His Face Set Like Flint a sermo

His Face Set Like Flint

a sermon on Isaiah 50.4-9a by David C. Mauldin Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

When I read this passage, I imagine it as the opening sequence of a movie. I hear the voice of Jesus reading the words. As he does, events from Holy Week flash on the screen. “The Lord has given me the tongue of a teacher.” Flash: We see Jesus teaching in the Temple, as he did throughout that fateful week. “That I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” Flash: We see Simon Peter, refusing the have his feet washed at the last supper, sleeping in Gethsemane, denying Jesus. “I gave my back to those who struck me.” Flash: Roman soldiers beating Jesus, mocking him. “I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.” Flash: Jesus in a purple robe. Soldiers are bowing down to him, hitting his head with a reed, and spitting on him. “I have set my face like flint.” Flash: Jesus riding on a donkey. Jubilant crowds welcome him to Jerusalem with shouts and praises. He just looks ahead. His face is set like flint as he rides along, nearly oblivious to their cheers. His eyes are fixed on what will happen soon. The crowds do not know, but Jesus knows, a cross awaits him. He knows, but he sets his face like flint. He knows, and he chooses his fate. It is his destiny, his vocation. It is God’s will. This is why he came into the world. He is the suffering servant, and somehow, by his bruises, we are healed.

You can also imagine it the other way—not with the events of Holy Week flashing into this passage from Isaiah, but with the passage running through Jesus’ mind as he rides into the city. Clip-clop go the feet of the donkey. “I have set my face like flint.” Clip-clop. “And I know that I shall not be put to shame.” Clip-clop. “He who vindicates me is near.”

The Book of Isaiah introduces a mysterious figure into the imagination of God’s people: the suffering servant. There are four servant songs in Isaiah. For your convenience, I have listed these in the bulletin and suggested that you read one each day of this week, then come to our Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services. Plus Easter next Sunday. Don’t forget that. Be careful to honor God by at least considering all that happened to Jesus during the last week of his ministry. Do not go straight from “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday to “Alleluia” on Easter, bypassing the cross. If you do, you get a false gospel. Jesus had to die, just as his followers have to suffer. The Father did not offer an easier way to Jesus, and he does not offer one to us. We who follow Jesus must suffer with and for him; otherwise we do not follow him. Read those passages this week.

Who is this suffering servant? What does he do? What is he about? The first servant song in Isaiah 42 speaks of the gentleness of the servant. His mission is to establish justice in the earth. The second servant song in Isaiah 49 identifies the servant as Israel. Then it goes on to talk about what the servant will do for Israel. Somehow the servant represents Israel; he stands in the place of Israel. It is not enough, though, to restore God’s people after the exile. The servant will be a light to the nations. Our reading this morning is the third servant song. Here the servant is humble and teachable—submitted to God’s will. What he learns is not information but to accept the experience of shame and suffering. The fourth song spans parts of chapters 52 and 53. There the death of the servant is explicitly foretold. Executed through a miscarriage of justice, he was silent before his accusers. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich. And yet … most mysterious of all … his suffering was for us. “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” [Isa 53.5].

Two things about this mysterious servant are surprising. One is: The servant suffers and dies. This was a new concept for God’s people—for any people. God’s servants are supposed to conquer their enemies. They are winners. They may be weak, cowardly, and unwilling—think of Moses and Gideon—but God gives them victory anyway. The Messiah was supposed to be like King David. No one conquered God’s enemies like old King David, whether it was Goliath or the Philistines. Then suddenly these servant songs come along. The servant is gentle and humble. That’s fine. He gets beaten and humiliated. That’s OK too as long as he wins in the end; but what is this nonsense about giving his back to those who struck him and not hiding his face from spitting? Why would he do that? Then scripture says he will die. That doesn’t sound right. In fact, it was so counterintuitive that nearly ever Jew in Jesus’ day—including his disciples—expected him to take up a sword and establish a new government in Judea. No one but Jesus expected the cross. And no one but Jesus, until he was raised, recognized the cross as his victory. The servant heals both Israel and the world how? By his stripes. “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.” The servant bears the punishment of Israel’s sin—and the world’s.

The other surprising thing about the servant is how accurately the servant songs describe Jesus. Some skeptics say this is because the New Testament writers had the servant songs in mind when they wrote about Jesus and tailored their accounts to highlight similarities. Even if we were to grant some validity to that argument, I would still want to know what prompted those first Christians to connect the dotted line between the servant and Jesus. Why pick up on it in the first place? I think it was because when they read Isaiah in light of what happened to Jesus the dots didn’t need much connecting. I do not think the skeptics are right if they think parts of the passion were invented later to match the servant songs. I have a much simpler and far more exciting explanation for why Jesus fits the role of the suffering servant so perfectly. Namely, he meant to.

Jesus was an Isaiah guy. When he preached his first sermon in Nazareth, what book did he open? Isaiah. And what was the topic of his sermon? Who he was and what he had come to do. Jesus knew the Book of Isaiah well. It told him who he was and what he had to do. When you look at his teachings and the parables he told and the things he did, you can see his playbook came from Isaiah—among other sources—and yet he ran the plays in ways no one had thought of before.

