| THE SUFFERING SERVANT |
| A great victory looked at first like defeat. |
| He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. 53:3 |
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| Chapters 49-55 of Isaiah tell of a "suffering servant" who will come from Israel to bring light to all nations. Who is this suffering servant? Jewish scholars puzzled over these passages for centuries. Many considered them the most significant part of the entire Old Testament, and yet they could not agree on exactly what the prophet meant. (Four passages especially are called the "servant songs": 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). A Nation or a Person? Sometimes the verses speak about the nation of Israel as a whole: "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor" (49:3). But in other places the servant seems to refer to a specific individual, a great leader who suffers terribly. Isaiah presents the servant as the deliverer of all humankind. And yet it portrays him more as a tragic figure than as a hero: "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him . . . . He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter" (53:2, 7). Some Jewish scholars guessed the prophet was describing himself or another prophet, such as Jeremiah. Still others focused their hopes on a Messiah to come. They expected a king from very humble origins, whose power would depend not on swords, but on the spirits of people committed to him. An Answer from the New Testament The idea of the suffering servant did not really catch on among the Jewish nation. They longed for a victorious Messiah, not a suffering one. The image of the suffering |