Wednesday of Holy Week
I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard. (Isaiah 50:6)
Amazing, isn’t it? This one single verse sounds so much like Jesus’ passion—and not just the event of his scourging at the pillar. The humility and generosity of the servant in this verse beautifully captures Jesus’ heart as he endured his entire arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
Imagine what Jesus must have felt when he heard these words proclaimed in the synagogue. He must have realized at some point that they referred not only to the ancient prophet but to himself. Maybe it struck him with terror. Or perhaps, because he was the Son of God, it didn’t bother him at all.
The truth probably lies somewhere between these two extremes. Being human, Jesus naturally experienced great distress about what was awaiting him. But then in his divinity, he could pray with complete confidence: “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced” (Isaiah 50:7). So while he certainly felt great apprehension over what lay ahead of him, he also found strength knowing that his Father would never abandon him.
There’s a parallel here to our lives. We can’t see into the future, but we do know that we all have our own share of hardships to deal with. It could be major, like the death of a loved one, or minor, like being stuck in a traffic jam for three hours. The magnitude of the challenge is not as important as how we deal with it. We can either fret about it or try our best to place it in the Father’s hands as Jesus did.
Know that in surrendering your hardships to God, you can expect to do more than just endure them. You will find new confidence knowing that Easter Sunday will come for you just as it did for Jesus. You will find strength in the knowledge that “all things work for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). Jesus didn’t come to add to your burdens. He came to carry them with you. Remember: he walked the road to Calvary precisely so that he could walk with you today!
“Lord, I trust that you will keep me in perfect peace as I meditate on all that you have done for me.”
Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34
Matthew 26:14-25
Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Cardinal, founder of the Oratory in England, theologian
Meditations and Prayers, Part III, 2, 2: "Our Lord refuses sympathy" § 15
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
He took other human friends, when He had given up His Mother—the twelve Apostles—as if He desired that in which He might sympathize. He chose them, as He says, to be, "not servants but friends" (Jn 15:15). He made them His confidants. He told them things which He did not tell others. It was His will to favor, nay, to indulge them, as a father behaves towards a favorite child. He made them more blessed than kings and prophets and wise men, from the things He told them. He called them "His little ones" (Jn 13:33), and preferred them for His gifts to “the wise and prudent” (Mt 11,25). He exulted, while He praised them, that they had continued with Him in His temptations (Lk 22:28), and as if in gratitude He announced that they should sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (v.30). He rejoiced in their sympathy when His solemn trial was approaching.
He assembled them about Him at the last supper, as if they were to support Him in it. "With desire," He says, "have I desired to eat this Pasch with you, before I suffer" (Lk 22:15). Thus there was an interchange of good offices, and an intimate sympathy between them. But it was His adorable will that they too should leave Him, that He should be left to Himself. One betrayed, another denied Him, the rest ran away from Him, and left Him in the hands of His enemies... Thus he trod the winepress alone. He who was Almighty, and All-blessed, and who flooded His own soul with the full glory of the vision of His Divine Nature, would still subject that soul to all the infirmities which naturally belonged to it; and, as He suffered it to rejoice in the sympathy, and to be desolate under the absence, of human friends, so, when it pleased Him, He could, and did, deprive it of the light of the presence of God.