Suffering

Click here to read Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53 is often read on Holy Friday.  It is read from the lens of Jesus suffering on the cross.  One of the powerful parts of going chapter by chapter through a book of the Bible is to hear what comes before and after a passage.  How can the beautiful feet have just brought good news of peace and freedom to the people in exile, and now all of the sudden we are talking about suffering?  There is a disconnect between these two chapters for me.

It is jarring when our joy and dancing is turned into mourning.  It is unsettling when laughter is suddenly turned to tears.  Perhaps that is why we don't like Holy Week.  The festival joy of the Palm Sunday parade turns to betrayal, desertion, and denial of Jesus' closest friends on Maundy Thursday.  Then, of course, the shadow of the cross on Friday.  We don't deal well with death in our world, especially when there is so much to do to get ready for Easter Sunday: eggs to color and hide, hams to prepare, and family coming.  Do we really need to face the reality of brokenness at that point?

Part of the problem that I notice in my own life is how much I compartmentalize everything.  It is either a joyful time or a sorrowful time.  It is either all good or all bad.  I may talk about the messy middle, but when the messy middle is a whirlwind of emotions and I can't get my barrings straight, I don't like it.

That is what holy week does to us.  It makes our souls and heads spin.  And let's face it, most of life at work and in the world already does that.  Do we really need the church to join in that cacophony?

Isaiah says "YES".  Partly because the response of God will be different than the response of the world.  Partly because the mixture of joy and pain are a part of life.  There can be laughter even at the bedside of someone who is dying.  There can be hope even when you lose your job.  There can be peace even when life is turned upside down.  But it does not always come in the expected ways.

Here the people of God are ready to go back to Jerusalem, and Isaiah talks about suffering.  Perhaps that is because the road back will not be where every mountain is make low and the rough places plain.  Or perhaps it is because the city of Jerusalem is still in rumble.  Perhaps it is to remember that even as people are packing up their belongings and getting ready to return, they remember the suffering they endured in exile and the reality that some of their friends had died in Babylon.  Those are powerful truths for Isaiah and for us.

I think there can be traces of God's grace noticing the messy middle of our lives.  We need to be aware of the ways joy and pain get intertwined and tangled up.  We need to remember that hope and despair can be two sides of the same coin.  If that is the case, then even with the gloom of Holy Friday we can still trust in the One who turns our mourning into dancing.

May the traces of God's grace be felt in moments of joy and suffering and everything in-between.

Blessings!