Isaiah 53:7-9 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.
This imagery, also found in Psalms 44:12, 23 and
Jeremiah 11:19, speaks of a lamb led to the slaughter, unjustly removed from
“the land of the living”. As mentioned yesterday: Many Christians read this
retroactively and discover a description of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who was ‘led
to the slaughter’; there are others who see the “servant” in Isaiah
53 as a
poetic symbol to describe the community of God’s people.[1]
Either way, this is a story of injustice, silent suffering, and death. Nothing
in this is pleasant.
And
yet ... this is the experience of many people in our communities. There are
people who suffer in silence: women who struggle within oppressive
relationships and children who live silently with abuse. There are also the
perpetrators of abuse, who are trapped by their cycle of cruel expression and
remorse.
Lent is an opportunity to use
fasting and abstinence as a (very small) way of understanding those who suffer.
Use this moment to commit your life to breaking the silence. [2]
Palm Sunday
The Wunds and Sorrows of
Ministry Scripture reading taken from A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants p.136
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