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The Suffering Servant

Christ is Risen!

We are excited to take our daily blog in a new direction.  Beginning every Wednesday, our daily post will revolve around a common weekly theme.

We are calling it: 7 Points of Kingdom Contact.  We hope to offer reflections on how to allow God’s Kingdom to break into this world through our awareness of God, ourselves, and others.

This week’s theme:  WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE

1- The Suffering Servant

What a daunting experience…to journey once again with our Lord to the Cross, and to rejoice in the light of the empty tomb. The light truly has broken through the darkness.  For some, it’s a blinding light and for others, just a glimmer. The one sure thing is that the life-giving empty tomb has revealed the invitation to the Kingdom that our Lord deeply desires for each of His beloved to accept. Every step of this walk that He took to the Cross, invites us to follow. With every scream and wound from the crowd, we witness the walk that we must take. To love Him is to follow Him and love as He did; to give our lives away as He did.

To truly love is to draw near to the suffering of another and to offer our own lives to the Lord for the sake of the other. To join the Lord on His walk to the Cross is to walk with those He loves through whatever they are experiencing. This ensures the difficulty of sharing the hurt they have.  It takes work of the mind and heart to see a person as they are, where they are. To serve in its purest form is to love without trying to make it easier for yourself. The Lord’s servant says, I am here for YOU. Seeking to serve requires suspending any misguided impulse to make someone in your own image for your own comfort. The first thing I should do is welcome you and your experience.  The last thing I should do is try to welcome you into mine, because it’s familiar to me. Imagine a world where we served only the ones we shared perspective with.  What would happen if I disregarded every person who I didn’t understand?

The servant of all, suffers for all. Jesus emptied Himself for the one that followed Him, the one who was confused by Him, the one who wounded Him, rejected Him…every ONE.  As ONE of the many that seek to follow, I am invited to also empty myself and become the self the Lord is designing me to be. This requires that I answer my fear of suffering alongside others with courage. I must suspend the agenda I have for the person in front of me, so that the Lord can show up and be what they actually need. Being available and present is most important. With that, will come co-suffering.

The Cross didn’t just happen.  The empty tomb isn’t an isolated event.  It is quite possible that those that truly seek to serve others as He did can and will experience both the Cross and empty tomb in a day…and hour…a moment. The suffering servant says, I love YOU.  I suffer with YOU.  I become what the Lord needs me to be for YOU, so that we can both experience the joy of the empty tomb. Because what matters is OUR peace, OUR healing, OUR comfort. When I seek to become what you need, I actually become who I truly am.  The Lord’s invitation to be by your side is actually an invitation to be myself.  True service serves all.

Staying in the perceived safety of my own peace will not preserve it. Deciding my pain is enough for me to handle will not heal it. Peace should be shared. Pain should be shared. Welcome invitations to co-suffer. There is a light at the end of the walk to the Cross.

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