Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

Lectionary: 40

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.

Today's first reading from the Prophet Isaiah is the last and most important of his "servant psalms." Since the nineteenth century Protestant, Catholic and Jewish scholars have discussed who the original author meant by these verses, and what the original Jewish hearers thought of these prophecies. I am not familiar with their conversation; but I can say with assurance, Christians from the Four Evangelists to this day believe the words were fulfilled by the life and death of Jesus the Messiah. 

In today's reading, the "servant" is described as a pariah, one who is despised. Social scientists of our day recognize that every society blames their sins, failures and shame upon some person, group or minority. Typically, they "love the sin and hate the sinner." 

Just as the "black sheep" of a dysfunctional family is punished for the foolishness of their siblings and parents, while the "hero," the "loner" and the "clown" escape, so do pariah peoples suffer the abuse of their fellow citizens. 

In the United States we have seen pariah groups rebel against discrimination and segregation, and sometimes successfully. Arriving immigrants have often scrambled out of that lowest place. Poles, Irish and Italians escaped during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; GLBTQs fight for recognition today; leaving African Americans, Native Americans and single women where they have always been, in the lowest place. 

Meanwhile, the powerful are never inclined to own their own guilt, shame or grief when they can shift it to someone else. They learn that skill as children and never stop using it. Because they are "successful" they are more often admired than blamed, even for shameful public behavior. 

Ordinarily their being Catholic or Christian makes little difference to the dysfunctional family or segregated society. They simply use their religious symbols and language to blame someone else. In the classic triangle drama they can choose to be punishing judges like "God," heroic rescuers like "Jesus," or pathetic victims like the "Crucified." 

White racists, for instance, like to see themselves as victims of encroaching aliens, or punishing restorers of justice, and even -- occasionally -- rescuers of the downtrodden so long as it entails no actual sacrifice. 

In any case the act of blaming the pariah always and inevitably fails to restore justice and right. The dysfunctional family, discovering their black sheep has disappeared or died, disintegrates and scatters; or selects another sibling. Because they are so vicious it's not hard to find one of their own suffering from alcoholism or drug abuse. Even obesity or depression is blameworthy. They cannot, dare not, challenge their core beliefs about themselves. The segregated society also violently defends its traditions and culture with lynchings and pogroms.

This fixing of blame upon the pariah is as old as human history, as real and intractable  as Original Sin. It doesn't stop when one or another group successfully escapes that trap. It won't stop when enough people have been educated by a "liberal" society to think differently. It's far deeper than ideas (ideology) can fathom or eradicate. 

Oddly, Isaiah describes his mysterious servant as a pariah but prophecies, "by his stripes we were healed." He must be pointing to a very deep mystery because we have several millennia of human history to prove him wrong. After an extended reflection on the misery of the servant, Isaiah prophecies, 

If he gives his life as an offering for sin,he shall see his descendants in a long life,and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

and

through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,and their guilt he shall bear. 

Clearly, this man is like none other. We have executed in barbaric fashion millions of people and have found respite from our evil as a result of none of those killings. If the death of this man has a different result, he must be no ordinary man. He must be like nothing philosophy can imagine or history can fabricate.  He must be, as Nathaniel said, the Son of God!

Millions of Christians around the world will hear Isaiah's prophecy again and ponder this mystery. We pray that his words might be true. We pray that we who are anointed as The Christ is anointed, might be willing to take up our guilt, shame and grief and walk in the very footsteps of Jesus. Only he can reverse the trajectory of human violence; but the faithful may participate.