Startled!

Good Friday of Holy Week, April 10, 2020

See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly exalted.  But many were amazed when they saw him.  His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.  And he will startle many nations.  Kings will stand speechless in his presence.  For they will see what they had not been told; they will understand what they had not heard about.  Isaiah 52:13-15

To say that Peter was startled when Jesus began to wash his feet is to muddle around in the understated.  Peter was mortified that the Holy One could even bear to have him around, much less treat him so well as to kneel in front of him like some faceless servant.  But that’s the nature of the greatest of all; he is willing to become the least of all to lift up the most lost of all.

Isaiah’s prophecy pointed to the startling, amazing, mouth-dropping reaction we have at seeing a humbled God…a crucified God.  And it worries us greatly, because, if he’s like that, and we are his disciples, the specter of becoming like that is in our future.

It’s in our DNA, this understanding of God’s image in us; we hardly think about it with the front-burner of our minds, but, deep inside we want to be exalted, lifted-up, and the center of attention – if you doubt that, just watch a two-year-old for a while.  But, at the same time, because of God’s image/stamp on our souls, we know our sin disqualifies this self-worship and separates us from even being near the throne, much less on it!  Like Peter, we’re startled, even repulsed by the thought of it.

This is what troubled young Francis of Assisi as he struggled with the pathway of his own conversion to Christ.  According to one story of his journey, early in the process of committing his life to God’s way, Francis was riding a horse down a road that passed a leper colony.  Lepers were the dirty side of life, emaciated, gray, and despised.  The horse saw the leper in the middle of the road and was startled.  When Francis got the beast under control, he saw the bedraggled, nearly former human standing in front of him.  After a long, frightening, paralyzing moment he dismounted, went to the man (who was motionless, expressionless, nearly lifeless, except for the automatic, unthinking breathing of lungs and beating of what was left of his heart). 

Doing the unthinkable, Francis took the leper’s hand.  It was a poor emaciated hand, bloodstained and cold like that of a corpse.  Francis pressed the hand and brought it to his lips.  As he kissed the lacerated flesh of the creature, who was the most abject, the most hated, the most scorned of all human beings, he was flooded with a wave of emotion that shut out everything around him….it taught him that following Christ may require doing some things that repulse us.  What Francis didn’t know then was that something greater was prompting him, allowing him to do that which, humanly speaking, he was incapable of doing.[1]

Perhaps the greatest lesson Francis learned in this moment was what Jesus did for Francis; when Jesus died for Francis on Calvary, he was kissing the sin-lepers of all eternity. 

And that kiss makes us whole.

For You Today

There’s no shortage of lepers in this world.  When’s the last time you kissed one? 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Isaiah 52 and Good Friday see This Holy Week – Part 5

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[1] Taken from Arnoldo Fortini, Francis of Assisi, Crossroad Publishing. The Pastor’s Workshop

This Holy Week - Part 5

[1]

Good Friday of Holy Week, March 30, 2018

See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly exalted. 

But many were amazed when they saw him.
    His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human,
    and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
And he will startle many nations.  Kings will stand speechless in his presence.
For they will see what they had not been told;
    they will understand what they had not heard about.

Who has believed our message?  To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
    like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
    nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
    He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.  He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.  He was oppressed and treated harshly,
    yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.  And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
Unjustly condemned, he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
    and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.
I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
    because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
    He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12^(NLT)

For You Today

Isaiah’s report is what is GOOD about Good Friday! 

If somewhere in the reading you did not develop a lump in your throat, or the sting of a tear didn’t form in the corner of your eye, it might be a sign you need to read it again!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com