The Suffering Servant

Hosea's experience suggests that suffering itself can be redemptive, and this belief comes to its sharpest definition in passages in the latter part of Isaiah, which are called the "Suffering Servant" poems, and which we examined briefly in Chapter 10. In these poems, you remember, a "servant" who is innocent voluntarily assumes the punishment that should be meted out to the guilty. This is an exceedingly high kind of love -- love which is willing to suffer the consequences of someone else's wrongdoing. It is as though you were to drive an ice pick through your rival's heart and then his brother were to go to the electric chair in your place. This is "vicarious" suffering-the innocent suffering on behalf of the guilty.

Here is an example of one level of "vicarious" suffering:

When the Panama Canal was being built, there was a tremendously high mortality rate among the workers because of yellow fever. It finally seemed certain that yellow fever was being carried by the mosquito, but it was necessary to study the nature of the disease in order to be able to deal with it effectively. So a group of men volunteered to be bitten by the deadly mosquitoes, so that the disease could be carefully studied as it spread through their bodies. Several of these men died. However, as a result of their suffering and death, an effective serum was developed, and the lives of thousands of workers were saved. The suffering of a few became a benefit for the many, and it was thereby given meaning and purpose.

That is the sort of idea that the "Servant Songs" stress. The servant himself "had no form or comeliness. . . , and no beauty." In fact, "he was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." People hid their faces from him. And yet, they came to see a very important thing as they observed his suffering -- he was suffering for them. Their attitude changed to wonder and amazement, and they exclaimed,

He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.

( Isa. 53: 5)

This is one of the high points of the Old Testament. Suffering that is redemptive for others is suffering that itself has been redeemed. Pain and scourging voluntarily assumed can bring peace and healing to those for whom they are borne. It may even be true that the suffering of the innocent can be a kind of "shock treatment." If I see that something I have done has caused suffering to an innocent person, this may have a real effect on whether I do it again. It may cause me to act very differently, as I become drastically aware of how I have hurt someone else.