There are many unbelievable things in this world: the depth of human cruelty, the chaos of suffering and human activity, the perplexing motions and apparent absence of God in the midst of all things. Sometimes I wonder at the thickness of evil, the ways in which it twists and perverts the world. I often find it all to be bewildering. Unbelievable, almost, if not for the inflicted pain that keeps us all too aware that such things are real.
But that is not what I find most incredulous.
No, the most scandalous fact of all is that God is a suffering servant. Think about it. What kind of God suffers? Serves? Yields himself to vulnerability and pain, the capriciousness of human affection? What sort of deity is this that embraces humility as a core identity?
Henri Nouwen, in reflections on compassion, writes: "In servanthood God does not become disfigured, God does not take on something alien, God does not act against or in spite of God's divine self. On the contrary, it is in this servanthood that God is revealed to us."
It is precisely because God is God that he can become a suffering servant, for only God can be so self-sufficient and therefore self-less as to take on true humility.
In the words of Paul:
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
Does that seem right to you? How can such a thing be? It is a mystery to me. It is the most unbelievable thing. It breaks my mind, over and over again.
What do you think of God as the suffering servant? Does this idea resonate with you? Can you believe it?
True
Comments (3)
Jesus is so compelling, so believable. In His example we see how to live; instead of seeking power and all that our fallen nature "wants," we follow in obedience, become strong in our meekness, become more who we are by giving up on serving our wims/desires... It is upside down from what our nature wants, from what the world says.
He loved us first, so out of love we accept suffering, and somehow it all makes sense; suffering nolonger is a thing to be avoided at all costs.
Even when the risen Jesus returns, He has the scars from the cross -- the marks and the memory of the suffering do not hurt Jesus. Of note: in Revelation, the Beast gets scars, but they are later healed or removed -- by this the Beast is rejecting suffering, does not want to look bad... is not one of us, as Jesus is. Jesus suffered, now He has all the Glory; the least we could do is follow (which means suffering, at times.)
@monobeam@xanga - Amen!
@monobeam@xanga Alleluia!! Amen!!!! :D