[re]imagine Lent: 3/30/2023
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“ 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. 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.”
This year the suffering servant text struck me differently – struck me almost in the way Rocky Balboa gets struck over and over in the famous movie franchise Rocky. In this series of movies about the boxer Rocky, we see him sacrifice his own body, enduring hook after uppercut, again and again, waiting until his opponent believes he has the win until ultimately Rocky lands the final, victorious blow.
I’ve often thought of the suffering servant in Isaiah as meek, enduring the unimaginable because they are powerless to stop it and resigned to the outcome. However, like Rocky, this suffering servant ‘set [their] face like flint’ and knew that vindication was near. This is a completely different look at the suffering Christ, not the downcast, sorrowful look that is so prevalent on icons, statues, and other artistic depictions.
In this suffering servant there is an unquenchable fire, and one who knows that victory is near. One who says during the fight, ‘is that all you’ve got?’
I admit that this suffering servant gives me a little more comfort and hope than the passive one. In the face of unimaginable injustice, suffering, and death here is one who suffers with us, and who, knowing the resurrection vindication that is to come, bears it with and for us as we await the final vindication. It doesn’t take the pain and anguish away, certainly. It doesn’t even give us an easy out from the darkness that inevitably makes its mark in us and our world. But, unlike the ending of Rocky 2, that freeze-frame, ambiguous ending, we know that Jesus, through the power of God and in the beautiful breath of the Holy Spirit has indeed conquered all, and will conquer all your sufferings too.
Prayer
Holy One who has given me the breath of life, grant that my breath be used today:
to speak life
to power faithful and loving action
to unbind those you put in my life
to take risk for the sake of my neighbor
to love
to laugh
to praise.
Amen.
Journal Prompt
What does it mean to live? What does it mean for the church to have life? To speak life into the world? This week as we reimagine the resurrection life of Christ, I invite you to answer these questions, and then to begin to imagine: what do you want for your life? For the life of your congregation? For the life of the world? And how has God equipped you to bring that vision to life?
Week Five Devotions by Rev. Erika Uthe, uthe@seiasynod.org