Holy Father's Prayer Intentions For October 2009
General: That Sunday may be lived as the day on which Christians gather to celebrate the risen Lord, participating in the Eucharist.
Mission: That the entire People of God, to whom Christ entrusted the mandate to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, may eagerly assume their own missionary responsibility and consider it the highest service they can offer humanity.
Fourth Song of the Servant of the Lord (Continuation)
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Commentary:
52:13-53:12. This fourth Song of the Servant is one of the most commented on
passages in the Bible, as regards both its literary structure and its content. From
the point of view of structure, it interrupts the hymn-style of chapter 52 (which is
taken up again in chapter 54); the style here is more reflective; the theme, the
value of suffering. In terms of content, the song is unusual in that it shows the
servant triumphing through his humiliation and suffering. Even more than that—he
makes the pains and sins of others his own, in order to heal them and set them
free. Prior to this, the idea of “vicarious expiation” was unknown in the Bible.
The passage is original even in its vocabulary: it contains forty words that are
not to be found elsewhere in the Bible.
The poem, which is very carefully composed, divides into three stanzas: the first
(52:13-15) is put on the Lord’s lips and it acts as a kind of overture to what fol-
lows—taking in the themes of the triumph of the servant (v. 13), his humiliation
and suffering (v. 14), and the stunning effect that this has on his own people and
on strangers.
The second stanza (53:1-11a) celebrates the servant’s trials, and the good effects
they produce. This is spoken in the first person plural, standing for the people
and the prophet: both feel solidarity with the servant of the Lord. This stanza has
four stages to it: first (53:1-3) it describes the servant’s noble origins (he grew up
before the Lord like a young plant: cf. v. 2) and the low esteem in which he is held
as a “man of sorrows”. Then we learn that all this suffering is atonement for the
sins of others (53:4-6). Traditionally, suffering was interpreted as being a punish-
ment for sins, but here it is borne on behalf of others. This is the first lesson to
be learned by those who see him “stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted”, and
it marks the climax of the poem. Thirdly (53:7-9), the point is made, again that
he has freely accepted suffering and meekly, offers himself as a sacrifice of
atonement (he is like a lamb, like a sheep). His death is as ignominious as the
suffering that precedes it. Finally (vv. 10-11a) we are told how fruitful all this suf-
fering is: like the patriarchs of old (the text seems to imply) the servant will have
many offspring and a long life and be a man of great wisdom.
In the, third stanza (53:11b-12) the Lord speaks again, finally acknowledging that
his servant’s sacrifice is truly efficacious: he will cause many to be accounted
“righteous”, that is, he will win their salvation (v. 11) and will share in the Lord’s
spoils (v. 12).
The fourth song of the servant of the Lord was from very early on interpreted as
having a current application. When the Jews of Alexandria made the Greek trans-
lation of the Old Testment (the Septuagint) around the second century BC, they
tinkered a little with the text to indicate that the servant in the poem stood for the
people of Israel in the diaspora. Those Jews, who encountered huge obstacles in
their effort to maintain their identity in that Hellenistic and polytheistic environment,
found comfort in the hope that they would emerge enhanced, just like the servant.
Jews of Palestine identified the victorious servant with the Messiah, but they rein-
terpreted the sufferings described here to apply them to the pagan nations. The
Dead Sea Scrolls interpret this song in the light of the ignominy experienced by
the Teacher of Righteousness, the probable founder of the group that established
itself at Qumran.
Jesus revealed his redemptive mission to be that of the suffering servant prophe-
sied by Isaiah here. He referred to him on a number of occasions—in his reply to
the request made by the sons of Zebedee (”the Son of man came not to be served
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”: Mt 20:28 and par.); at the
Last Supper, when he announced his ignominious death among transgressors,
quoting 53:12 (Lk 22:37); in some passages in the fourth Gospel (Jn 12:32, 37-38);
etc. He also seems to refer to it in his conversation with the disciples of Emmaus
(Lk 24:25ff) to explain his passion and death. Therefore, the first Christians inter-
preted Jesus’ death and resurrection in terms of this poem; evidence of this is the
expression “in accordance with the scriptures” in 1 Corinthians 15:3; the words
“for our trespasses” (Rom 4:25; 1 Cor 15:3-5); the Christological hymn in the Let-
ter to the Philippians (Phil 2:6-11); and expressions used in the First Letter of
Peter (1 Pet 2:22-25) and in other New Testament passages (Mt 8:17; 27:29;
Acts 8:26-40; Rom 10:16; etc.).
Patristic tradition reads the song as a prophecy that found fulfillment in Christ (cf.
St Clement of Rome, “Ad Corinthios”, 16:1-14; St Ignatius Martyr, “Epistula ad
Polycarpum”, 1, 3; the so-called “Letter of Barnabas”, 5, 2 and “Epistula ad Dio-
gnetuin”, 9, 2; etc.). The Church uses it in the Good Friday liturgy.
52:14. “Beyond human semblance”: this phrase sums up the description given in
53:2-3 and shows the intense pain reflected in the servant’s face: the description
is so graphic that Christian ascetical writing, with good reason, reads it as antici-
pating the passion of our Lord: “The prophet, who has rightly been called ‘the Fifth
Evangelist’, presents in this Song an image of the sufferings of the Servant with a
realism as acute as if he were seeing them with his own eyes: the eyes of the
body and of the spirit. [...] The Song of the Suffering Servant contains a descrip-
tion in which it is possible, in a certain sense, to identify the stages of Christ’s
Passion in their various details: the arrest, the humiliation, the blows, the spitting,
the contempt for the prisoner, the unjust sentence, and then the scourging, the
crowning with thorns and the mocking, the carrying of the Cross, the crucifixion
and the agony” (John Paul II, “Salvifici Doloris”, 17; cf. idem, “Dives in Misencor-
dia”, 7).
53:1. St Paul cites this verse to prove the need for preaching (Rom 10:16). The
verse also underlines the extraordinary degree of undeserved suffering endured by
the Servant. It is sometimes interpreted as a further sign of the humility of Christ,
who, being divine, took on the form of a servant: “Christ is a man of humble
thought and feeling, unlike those who attack his flock. The heart of God’s majesty,
the Lord Jesus Christ, did not come with loud cries of arrogance and pride; he
came in humility, as the Holy Spirit said of him: ‘Who has believed what we have
heard?’” (St Clement of Rome, “Ad Corinthios”, 16, 1-3).
53:4-5. “He has borne our griefs [or pains]”: the servant’s sufferings are not due to
his own personal sins; they are atonement for the sins of others. “The sufferings
of our Savior are our cure” (Theodoret of Cyrus, “De Incarnatione Domini”, 28). He
suffered on account of the sins of the entire people, even though he was not guilty
of them. By bearing the penalty for those sins, he expiated the guilt involved. St
Matthew, after recounting some miraculous cures and the casting out of devils,
sees the words of v. 4a fulfilled in Christ (Mt 8:17). He interprets Jesus Christ as
being the servant foretold by the prophet, who will cure the physical suffering of
people as a sign that he is curing the root cause of all types of evil, that is, sin,
iniquity (v. 5). The miracles worked by Jesus for the sick are therefore a sign of
Redemption: “Christ’s whole life is a mystery of “redemption”. Redemption comes
to us above all through the blood of his cross (cf. Eph 1:7; Col 1:13-14; 1 Pet 1:
18-19), but this mystery is at work throughout Christ’s entire life” (”Catechism of
the Catholic Church”, 517).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.