The Church as the Suffering Servant

In the 6th century BC, the Babylonian empire invaded the land of Judah, destroyed Jerusalem, and deported the Jewish elite, while the working classes were left in the city under the rule of a Jew named Gedaliah, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar for that purpose. The book of Lamentations give us a hint of the desolation of the holy city: 

How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations. She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave… After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress… All her people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. “Look, Lord, and consider, for I am despised.” … All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at Daughter Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?” (1:1, 3, 11; 2:15)

The Babylonian exile was a catastrophic event that shook the traditional beliefs of God’s people. For some, Jehovah had decided to abandon them completely, and for others, the God of Israel had been defeated by pagan gods. The prophets of the exile took it upon themselves to explain Israel's humiliation as a result of Jehovah's retributive justice, as in Isaiah 42:24:

Who handed Jacob over to become loot,
    and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord,
    against whom we have sinned?
For they would not follow his ways;
    they did not obey his law.

In exile, Israel took refuge in the Torah and in the celebration of the Sabbath, and over time, the synagogue became a locus of theological reflection and worship. It was during this period that the prophetic figure of the Suffering Servant emerged and was applied to Israel in passages such as Isaiah 41:8-10:

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, “You are my servant”; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.  So do not fear, for I am with you do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Consider likewise Isaiah 52:13-15:

See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—so he will sprinkle many nations, 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.

Israel as God’s suffering servant was called to proclaim and establish justice among the nations, as it says in Isaiah 42:1, 4, 6-7:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations…  he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.  In his teaching the islands will put their hope… I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Sadly, Israel did not understand this role to which Jehovah was calling them, but instead insisted on the expectation of an earthly kingdom that evoked the glory of the Davidic monarchy. That is why they rejected Jesus when he announced that the kingdom of God had arrived and presented himself as the Messiah. For them, this proclamation of Jesus simply made no sense.

The apostolic church interpreted the figure of the suffering servant as a type of the Messiah. According to Matthew 8:17, Jesus’ healing miracles were the fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4: “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases,’” Acts 8:32-35 is another example, where we see the passage from Isaiah 53 that an Ethiopian eunuch was reading when Philip approached him to preach him the gospel; that passage was most likely interpreted by the evangelist as messianic. 

The church of our time, as the spiritual Israel of God, is called to embrace the figure of the suffering servant and—contrary to ideological exegesis—renounce claims to political or economic power in a society that collectively can be seen as Babylon. Also, as an alternative culture, we are to proclaim God’s justice to the world instead of conforming to it, as it says in Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”