Title: In front of your pain
“In front of your pain”
[Isaiah 52:13-53:12]
Shinjin Evangelist
On January 12, an uncountable number of people were buried in Haiti and lost their lives. The whole world was in shock, and many people couldn't hide their horror. I too have been in pain for a long time. A child who cries for his mother with all his body covered in stone dust, buildings with bare reinforcing bars and a corpse lying lonely on an empty street where only dust is blowing. Even after forgetting it, my heart was pounding when I saw the swings through the media. Then, I heard a pastor from the United States say, “Haiti has been punished by God for not serving God but worshiping idols.” This story has puzzled me for a while.
Everyone experiences pain, both big and small. Pain really seems to have a powerful power that overwhelms people. In the face of suffering, human beings cannot help but groan desperately and desperately. However, this seems to be limited to cases where it is a matter of ‘me’. In front of other people's pain, the attitude is slightly different. It seems that we often habitually find the cause of our suffering in the suffering person. The problem of suffering that has been wrestling with for so long when it's yours becomes very simple when it hits someone else. We very easily think, ‘There must be something wrong with that person’, ‘You will be punished for that mistake’, and ‘There is a wrong pattern in that person’s life because you keep failing over and over again.’
This very idea was applied to Haiti. Haiti suffered from constant economic difficulties and political turmoil, and even suffered natural disasters. It is a harsh reality that may be a punishment from God. You might think that if the country did something wrong and did not realize it for a long time and did not receive God's punishment, the suffering could not overlap so much. This exposing of the fault of the suffering person in front of the suffering of others is particularly frequent in relation to sexual violence. When an incident occurs, the victim's usual behavior, return time, and makeup and clothing of the day are put on the cutting board. This is also an attitude of trying to find the cause of pain in that person. Is this attitude correct? And before that, is it fundamentally possible to answer the question whether the suffering of others is due to that person's sin? What is the biblical view of this? And furthermore, what does the Bible require of us in the face of the suffering of others? This was my question.
Today's text (Isaiah 52:13-53:13) seems to be able to give some answer to our attitude toward the suffering of others. Isaiah 53 is a very familiar text. As interpreted by the early Christians as describing the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, the text has been loved by many Christians until now. I, too, cannot help thinking of Jesus as I read the text. Today, I would like to put aside for a moment what the text did not suggest and focus on the suffering of an ordinary person as Isaiah 53 tells us. Through this text, we come face to face with a man who is experiencing severe pain. As suffering is today's concern, let's first look at how the text describes the suffering of this man whom God calls His servant.
If verse 2 indirectly shows the alienation and isolation of the species, verse 3 presents it directly. He was despised, rejected, and suffered, and he was always ill. People turned their faces from him, and the crowd who watched the situation ignored him. I would like to point out that the suffering suffered by the servant mainly occurs in the ‘relationship’ with other people. Different people experience different kinds of suffering and adversity, but the concomitant contempt and alienation seems to be a common problem experienced by those who suffer. Maybe it's people's reactions that can make the person with the problem more painful than the problem itself. What awaits the suffering person is not a helping hand, but ignorance, bullying, gossip, ridicule, and condemnation. This will not be different today, as well as in the world of the ancients. Perhaps it is for this reason that we find ourselves in the crowd pointing the finger at the suffering servant.
Maybe someone will question it. This is because the text begins with the word of Yahweh's promise to make his servant prosper. 'Can it be said that the life of a servant who never ceases to endure hardship and humiliation, who eventually died, and who was insulted until the moment of his death, is prosperous?' Moreover, the New Translation of the Bible puts the word 'everything' in the translation. ' Even if the honor is restored after death, it cannot be said that the servant has prospered in everything.' I think a number of skeptical questions may arise.
In 52:13, God is clearly Yatsukil (