The Gift, The Cost, The Glory

9/4/2019

A Reflection on the First Reading for April 14th, 2019:
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

Isaiah 50.4-7

The servant of the Lord said: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

“The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.

“I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.

“The Lord God helps me; 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.”

There’s poetry in the bare words of this prophesy. Pull out a few phrases from each section and group them together…

tongue of a teacher
weary with a word
ear to listen

not turn backward
gave my back
not hide my face

not been disgraced
my face like flint
shall not be put to shame

Here we can see in these stanzas…

the gift
the cost
the glory

Now add back in the key part, that starts each section, that brings meaning to it all…

The Lord God… The Lord God… The Lord God.

Three times for the Three-in-One. And what He has done…

Has given
Has opened
Helps

The Father has given the Son a way of teaching His heart that pulls people toward Him. Crowds gather wherever the Son goes as He opens His mouth and out spill words that bring life. The Son hears his Father’s heart and unfolds it before humanity.

"The Father has given the Son a way of teaching His heart that pulls people toward Him."

As the Son opens His ears to His Father, the Son opens His arms to us. Opens His back. Opens His brow. Opens His side. He is completely opened for us all. For me. For you. No hiding. Suffering borne, Love bared, for all to see.

And the Spirit helps. As always. Paraclete. Alongside One. The Spirit who raises the Son to life, and brings us alongside for the ride. No disgrace for the One who carried a cross as if a criminal. No disgrace for the ones He carries with Him into the Presence, the Glory of God. And no shame. He shattered shame. Your shame. My shame. I brought it to Him, and He took it from my hands and broke it into oblivion.

Now what am I supposed to do?

The same thing… for someone else. With the help of the Spirit, open myself like the Son, and unfold the Father’s heart with the words of life they need to hear — in order to live, to have shame shattered. All the people I know, all the people I meet, all the people I pass by, all the people I love, all the people who frustrate me, all the people I ignore, all the people He brings to me — He is calling for me to, as the Wailin’ Jennys sing, “Bring ’em All In to his heart.”

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Father, please give me the gift, and the courage for the cost, and the help, to bring them all into Your heart.

Noreen Smith

2 Comments

Suzanne LeBlanc

9/4/2019 08:55:43 am

You've done a beautiful job here, Noreen.

Noreen

9/4/2019 10:28:15 pm

Thanks Suzanne:)
There’s something startlingly beautiful in these glimpses Isaiah was given of what Jesus would walk in and into. The 4 passages we call the Servant Songs. (Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-9, and 52:13-53:12). God bless you with his beauty this week.