Here Is My Servant

This passage from Isaiah is the first of what are called the “servant songs” or “Servant poems,” about a servant of God who would bring justice to and peace among the nations without violence. These prophetic songs were written during the Babylonian exile. Scholars don’t agree on who the prophet meant when he wrote about this servant. Did he mean all of Israel, the people of God? Did he mean he would call an anointed leader to come and lead God’s people out of exile? Did he mean the one who would be born in Bethlehem 500 years later, whose birth would be heralded by angels, who would be adored by shepherds and wise men, but whose childhood was largely unremarkable? Who came to his cousin, John, who was preaching and teaching in the wilderness, who was calling people to repent and then baptizing them in the Jordan River as a sign of their cleansing, and when, after he insisted, he was baptized by John, the sky opened up, and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove flies, and God named his servant, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased.”

Here is my servant, in whom I delight. The Common English Bible translates the way that he brings justice by saying, “He won’t cry out or should aloud or make his voice heard in public. He won’t break a bruised reed; he won’t extinguish a faint wick…He won’t be extinguished or broken” either. Certainly these words describe Jesus.

Walter Bruggemann comments on how extraordinary it is that the prophet wrote these words in the midst of the despair of exile. He writes, “Although the designation ‘servant’ is traditional, it is anything but ‘natural’ in the midst of exilic despair. It is a remarkable theme in exile that Israel is freshly reminded of its relation to Yahweh and its consequent role with duties to perform and obligations to fulfill. In exile, Israel tended to be more self-preoccupied and self-absorbed with its own destiny. In this utterance, however, Yahweh changes the subject and summons grieving Israel out beyond its own self-preoccupation to other work.”

“I the Lord,” says the prophet, “have called you for a good reason. I will grasp your hand and guard you, and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to free prisoners from prison, and to release from the dungeon all those who sit in darkness.”

This is not a description of what God wants Israel to do while they are in exile, or a calling that God will place on an anointed leader he will raise up, this description is of every servant of God. When Jesus was baptized, God pronounced that he was well-pleased because Jesus embodied this description, he lived it, he faultlessly fit this description. But Jesus is not God’s only servant. This description is of every servant of God in every time and place. Dr. Paul Hansen, professor of Old Testament at Harvard Divinity School, says that this description is the “reason d’etre [the very reason for being] of those accepting the sovereignty of the one true God….the Servant thus is the description of the human being whom all who love God are challenged to become” – people who don’t raise their voices, who walk past a broken stem and aren’t tempted to snap it off, who don’t get discouraged even when it seems like justice will never be the way of the world.

That’s hard, though. I don’t know about you, but I look around at the world and the wars and international politics and the climate changing and I look at pictures of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and sometimes I feel like we are stranded on a sinking ship, or like our aircraft has gone down in the arctic. How do we not just use what power we have to force things to go our way? How do we not put ourselves first and worry about everyone else later?

About thirty years ago, about 60 miles off the coast of Port Elizabeth, a city on the southern coast of South Africa, a couple was out on their yacht and got in trouble. A storm had unexpectedly brewed and capsized their small vessel. It had righted itself, but the mast was broken and the sails and rigging were dangling in the water. Their lives at risk, they issued a distress call.

A ham radio operator picked up their signal, and rescuers started looking for them. A South African Air Force Shackelton fixed wing, an old aircraft, located the yacht and the grateful couple waved and shouted. They were so relieved to see the plane circling above them, but then it turned and headed back toward the shore.

Can you imagine their disappointment? How helpless they felt. The Israelites must have been despondent in exile. How would they ever be saved? And this is the word of the prophet to them and to us, “It is the Lord, the Creator, the one who stretches out the heavens and spreads out the earth, who gives you breath and life.” Remember “breath” in Hebrew is “ruah” – the same word for “wind” and “spirit.” The Spirit of the Lord is breathed into us, sent by God to work in individuals so that they may be empowered to do the work God would have them do. God breathes into God’s servants, inspiring us to do God’s work in the world.

I am reminded of words of hope spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr., “The arc of the universe is long, and it bends toward justice.” The old Shackelton aircraft returned to shore and a ship was diverted to pick up the couple from their crippled vessel. They were not abandoned. Their efforts were not for nothing. They were saved. This is the promise to all of God’s servants, “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand.”

Hear again the message from God spoken by the prophet Isaiah directly to you:
This is God’s word to God’s servant – to you and you, and you, and me:
You are my servant, I am the one who gives you strength.
I put my Spirit in you and you will bring justice to the nations.
You will not shout or cry out or raise your voice in the streets.
You will not snap off a branch of growth that has been bent and is bruised or blow out what is smoldering, trying to keep the fire going.
In faithfulness, you will bring forth justice. You will not waver or be discouraged until God establishes justice on earth. In God’s law, even islands, isolated and disconnected, will put their hope.
This is what God the Lord says – the Creator, who stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth – and who formed all the life that comes out of it, who gives breath, through his Spirit, and thus life.
I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, I will take hold of your hand.
I will be your protection and form you into a covenant people to be a light to those who are “other,” to open the eyes of those who don’t see my ways, to free captives from their prisons and to release from their dungeons those who sit in darkness.
You are my servant.

The time may be long, the concerns may be heavy to bear, but may you and I, holding God’s hand, remembering every breath of life is God’s Spirit breathing into us, courageously be God’s servants in the world bending its ways toward God’s ways. Amen.