March 16 Passion Sunday

Isaiah 50:4-9

We are in the midst of a fight between life and death. Everyday we face decisions that point us towards life or death. Whether you like it or not, the forces of death are attacking our life, trying to blot out the light. You choose to fight the forces of darkness, the riptide of death, or you give up and let the forces of death pull you under.
This past Sunday is known as “Passion Sunday”. It’s the beginning of holy week, when we remember the greatest warrior for life, for light, fought his greatest battle—against the religious authorities he challenged, rejected by those he came to save, ground up by an human system interested only in power and control.
But Jesus said that all of this had been predicted long before, hundreds of years before. In fact he explained from the Hebrew scripture where the prophets spoke of him and this week of rejection, death, and victory.
The prophet Isaiah received his message from the Sovereign Lord. Literally, “Adonai Yahweh”. The prophet heard from the Lord of Heaven and Earth, direct communication. His book is a record of what he heard. We are still reading these words, this record of God’s speaking to a mortal. Isaiah heard the word of truth.
How did the listeners receive this precious revelation?
For the weak—these words were like food, medicine, a tonic strengthening their weary souls, worn out bodies. Enlivening their minds dulled by suffering. This prophet was speaking to the Israelites when they were in exile in Babylon. They were weary, disheartened, they desperately needed a word that would sustain them.
For others it was another story. Isaiah, the bringer of God’s word, was beaten, humiliated, mocked. His beard was plucked out. In the middle east the beard was a sign of dignity for a man. Pulling out the beard was turning you back into a boy. Yet the prophet didn’t shrink back from this humiliation.
Why? Because the sovereign Lord helped him. The prophet sets his face like flint.
The sovereign Lord is near to vindicate the speaker of truth. After all, the one who gives the counsel is the same one who delivers the messenger. Isaiah imagines a courtroom. He challenges his accusers to confront him publically, knowing that the judge of all judges will support him, will strengthen him, will sustain him. While his accusers, those beating his back, tearing out his beard, mocking him and spitting, they will be like cloth. They might look good, but time will show how flimsy they are. They will be worn out and eaten by moths, rotting away, eaten by bugs.
Jesus referred to these verses when he warned his disciples of his rejection by the religious leaders. How he would be mocked and spat upon, his beard pulled out, then crucified. Luke 18:31-33.

We who follow Jesus, the man who fulfilled the words of Isaiah, we are invited to follow the same model. The sovereign Lord wishes to speak to us—to waken us day by day to instruct us to know the word that sustains the weary.
Do we give him the time? Make room for him to speak to us? God wishes us to deliver his word to a world weary with sin and the ways of death. To speak a word of life that will overturn the death around us. But be warned, we are in a battle. The forces of death will not go done easy. They will fight us tooth and nail. Those forces of death in the structures of business, of government—inequality in opportunity because of race, ethnic origin, color of your skin, whether you are considered beautiful or not. Those forces of death are in your family, roots of bitterness because of past hurts that have not been forgiven. Those forces of death are in your heart, a heart still half in love with the ways of death, times when you want to give up, and sink back into the welcoming arms of death, of sleep, of peace.
Where are you battling the forces of death? Don’t back down. Remember that the sovereign Lord that sustained Jesus when his back was beaten, when his beard was plucked out, when he was nailed to a cross. The sovereign Lord did not abandon him, even though that’s exactly how it felt.
Remember that you are not alone in your battle. Come to worship to be with other believers fighting the same fight. Come for help, ask for prayer. Ask the sovereign Lord to draw near, to sustain you, to overcome your accusers, to give you victory over death. He who called you is faithful. Remember that the cross leads to resurrection, life forevermore. This is only the beginning.
Grace and peace,
James