The Servant of the Lord
Isaiah 42:1-9

Have you ever had a servant? You probably did not refer to the person as a servant. Normally, we would call the person “a maid” or a “housekeeper.” They were paid to clean, cook, do laundry, and help with the children. Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help portrayed the extensive employment of servants in Jackson in the early 1960s. As I recall, it created quite a stir when it was released in 2009.

I grew up with servants as a child in Latin America and Africa. My father was a career diplomat in the United States of America Foreign Service. He served as the American Ambassador to El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Republic of South Africa. The residences our government provided came with a full staff. We had two cooks: one for the servants and one for us. We had two butlers who cleaned the downstairs, served our meals, and waited on guests at cocktail parties. We also had an upstairs maid who made our beds, tidied our bedrooms, and cleaned our bathrooms. We had a laundress who washed and ironed our clothes. It is the only time in my life that my underwear and tee shirts were ironed! Two gardeners kept the grounds manicured, and two chauffeurs drove us wherever we went. One was for my father, and the other for my mother and for us. I had a very privileged childhood, but I did not realize it at the time. Our servants became part of our extended family. I can still recall their names and see their faces in my mind’s eye.

This morning’s text from Isaiah describes a servant, but the person is unlike any servant we have ever known. The servant in Isaiah is the LORD’s servant. God, through the Prophet Isaiah, declares, “Behold, my servant.” There has been a good deal of scholarly debate about the identity of the servant. Some argue the person is an unknown individual. Others believe the national of Israel, God’s chosen people, is the servant. Still others reason that the servant is a messianic figure.

The people of ancient Israel almost certainly understood “the Servant” as a metaphor for the nation as a whole. Israel constituted God’s chosen people, and as such, they had a special role to play in embodying and spreading the religion of the one true God: the one who created the heavens and the earth, the one who predicts and fulfills the divine plan for the future.

While the nation of Israel was God’s corporate servant, it is also true that the Servant of Isaiah 42 is a messianic figure. There are four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah: 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; and 52:13 – 53:12. The final Servant Song is the best known to us. It describes the sufferings of the Messiah in remarkable detail. Read it and then read the passion narratives of the gospels (Matthew 26-27; Mark 14-16; Luke 22-23; and John 18-19), and you will be astonished by the One who foretells the future (vs 9).

As Christians, we believe that the Servant Songs are about Jesus Christ. Jesus himself uses language borrowed from Isaiah 42 and 61 to describe himself and his ministry. “When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:16-21).

Jesus is the promised Servant of the LORD, but it is also the case that the Church is the new Israel, and as a result, we see our calling, our place in God’s plan, revealed in this text too. God says of the Servant, “I uphold him.” The Hebrew word for “uphold” means to “grip fast or firmly.” The Lord is determined to keep his Servant so he can fulfill God’s plan of salvation (Jn. 10:17). Jesus has said of us, “No one is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (Jn 10”28-29). Just as Jesus was upheld by his Father, we are upheld by our Father in heaven.

The Servant is chosen by God. The servant is the LORD’s man for the job. Furthermore, the LORD delights in the servant. The Servant is the LORD’s man for Himself too. At Jesus’ baptism, the Father said, “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him” (Mt. 3:17). God says of us in 1 Peter, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (vs. 9). We are God’s delight too.

The LORD declares of the Servant, “I have put my spirit upon him.” The Spirit is the LORD’s personal presence, God’s activity, and the endowment needed for the work of ministry. The Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism (Mt. 3:16), and the Spirit indwells us too, making us living temples of God (1 Cor. 3:16). The servant, then, is preeminently the Messiah, Jesus Christ, but the Servant is also the Church. Just as Jesus was upheld, chosen, beloved, and Spirit endowed, so are we, albeit to a lesser degree.

Having established the identity of the Servant, let us now turn our attention to the characteristics of the Servant. The Servant has a certain gentleness about him. He is humble. He does not cry out or lift up his voice. “To cry out” indicates an attempt to dominate or shout others down. “To raise his voice” or “to make his voice heard in the street” implies calling attention to himself or self-aggrandizement. You will recall from the gospels that Jesus frequently told those he healed or delivered from demonic influence not to tell anyone about the healing or deliverance (cf. Mark 7:36). The same is to be true for us. To borrow John the Baptist’s words, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). We do not call attention to ourselves but to Jesus Christ. Isaiah describes a ministry that is quiet, unaggressive, and unthreatening. This is how Jesus was in his earthly ministry, and this is how we are to be in fulfilling our role as God’s new Israel.

