Sunday Stretch: Vol. 98

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

Glad to be with you for another edition of the Sunday Stretch.

I’m preaching this morning at 9:30 (CT) at Grace Lutheran in Apple Valley, Minn., with my friend, Pastor Sarah Rohde. Sarah and I both began our pastoral ministry in the Chicago suburbs back in 2013, and now we’ve both found our way to the Twin Cities! Looking forward to sharing in worship together and then leading a forum on Christian Nationalism and rebuilding trust in its wake, following the worship service. If you’re local, would love to see you there!

And now - we’ve got a meaty set of readings for the week, with a specific focus on the Theology of the Cross. So let’s get to the texts!

Fall is not only election season but also Birthday season at our house. This past week, my youngest son, Josh, celebrated his 9th birthday at the park with a great group of friends, including his older brother. Especially grateful this year for health, after Josh’s scary bout with pneumonia earlier this summer. Happy Birthday to Josh - and to anyone who is celebrating this season!

Isaiah 53:4-12

Is. 53:4    Surely he has borne our infirmities

and carried our diseases;

yet we accounted him stricken,

struck down by God, and afflicted.

⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions,

crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that made us whole,

and by his bruises we are healed.

⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have all turned to our own way,

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Is. 53:7    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.

⁸ 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.

⁹ They made his grave with the wicked

and his tomb^a with the rich,^b

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Is. 53:10    Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain.^a

When you make his life an offering for sin,^b

he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;

through him the will of the LORD shall prosper.

¹¹ Out of his anguish he shall see light;^a

he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.

The righteous one,^b my servant, shall make many righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

¹² Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;

because he poured out himself to death,

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53 is known in Christianity as the Suffering Servant text, interpreted to refer to Jesus’ future suffering and death on the Cross, for the redemption of the world. This Wikipedia entry on the chapter actually does a really nice job of rounding up both Jewish and Christian interpretations of the text itself.

This text also finds itself in Handel’s Messiah, in part of the musical recounting of Jesus’ suffering and death.

For our purposes, I think today - and whenever I read this text - I’m struck by what it tells us about who God is. So often we colloquially understand God or our Savior, Jesus, as a strongman, someone who is all-powerful and unaffected by difficulties and suffering. But the Bible, including in this passage, describes God quite differently. Instead, as here, God is empathetic and involved in the suffering of humanity, to the extent that God suffers with us, and it is through that suffering with, that God does God’s greatest work.

Questions to Ponder

How does this text impact your understanding of the Theology of the Cross? Does the Suffering Servant fit in with who Jesus is in the Theology of the Cross? Why or why not?

What does it mean that Jesus (in Christian interpretation of this text) is understood primarily as servant?

What is the function of the word intercession in that last verse?

Hebrews 5:1-10

Heb. 5:1    Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ² He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; ³ and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. ⁴ And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

⁵ So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,

“You are my Son,

today I have begotten you”;

⁶ as he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,

according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Heb. 5:7   In the days of his flesh, Jesus^a offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; ⁹ and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰ having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Here we go. I have to admit, in case you haven’t noticed already, Hebrews is not one of my