I get nervous whenever anyone claims to know what Jesus was thinking or feeling. It is difficult to understand any human being, much less the human being who is also God incarnate. Yet it is obvious Jesus found his own vocation in the Book of Isaiah. I believe he went to Jerusalem in order to live out the suffering servant songs. He read those passages and knew himself to be the servant. He went to do the servant’s work.

This explains a lot. Why did Jesus go to Jerusalem? Why did he not make a grab for power? Why did he let himself be taken? Why did he not defend himself at his trials? Why did he choose the cross? The answer to all these is that he believed he had to die on behalf of Israel and the world. The two main themes in the servant songs are the servant’s suffering on behalf of others, bearing their punishment and making them whole, and God’s vindication of his servant. Jesus suffered in obedience to his Father in heaven. At the same time, he knew his Father would vindicate him. “The Lord God helps me,” the servant says, “therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near.”

As you read the servant songs this week, and as you remember Jesus’ sufferings, always keep this in mind: What happened to Jesus was neither bad luck nor poor planning. He went to the cross on purpose. And he did it for you. Ever since the first Easter morning, Christians have recognized Jesus in the suffering servant songs. Equally important, however, they have recognized themselves in those songs. “He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole.” You do not understand Palm Sunday, Holy Week, the cross, or the resurrection until you know Jesus as the servant and yourself in the pronouns.

Knowing it was for you is what makes the tragic events of this coming week so beautiful. Every indignity Jesus endures is an expression of his love for you. Look at the cross and see how much you are loved! Consider what he was willing to suffer for your sake. Once you take these two steps of understanding—once God puts the truth into your grasp—your life is changed. The first step is knowing Jesus is the servant and that he intentionally suffered as God’s servant. The second step is knowing he did it for you.

Once you know these things are true, new possibilities unfold. The first is faith. You hear and you believe. Faith is so obviously important. Abraham believed God—he had faith in God’s promises—and God counted him righteous because of it. Jesus healed people then told them their faith had made them well. Paul wrote that we are saved by grace through faith. Faith means both believing the Good News and trusting God to keep his promises.

A second exciting new possibility is repentance. Jesus constantly told people to repent because God’s kingdom is coming. What did he mean? Simply to change direction. If your way of living is pointed away from God—toward yourself or something else—change it. Point it toward God. As you read the servant songs and remember what happened to Jesus, you may get an idea of the enormity of your own need. If this God’s solution to your problem, how bad is the problem? Fortunately, by the time you realize how bad it is, the solution is already available.

If you find yourself experiencing these things for the first time, then you are being reborn as a child of God. If you were baptized as a child, then these new experiences are a flowering of the seed that was planted at your baptism. If you have never been baptized, then you ought to be, to symbolize your new birth and to share the joy that accompanies it with the world.

Most of you will not be experiencing these things for the first time this week because you have already experienced them. That is wonderful. But remember, God’s mercies are new every morning.

A third exciting possibility for new life opens for all who recognize Jesus as the servant and themselves as the beneficiaries of his suffering—whether they are new Christians or old, beginners in the faith or mature leaders. This possibility is love for God. You cannot experience the overwhelming love and mercy of God without loving him back.

Once Jesus was questioned about a woman who poured costly ointment on his feet. She wept as she did so, bathing his feet with perfume and tears. Then she dried them with her hair. His host thought the display distasteful, but Jesus explained, “her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love” [Lk 7.47].

Loving God frees you to leave behind your old life and your unholy desires, so that you can claim the new and better life God offers you. Jesus gave his life for you. Will you not honor your marriage vows for him? Or teach your children the faith? Or serve others in his name? Or show compassion—for example by helping with our Interfaith Hospitality ministry? Will you not answer his call to holy living and to ministry?

By putting the question that way I do not intend to suggest a parallel between Jesus’ suffering and the new life. It is not the case the Jesus suffered on the cross so now you have to suffer by being good and going to church. You do have to be good and go to church, but those things are not suffering. The new life is a life of joy. Jesus changes you. You will see. A faithful Christian life is a life of joy and peace. Nevertheless, I also do not want to suggest there is no suffering. There is. But the suffering is not resisting fun sins and doing holy chores. That way of thinking is upside down. The suffering comes when God’s love meets the world and the world rejects it. You see what the world did to Jesus. If you are faithful to him it will do that to you too—one way or another.

Once again, I point you to the servant songs for hope. Might these passages and the things Jesus suffered suggest an unexpected way to fight evil? Fighting evil with evil doesn’t work. Evil just wins. Only love conquers evil. Jesus knew he couldn’t take up a sword to establish God’s kingdom. Only God can make his kingdom come, but he builds it on the patient endurance of his faithful people. Only one thing can give you the strength to follow Jesus when faithfulness costs suffering. It is the same thing that gave him courage to set his face like flint toward the cross: love.

When you love God, you will live for him no matter what—through good times and bad, whether serving him is pleasant or painful. And you will know, as Jesus knew, that he who vindicates you is near. You are ready to follow Jesus to the cross, because you know he will lead you out the other side of death on Easter morning. Amen.

rev_mauldin@yahoo.com
Palm Sunday
April 1, 2007

back to sermons