# Good Friday: The suffering servant
*2015-04-02*

> Bill Young reflects on the parallels between the prophecy of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 and the Passion of Jesus Christ.

## The Prophecy of Isaiah

Today is Good Friday, and we look to the scripture reading from Isaiah 53. The text describes one who was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmities. He was one from whom others hid their faces; he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he bore our infirmities and carried our diseases. He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed by our iniquities. Upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises, we are healed.

## The Silence of the Lamb

Isaiah describes the servant as one who was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, or a sheep that is silent before its shearers, he remained silent. The righteous one, the servant, shall make many righteous and bear their iniquities. Therefore, he is allotted a portion with the great, because he poured himself out to death.

## The Paragon of Surrender

The parallels between the plight of the suffering servant in Isaiah and the Passion of Jesus are striking; each phrase is worthy of meditation. The underlying virtue in both images is humility. Christ entered human existence in humility, and his Passion and death together are the paragon of surrender to the will of God. What appears to some as complete weakness is, through the eyes of faith, the entrance into the heart of God and evangelizing life.

## The New and Eternal Covenant

The prophecy that the servant shall make many righteous is fulfilled in the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, Jesus said, 'This is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.' Our servant comes to us humbly under the guise of bread and wine in the heart of every human being.

*Let us praise God for the gift of the suffering servant, for Christ has died to set us free.*