(Listen to this homily here).
The past couple of days we have been listening to the
Servant Songs of Isaiah. These
four prophecies proclaimed a day when the Messiah would come to suffer on
behalf of his people.
Prophecies
like these truly amaze me.
Remember, Isaiah lived in about the 8th century before
Christ! This morning I would ask
you to listen to these verses again, as well as the next Servant Song. As you listen, please think of Jesus
Christ in his passion, crucifixion and death: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my
cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from
buffets and spitting.”
Isaiah continues: “He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of
suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their
faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that
he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and
afflicted. But he was pierced for
our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us
whole, by his stripes we were healed.”
“…he was pierced for our offenses…by his stripes we were healed.” Only God could have written that!
As we continue Holy Week,
let’s prepare our hearts by keeping Jesus, our Suffering Servant, in mind and
be grateful for all he did for us.
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