Suffering Servant

Today’s Prayer for Ukraine

Father, we thank You for our brothers and sisters in the Ukrainian church who are standing in prayer, seeking You in the midst of this crisis and serving others in need around them. Please fill them with the Holy Spirit and strengthen their faith in You as they worship and proclaim the truth of Your Word. In Christ’s name. Amen.

When facing or trying to understand suffering, it is sometimes right to change our position in order to view things from a different perspective. Even in shifting our position in order to see the nature of something can be fraught with difficulty. For example Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that “There are no facts, only interpretations.” Or take  Bertrand Russell who advised that “In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” 

Take the long held view of a conquering Messiah who would come to free the children of Israel held by so many at the time of Jesus earthy ministry. Then contrast this with Christ’s own words, in Luke 18:31-34 “And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.  For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”  But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.’

A change of view point where the victory of the Messiah was seen in one who suffered for all of humanity.  Our change of viewpoint then is a reevaluation of what it means to suffer. Stanley Hauerwas an American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual and longtime professor at Duke University Divinity School, challenges us with the words, “To see the value of suffering we only have to ask what we would think of anyone who did not have the capacity to suffer (including God). Such a person could not bear grief or misfortune, and thus would in effect give up the capacity to be human (or divine).”

Then we read, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

God of consolation, you have transformed the shame of the cross into a sign of victory. Grant that we may be united around the Cross of your Son to worship him for the mercy offered through his suffering. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes and our hearts, so that we may help those who suffer to experience your closeness; You who live and reign forever and ever. Amen