( Sermon Isaiah 52:13-53:12 ) [ German Sermon ] [ Announcements (German)359.94 KB ]
It is early in the morning
She is 87 years old. She has been lying in bed with her eyes open for a long time. "Another sleepless night," she thinks to herself. She has not been able to get up for a long time. "It's full of sickness and pain." She is in a small room in a nursing station. She is lonely.
It is early in the morning. He weaves through the shelves at the supermarket. The mask on his face can't quite hide the scars. His self-confidence is at rock bottom. It wasn't his fault that night. An oncoming car had crossed into his lane. His motorcycle and he were hit head-on. That he woke up at all ... a miracle. But reaching for the mirror made him wish he had never awakened again "so disfigured he looked, no longer like a man, and his form not like the children of men."
It is early in the morning. He is walking down the street. He sees someone bustling in his store, attending to customers. He sees the well-dressed gentleman with a briefcase in his hand. A mother is taking her child to school. Everyone is busy and has a destination. He doesn't. Not for a long time. He rarely meets up with his former colleagues. He is ashamed. Everyone else has found a new job. Not him. He despises himself for it.
Dear congregation,
It is early in the morning
I may be walking past the man on my way to run a quick errand for work or lunch or to visit someone. Determined. I'm going my way. I don't see the man I'm hurrying past. Who doesn't know what to do with the new day.
It's possible that I'm also going to the supermarket at this time of day. The young man catches my eye: how he tries to protect his face, although his scars on his face and hands stand out.
On the way to the car I meet an acquaintance. She tells me about the old woman who is now in the nursing station. She is not well at all. That is really bad. Yes, I check my schedule to see when I have time to visit her.
I say goodbye and go my way. Did I really notice the people around me? Many a time not really. Too busy with other things, focused on myself, not interested. That happens ... again and again. I don't see them - the people around me.
I hear something in there. Words from the prophet Isaiah.
The Suffering and Glory of the Servant
13 See, my servant will act wisely[a]; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him[b]-
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,[c]and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
53 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[d] and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.[e]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes[f] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life[g] and be satisfied[h];
by his knowledge[i] my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[j]and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[k]
because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Dear congregation,
Isaiah describes the fate of the servant of God, long before Jesus' birth. Subsequent generations of Christians have recognized in it the fate of Jesus. Today, on Good Friday, we remember: Jesus was spat upon, mocked and tormented. An unsightly figure, pain plagues him. Fainting, he cannot defend himself. Like an animal led to the slaughter.
Alone he hangs on the cross. Only some women and a disciple stand below. Otherwise abandoned and exposed to the ridicule of the people. As such, he bears sickness, pain and sin. We believed that he was smitten by God. Fortunately - by God. It was not us. Wasn't it?
Good Friday mercilessly brings to light the human abysses. That's how we humans are. Not even particularly evil, although there are terrible people. In the end, however, it is not these few but the many rather normal ones who bring Jesus to the cross.
Jesus' way ends at the cross, because people behave like Jesus' contemporaries always and everywhere. They pass by, keep their mouths shut and are happy that they themselves did not get caught. Jesus died like a felon, despised and without any comfort. Apparently abandoned by God. And we wouldn't know anything about him today, his trace of life would have blown away long ago, if God himself hadn't confessed this failed man and raised him from the dead.
That was the turning point and this turning point also put his life and death in a different light: Nothing has to remain as it is. God confesses his Son. He brings to life what was dead. And not only then. Also today with you and me. I may weep and lament. The suffering will have an end.
I cannot understand it yet. But I can stand not having an answer to everything. But it doesn't always have to be meaningless. Something dies, dies in me, but maybe something new grows out of it.
I realize: this servant of God has something to do with me. He shares my deepest last darkness, the way through the darkness of death. This happens for me. Not in such a way that my guilt and my offense against God and man is simply cancelled. Not in such a way that I no longer have to take responsibility for my life and actions. Not in such a way that I no longer have to fear my own death. Not in such a way that all suffering would receive an explanation.
But perhaps in such a way that I know: I no longer have to explain to God how I really feel, what hurts me, what I suffer from. I can recover in the certainty that he knows about it. My fear of being wronged, of hearing false testimony. Yes, even the secret fear that it is God himself who wants to punish me in some abysmal way. Jesus bore all this to give me deep peace. It makes me breathe a sigh of relief. To be healed. Feeling this makes it possible for me to endure the suffering of others, to stay with it, to suffer with it.
It is early in the morning. She is 87 years old. She has been lying in bed with her eyes open for a long time. "Another sleepless night." She has not been able to get up for a long time. "She is full of sickness and pain." But there is one sitting next to her. He gives the sick woman time. Time that no one else has for her. He knows her illness and her pain. He listens to her and endures her suffering.
He also sees the man in the supermarket and does not turn away from him. He sees the man on the street and does not pass by. It is precisely the life that is only a heap of misery that he pays attention to, which he loves with affection. And this in our world, where everyone is very busy with himself. Where we like to look away when others around us are in a bad way.
At the sight of the Crucified of Golgotha, the standards are reversed. I see him hanging there - on the hill of Golgotha outside the gates of Jerusalem. This time I do not go any further. I stop and endure the sight.
Amen