Third Friday of Advent
Reflection: Friday, Day 20 of Advent
by Chris Pipkin
Read the passage from Isaiah 53 first and then come back and read this reflection.
And for the last day of “Joy” week in Advent, we have of course chosen yet another Crucifixion prophecy. Between this and Psalm 22, you could be forgiven for assuming either that we’re confusing Christmas with Good Friday, or that we really, really want to harsh everyone’s candy cane buzz.
Let me remind you, though, that it is still Advent—not Christmas—still the time that we reflect not only on the long wait for the Messiah, but also our continued wait, even after Christ’s resurrection, for the Messiah’s work to be completed on earth.
It’s also necessary to remember that a joy which excludes suffering rather than transforming it is a fragile, brittle joy and may not even merit the name of joy at all. We will discuss this idea more on the second day of Christmas—the Feast of Stephen, the first martyr (and again on Day Four, the Feast of the Holy Innocents).
This time of year can be hard for many who suffer alone or feel forgotten—and it is made all the more painful by the fact that everyone else seems to be having a great time with family or significant others. And if you yourself are experiencing adversity, loneliness, or loss before or during Christmas (as we all either have or will at some point, to some degree), I hope this passage reminds you that you are in very good Company.
That is not to say that celebration and merrymaking are wrong, but it is to say that our celebration should be strong enough to encompass suffering and death. After all, the Messiah himself—whose birth we are remembering, whose return we are anticipating—did exactly this. We must not hide our faces from him.
This is one of the great prophecies of Christ. It may even be the most important. It is one of the “Servant Songs” in Isaiah, in which the “Servant,” standing perhaps for a messianic figure, perhaps for Israel, and perhaps for Isaiah himself, is used by God to accomplish great things despite his rejection, suffering and marred appearance—perhaps even because of them.
It is quite possible to read Isaiah 53 both as a prophecy of Israel’s suffering and a prophecy of Christ’s, because Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. It is interesting to read some of the notes of secular Hebrew scholar, Robert Alter, on this passage (and in general, I really do recommend his translation of the Hebrew Bible). He cannot discuss the passage without mentioning the Christian interpretation, though: “Virtually no serious scholars today see this as a prediction of the Passion, but it certainly provided a theological template for interpreting the death of Jesus.”
In the notes to his translation, he goes on to puzzle over the parts of this passage that are fulfilled in Christ, opting to translate “and with a rich man in his death” as “with evildoers in his death,” because “rich man” does not fit the Hebrew poetic parallel he expects from this verse—seems in fact to contradict “evildoers,” since riches in the Old Testament are generally a sign of a life well-lived. Yet our account of Christ’s death among criminals and burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea shows precisely how this contradiction, unpoetic though it may be, was fulfilled.
“That is not to say that celebration and merrymaking are wrong, but it is to say that our celebration should be strong enough to encompass suffering and death. After all, the Messiah himself—whose birth we are remembering, whose return we are anticipating—did exactly this. We must not hide our faces from him. “
Alter also points out that the last verse, promising long life and prosperity to the Servant, “is another somewhat perplexing declaration because the Servant is dead…” Indeed, if we rule out Christ’s life, death, and Resurrection from the outset, this passage—while moving—is not terribly coherent. Alter is a great scholar, and Christians can learn a lot about the Bible from his translation, so I hope this does not seem like a criticism—but I do want to highlight how this passage is fulfilled with such precision by Christ. It’s as breathtaking to us today as it was to the Ethiopian eunuch baptized by Philip.
It is worth noting that Alter’s very understandable puzzlement is reflected in our own impatience with the paradox of suffering-in-joy. In Christ, God becomes man and subjects himself to suffering, so that we can experience true joy, true feasting, both in this age and in the age to come. We also can expect suffering and, ultimately, death. We also can expect to be marred beyond what we think the lot of mankind should be—yet with the difference that we are transgressors, have gone astray like sheep. Yet, God himself will prolong our days because Christ has made intercession for us. The joy of Christmas is not the joy of denial, but the joy of miracle—that death itself was overturned when God became mortal, and that suffering was imbued with the power to heal, restoring in Christ, and one day in us, the true image of humankind.
Advent
Activities
Remember and pray for those who suffer, starting with people you actually know. Expand your prayers to the persecuted church, as well as the Ukrainians and Uyghurs.
Scripture for 12/16
Passage from Isaiah 52–53
Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us? 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, and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, 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; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah 52: 13-53:12, ESV)
Literature
“Despised and Rejected” by Christina Rossetti
“Despised and Rejected,” by Christina Rossetti
My sun has set, I dwell
In darkness as a dead man out of sight;
And none remains, not one, that I should tell
To him mine evil plight
This bitter night.
I will make fast my door
That hollow friends may trouble me no more.
‘Friend, open to Me.’—Who is this that calls?
Nay, I am deaf as are my walls:
Cease crying, for I will not hear
Thy cry of hope or fear.
Others were dear,
Others forsook me: what art thou indeed
That I should heed
Thy lamentable need?
Hungry should feed,
Or stranger lodge thee here?
‘Friend, My Feet bleed.
Open thy door to Me and comfort Me.’
I will not open, trouble me no more.
Go on thy way footsore,
I will not rise and open unto thee.
‘Then is it nothing to thee? Open, see
Who stands to plead with thee.
Open, lest I should pass thee by, and thou
One day entreat My Face
And howl for grace,
And I be deaf as thou art now.
Open to Me.’
Then I cried out upon him: Cease,
Leave me in peace:
Fear not that I should crave
Aught thou mayst have.
Leave me in peace, yea trouble me no more,
Lest I arise and chase thee from my door.
What, shall I not be let
Alone, that thou dost vex me yet?
But all night long that voice spake urgently:
‘Open to Me.’
Still harping in mine ears:
‘Rise, let Me in.’
Pleading with tears:
‘Open to Me that I may come to thee.’
While the dew dropped, while the dark hours were cold:
‘My Feet bleed, see My Face,
See My Hands bleed that bring thee grace,
My Heart doth bleed for thee,
Open to Me.’
So till the break of day:
Then died away
That voice, in silence as of sorrow;
Then footsteps echoing like a sigh
Passed me by,
Lingering footsteps slow to pass.
On the morrow
I saw upon the grass
Each footprint marked in blood, and on my door
The mark of blood for evermore.
Song
Royal Choral Society: ‘Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs’ from Handel’s “Messiah”
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