Wednesday of Holy Week
Suffering comes in so many forms. Even our Lenten disciplines may seem like suffering at times. This suffering comes from sacrifices like fasting, which can transform our need for food into a need for prayer. We can learn from suffering if we are open to it. A patient who had battled cancer for a long sometimes decided that because the cancer was spreading not shrinking that it was no longer worth fighting. There is a peace that can come over patients like this, when they accept the Lord’s will and put their lives in the Lord’s hands. It is as if they can glimpse the road ahead. Their grace-filled faith allows these patient’s, and indeed all of us to trust that the Lord is holding us close. It allows us to give thanks and praise to God.
Giving praise to God is not easy when the suffering is great. Isaiah’s song of the suffering servant foreshadows the suffering servant we know as Jesus. For Isaiah, this servant will be ignored, mistreated and covered with spittle. This maliciousness is echoed in the psalm. Despite these sufferings, God’s servant will not be put to shame. And yet it seems as if that is exactly what is happening.
The silver lining in the Gospel seems hidden as well. Today’s gospel glances towards Holy Thursday with the focus on the betrayal of Jesus. Today’s readings echo one of the major paradoxes of Christian theology, and the main point of Holy Week. The Lord’s Passion ends in death, yet this death is not the end of the story. Jesus will rise and break the bonds of death. There is no shame in the servant’s suffering as its purpose will ultimately glorify God.
This victory models for us that our journey, our suffering is not without purpose. Some befalls us because of our own missteps or sinful choices. Much of suffering God allows, but occurs through the bad choices of others or the circumstance of our environment or our genetics. No matter the source of our suffering, we are called to journey with Jesus and unite our suffering with His. Then Christ’s peace can be upon us.
Lord, in our suffering we too have died and been set free. As we reflect upon our own suffering and betrayals today, help us to see in them, not incidents of shame, but opportunities for redemption!
-Michael Montgomery