Isaiah 53:1-6
There is a billboard I see on my way to work in the morning that contains no image, just large, bold text that reads, “Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Jesus Is Alive.” The message uses the language of our legal system, particularly the jury standard for convicting a defendant, to suggest that the truth of Jesus is self-evident. While I appreciate the confidence of the statement, instead of promoting faith, it seems to fly in the face of it. After all, we don’t see Jesus in the flesh. He doesn’t appear to us or talk to us in any way that we recognize in everyday life. And over two thousand years after Jesus’ crucifixion, the world doesn’t appear to be any more redeemed. If we use the standard of reason, the truth of Jesus doesn’t seem self-evident or even reasonable.
Isaiah points instead to a messiah that makes no sense to the world.
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity, and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases, yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:1-6 (NRSVUE)
The prophetic words from Isaiah point to a messiah who undoes the notion of reason and worldly justice. This messiah doesn’t look like a leader who can redeem. This messiah does not thrive in the world but is tortured and executed out of it. This messiah is innocent but has the guilt of everyone put upon him. A legal system run by this kind of reason wouldn’t feel very just.
Through faith, however, our hearts are invited into the truth of Jesus, however unreasonable it might seem. There is something in that message of turning the other cheek, of returning scorn with love and hatred with compassion, of the weak and poor and despairing having the special favor of God, that strikes something in us that we know to be true, as ridiculous, unobtainable, and as disconnected from our world as it seems. That message is anti-establishment, radical, grace-filled, and transformative. In a world where greed, physical power, and self-promotion appear to be the most reasonable way to success, an unreasonable faith can fill us with hope, compassion, and humility.
Questions for Reflection:
- How do you balance reason and faith in your reading of the gospel?
- What various physical representations of Jesus have you seen? Does he look strong, frail, or simply like most people? What does he look like in your mind’s eye, and what does that tell you?
Prayer:
Lord, you entered the human experience in physical weakness to show spiritual strength. You took on sin to give us forgiveness. Help us to transform the world in your image rather than in our own. Amen.
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