Suffering Servant

Ps 22:1-8

 

1. Human history is neither a series of meaningless accidents nor a simple product of endless human struggles. It is in the hand of God. The providence of God is far above our human ability and limited imagination. It includes all the nations and all the ages of human history but the one will of God dominates its ongoing development in spite of any resistance against Him. If human history is simply a collective record of innumerable accidental events without any consistent principle or leading cause, it will be meaningless and chaotic. Then we will be also meaningless and vain. But, praise the Lord, God is there and human history is in His hand.

2. Concerning the Messiah who will save humanity from the spiritual bondage of sin and evil spirit, God provided a series of prophesies and prepared His people to welcome Him. Jesus said to his disciples that “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”(Lk 24:44) In the first Sunday of Advent, I preached on the proto-Gospel in Genesis 3:15 where God Himself prophesized that the Messiah will be born as woman’s offspring and crush the power of the evil spirit. However, it was quite broad. Now, God was narrowing it down. In Genesis 12, God said that the Messiah will be born as a descendent of Abraham, Jewish people. In Genesis 49, God narrowed down to a descendent of Judah, one of twelve tribes of Israel. Again in Psalm 132 and Jeremiah 23 and 33, God even more narrowed down to a descendent of David, one of Judah’s families. Even in the family of David, the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem and work in Galilee. (Micah 5:2, Isaiah 9:1-7) The four Gospels clearly explain in greater details that the coming and living of the Messiah is all the fulfillment of prophecies given in the Old Testament era.

3. To David, God gave many messianic prophecies. Even though he was the greatest king in the history of Israel, David was also a man of God and a poetic prophet. Sometimes, a prophet gives a prophecy that he does not really understand its fulfillment. Psalm 22 is a poem of David to describe his own suffering but it mysteriously implied the suffering of the Messiah. It is explained by later prophets, especially in Isaiah 53, and it was confirmed by Jesus Christ Himself. Psalm 22 contains several prophecies on the Messiah as the Suffering Servant. V.1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” or “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” It was exactly what Jesus cried on the Cross. Vv. 6-8: “I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:  ‘He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’” It was what exactly Jesus felt when he was mocked, scorned, and despised, and what people treated and talked him. Vv. 14-15: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.” It was what exactly described the last moments of Jesus’ crucifixion. V. 18: “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” It was what Roman soldiers exactly did with the clothes of Jesus. In addition, Biblical scholars count 11 messianic prophecies here only in Psalm 22.

4. The messianic prophecies of David here in Psalm 22 show a very different kind of the Messiah that popular imagination or expectation. The Savior of the world must be very strong and powerful enough to subjugate any man or any power. Yes, Jesus Christ was very strong and powerful but in a very different way. The Messiah will be Suffering Servant. He will save this world and sinful humanity not by secular powers as Satan suggested in his three temptations such as material, miraculous, or political powers, but by suffering powerlessly. How foolish and powerless from the world’s point of view! But the way of salvation achieved and offered by the Messiah was the way of suffering and cross, not the way of worldly glory and power. This is one of the most important and crucial messages to hear in the season of Advent when we wait for the Messiah. What kind of Savior do you wait for?

5. Since the Fall, the human race has corrupted and enslaved by sin and evil spirit. It was clearly seen in the human way of living. We train ourselves and our children to be strong and powerful whatever it is. In the ancient, a good fighter survived and gained glory. If he was a good warrior to win anybody, he was able to have anything. After some powerful organizations arose, people found a good way for security and glory by occupying a powerful position in the powerful organization. To compete and win such a position, children was trained to have techniques, skills, knowledge, or whatever the standard of selection is. After such authoritarian organizations lost the absolute power, people are searching new powerful organizations or new kind of controlling powers such as money, popularity, or attraction. However, the search for power and glory was Satan’s hook to enslave humans. For it strengthened human pride and deepened human despair. The powerful sinfully enjoys egoistic life, while the powerless sinfully hates failed life. The only standard of success or failure in life was power whatever form it is. Even some Christians come to God to get more power for themselves.

6. The coming of the Messiah as Suffering Servant is the condemnation of such sinful and egoistic search for power and glory. And he proclaimed a strange blessing in the Beatitudes and identified himself with the powerless. To be his disciples is to give up and turn around from those sinful search for egoistic power and glory and to be friends with the weak and powerless and seek for cross and suffering. Yes, we Christians need good position, good technique and knowledge, good health and strength, and good money and property. But we have those not for ourselves but for the weak and powerless. If you have a good amount of money, it is a blessing when you use it to serve the poor, but it is a curse when you use it only for yourselves. If you have a good social position or excellent technique, it is a blessing when you use it to serve more people better, but it is a curse when you use it to heighten your self-pride and despise the powerless. Whatever we have, more or less, use it for others as a humble Christian. Then, you will be a good disciple of Jesus the Suffering Servant and your life will be judged as successful in the Final Judgment.

7. In this season of Advent, let us prepare ourselves to be a humble servant of the Suffering Servant, with giving up our search for selfish powers, dedicating ourselves that all the powers of the present and future will be used for the powerless, identifying ourselves with the weak rather than with the strong and powerful, and self-proclaiming that we will follow the way of the cross and sacrifice!