The Servant has other important characteristics. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench” (vs. 3a). A bruised reed is useless. It can lend no support. A dimly burning wick is ready to go out, but these are not impediments to the Servant. I like what one commentator writes, “To this servant nothing is useless, even a bruised reed (however it came to be crushed is not the point) which is useless as a support or for anything else. Neither is anything (a smoldering wick) too far gone towards extinction.” No one is beyond help for with God all things are possible. Jesus surrounded himself with lowly fishermen, tax collectors, violent zealots, the poor, the sick, and the demon possessed. In him they all found redemption. We too are called to nurture the “bruised reeds” and smoldering wicks” of this world.

Finally, let us consider the Servant’s mission. Justice is the leading idea of this Servant Song. The Hebrew word for justice is mishpat. It has a wide range of meanings. The context is all important in understanding the word’s meaning in a particular passage of scripture. Mishpat can mean an authoritative judgment, a divine ordinance, giving judgment in a legal case, right conduct, giving the ‘right’ due to a person, divinely revealed law or teaching, or simply, God’s truth.

In this Servant Song, justice is primarily a summary word for God’s revealed truth. The servant brings the truth of God to the world: There is one creator of heaven and earth; there is only one God who predicts and fulfills the future. This is our mission: to point to Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life.

The Servant is also given as a covenant to the people (vs. 6c). What does that mean exactly? One commentator helps us to understand this concept. “The Servant will be a covenant, i.e. the means through whom people will come into a covenant relationship with the LORD.” Jesus established the new covenant through his death and resurrection. By trusting in him, we have forgiveness for our sins now and the promise of eternal life in the age to come. Again, God wants to use us to bring others into covenant relationship with himself.

The Servant is also a light to the nations (vs. 6d). Light is a powerful symbol in the scriptures. Jesus said of himself, “I am the light of the world” (Jn. 8:12; 9:5). Jesus said of us, “You are the light of the world” (Mt. 5:14). Imagine you are in a building that is pitch black. You cannot see your hand in front of your face. However, there is one room with electricity and light. If you can find the door to the room and knock on it, the person inside will open the door, and light will flood out illuminating the darkness. The light of Christ opens the eyes of the blind; it allows the prisoner to find his way out of the dungeon or dark prison. The great light has shown in our darkness and we are to let our little light shine too.

One commentator connects the ideas of covenant and light beautifully. “Within the all-embracing concept of covenant there is the light of truth, the healing of disabilities (exemplified in the blind), the end of restrictions imposed by others (bringing out the captives), and the transformation of circumstances (darkness). They will be a perfect people in a perfect society, and a perfect environment.” This quotation reminds us of the final element of the central theme of justice in our text. Justice is giving people what is their due. God’s desire is justice for all people. The Servant will faithfully bring forth justice for the nations (vs. 1d and 4b). He will right all wrongs. He will establish a just order. He will usher in the kingdom of God.

This is what we hope for during the season of Advent. This what we are waiting for: the rectification of all things when God becomes all in all (read 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

The Servant, Jesus Christ, is the key to God’s plan for this darkened and bound world, but we also have a part to play in the drama of salvation. We are the people who are sitting in the one room of the darkened building that has electricity and light. Those who are outside are groping after God in the darkness, but when they knock on the door, we can flood them with the true light of the world. The islands, the earth’s remotest bounds, are still waiting for his teaching (vs. 4c). The bruised reeds and smoldering wicks of this world are crying out for help. Each one of us is only a small light that reflects the great light of Jesus Christ, but we can let our little light shine. We can “Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”

We are the servants of the Servant. We too are upheld, chosen, beloved, and Spirit endowed. We are a covenant to the people, a light to the nations. Let us bring forth justice, God’s revealed truth, to the world. Let us embody justice in our life together by personifying the quiet, unaggressive, and unthreatening ministry of Jesus Christ, the Servant of the LORD.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All glory be to God! Amen.