoo is having money problems. I am very worried for the animals. I am worried because they might not have enough food or water or even might not have a home. They deserve to have a home and be safe and warm. I think that if everybody in Fresno gave $1 to the Chaffee Zoo it would help a lot. Here's my dollar.”  

Over the next month the zoo received thirty-thousand dolloars from other citizens in Fresno.  Angelica’s sacrifice of conscience awakened the compassions of people across her state.

 

Suffering is always a kind of pain for those in the midst of it, but suffering creates around itself the space for new life.  A single monk’s suffering changed the outlook of the world. A single girl’s passion changed the apathy of her community.  And consider this story about a man and his willingness to endure suffering because of his heart for others.    

In the mid-nineteenth century there was a man named Shamil who was the leader of the people of Dag-e-stan, and he was their defender  against the attacking armies from Russia.  Cowardice had risen up among his people so Shamil commanded that anyone who spoke openly of surrender would receive one hundred lashes.  

The next day a person was arrested for this offense—and it was his mother.  After hours of prayer and fasting Shamil watched as his mother began to receive the hundred lashes, but after only five he cried out for them to stop, and baring his own back he received the other 95 lashes on his own skin.  His sacrifice  awakened the courage of his people and no one spoke of surrender again.  

 

We see it around us in the world over and over again, how suffering creates the space for redemption:  How the suffering of civil rights demonstrators in Mississippi prepared the country to adopt sweeping Civil Rights legislation;  how the suffering of people even in our own community changes our relationship with one another;  how it turns our hearts to the gift of life and to our Father in heaven.  

 

The more we look for evidence of this the more we see it.  Suffering creates the space for transformation.  

 

In his own nation Isaiah sees such suffering.  He has watched as the Kingdom of Judah, the last remaining homeland of the Israelites, has been destroyed because of the sins of the people.  He has seen the devastation, the terrible violence that crushed this nation into the earth and scattered her people.  

And yet, with the eyes of God, Isaiah sees new life approaching on the horizon with the dawn of a new day.

 

The Kingdom of Judah was God’s Suffering Servant.  And she became yet another reflection of the archetype of all suffering and new life:  

Christ Jesus, who, though he was God, emptied himself.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”  

 

Jesus’ story that we remember all year long and especially this week is similar to all of these other stories except in one regard:  degree.  

Jesus is the God-man — the one through whom all things have been made.  He is the mold of all humanity, the paradigm of every human being.  All things came into being through him.  And so, when Jesus goes to the cross in suffering, that suffering touches all things.  All the earth and all humanity suffer with him on that cross because we are comprised in him.  

This week we remember the great suffering of the Christ.

Next week we celebrate our transformation.  

Year C — Palm Sunday

    See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.  

    Just as there were many who were astonished at him --so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals-- so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.

    Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

    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. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”  

Isaiah 52:13-53:12