Remembrance – Isaiah 53

Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind.

A man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of all of us.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgement he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich. In his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord made his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand after he has suffered. He will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge.

My righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong. Because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you so much, Joe, for reading God's Word for us. It is on your sheets if you want to take that away. It's a great thing to look at because it was actually written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. And yet it speaks about what goes on at Easter. We're going to think about that in a moment.

But first off, I have a legal responsibility to read some bands of marriage. Some people who are going to get Married here. So I published the banns of marriage between Jack Elliot, Frances Tracy and Eliana Bolton, both of this parish. This is for the second time of asking if any of you know any reason in law why they may not marry each other, you are to declare it now. That is the right answer.

We're going to pray. We're going to pray for Jack and Ellie and we're also going to pray for ourselves as we look at that bit of the Bible. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Jack and Ellie. Would their marriage be one that is long and happy? Would it be one that shapes them to be the people that you have made them to be?

And Father, I pray that that would be the case too. This morning, as we look at this passage, help us to hear from the very one that it was written about. Jesus Christ. Amen. If you ever go to King's College Chapel in Cambridge, then you'll see behind the communion table there there is a painting by Rubens.

It's a very famous painting. But back in the 1970s, somebody came and they carved three letters into that painting. I are. I think we've got a picture of it that will appear. Ira, the Irish Republican army, they carved it in.

But do you know what? Within days of that happening, a little plaque was put in front of the painting. And it said this. It said, it is believed that this masterpiece can be restored to its original. To its original state.

It is believed that this masterpiece can be restored to its original state. I wonder, as you look around the world today, especially on a day like Remembrance Sunday, whether there's a part of you that thinks of our world a little bit like that Rubens painting. It's a masterpiece. It is beautiful, isn't it? As you stand at the top of Strawberry Lee Lane and see the colours of autumn.

It's gorgeous. As you look at humanity, people like our uniformed organization's leaders giving up their time freely to serve the young people in this community. There is a big part of us that looks and says this world is a masterpiece. It's how it's meant to be. It's lovely.

And yet it also sometimes feels, doesn't it, like a masterpiece that's been defaced. Like we've carved into it all sorts of other agendas. We only have to flick on the news, don't we, to see yet another image of somebody who's hurting or in pain. I wonder, as you look at our worlds in all of its broken glory, if there's a part of you that shares the hope of that Little plaque. It's believed that this masterpiece can be restored to its original condition.

How would we do that? How would we get this world to be right? There are lots of answers that people would give us. Some people would say the way that we do that is justice. If only we bring forth justice, then it will be right.

And of course, there's a truth to that. And yet which justice are we talking of? You see, the problem with putting our trust in justice is it's not that simple. The goodies get away with it, the baddies get punished. That's over simplistic, isn't it?

You see, one person's justice is another person's atrocity. Just look at what's happening in the Middle East. In fact, if we think of what's happening, how many of those bullets are fired by people who rightly or wrongly think that they are firing them for justice? Maybe sometimes an eye for an eye, as Mahatma Gandhi said, can make the whole world blind. Is it justice that we're after?

Or does that sometimes, when we try to bring it forth, produce some of the problem? But maybe actually the answer isn't justice, but mercy. It's that we need to say, just lay down the weapons that stop. Don't retaliate. Stop it.

And again, that sounds very plausible. But is it that simple? It's very hard to say to somebody who is grieving the loss of a child because of yet another missile attack. Don't retaliate, they say. But this matters.

This really matters. I want justice.

So is it justice or is it mercy? Well, this passage that we're reading today, written hundreds of years before, Jesus speaks of him like a suffering servant who's going to go through the events of Easter. It's well worth actually taking that home and having a look and thinking this Hebrew scripture seems to be speaking about Easter. See the similarities that are there? But it also seems to give us an answer.

It says there next to little number five, about halfway down, the punishment that brought us peace was on him. Punishment brought us peace. How does that work? How is it that punishment would bring peace? Well, punishment brings peace, I suppose.

If you are the affected party, if you are somebody who has been hurt, then this passage says that really matters. We don't have a God who is just going to kind of sweep things under the carpet only for them to bubble up again. No, we have a God who says, the hurt that you have been through, the hurt that you've been subjected to, it really, really matters. And if you are sitting here as somebody who has experienced hurt at the hands of others, hearing that God actually cares. In fact, that that is serious enough that it demands not just jail time, but death.

Well, actually, that says this matters, doesn't it? That those tears that you have cried are the hurt of another. That those tears and those wailings that we see on the TV of people who are grieving, they matter. They really deeply matter. But this passage is not just sort of giving us a promise of punishment.

It actually, it's saying there's more than that. You see, it sees our world as like that Rubens painting. A masterpiece that's been defaced. But it zooms back the angle and it shows us the people who are carving into it. It might surprise you, but it's right there.

It says, little Number six, we all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. See, the shocking thing this passage says is that those who are defacing this earth are you and me. Us. We think, I'm not a bad person.

And I'm sure in many ways you're probably a far better person than I am. But it says, look, we all go our own way. We all think of ourselves as lord of our life, as king over our own little empire, as if we are the most important person. And you say, I don't think like that. If that's the case, why is it when we park our car at Asda that we always try and get the closest place to the car park we don't leave to the store rather than leaving it for somebody else?

It's because deep down, I think of myself as the most important person. If I showed you a group photograph of you right now, whose would be the face that you would look for first? You see, naturally, we think of ourselves as boss, as king. And the problem is, when I think of myself as king of my own little life, and you think of yourself as king of your own little life, then when our values collide, then there is conflict, isn't there? No, we may never have fired a shot.

No, we may never have been in a fight. And yet we know the selfishness in our own hearts that causes those bigger things. But that's a problem then, isn't it? Because if God is really serious about justice, and if there is any sense in which I can be part of the problem of this world, well, that's a serious problem. And yet look at God's solution.

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us Peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. God looks and says, how can I both take justice really seriously and offer mercy? I can do it by offering myself.

So the hurt that you've been through matters. It matters so much that nothing but the blood of God himself could deal with it. But he can also offer you and offer me forgiveness. It's believed that this masterpiece can be restored to its original image. I wonder, is that a promise that you believe today?

You might be sitting there thinking, do you know what. What does this vicar know, this civilian? He's never. He's never been in war. And it's true, I've not.

But on our way out, I'd love to give you a book. It's a book written by somebody who's done multiple tours of Iraq. And he would say that he has found a peace even today in the brokenness that has helped him through. And that's completely free. Please do.

Just take one. It's a great little read. That's a peace that is promised now that we can experience in part now. And one day we will experience it in full when this world is restored to its original creation. Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Jesus. Thank you that he can both bring forth absolute and right and good justice. And thank you too, that he can also offer us forgiveness. Help us, Father, to take justice seriously. Help us to be agents of peace in this world.

And help us, I pray, to be those who offer peace to one another. Amen.