Interviewed on TV, an Ohio woman complained she can’t decide who’s telling the truth about the train derailments. Is the government telling the truth or Norfolk Southern? And what’s the truth about January 6, or who’s lying? And what’s the truth about gender, given to us by the Creator or decided by us? Pontius Pilate could have been an American. “What is truth?” (John 18:38).
A society not organized around truths has nothing left but individuals and groups seeking their own interests. If that is where America is today, who’s going to take to heart the Lenten message that we should repent and turn to Jesus for forgiveness? Aren’t we talking past people who live by whatever they think truth might be? “That’s just your opinion. Who are you to tell me how to live?” And so I’ll go out and steal a catalytic converter, shoot someone who crosses me, run a red light because I’m in a hurry, and plenty more.
Maybe we should start our witness with this fascinating person called the “Suffering Servant.” “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). How do you imagine most Americans view Lent? "This loser is not where it's at."
But then Isaiah says, “Surely.” “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (v. 4). Hebrew scholars say the word “surely” “reverses or restricts what immediately precedes…indicating ‘a sudden recognition in contrast to what was theretofore assumed.’” (In Mitchell, Our Suffering Savior, 63). “Surely” indicates a 180. They first pondered the Suffering Servant. Only then did they understand the truth of sin.
Many Americans do not view life through the lens of sin and forgiveness, but might they perk up when the church says God is in suffering? Shouldn’t we be fascinated by Someone who chooses to suffer? Then maybe people outside the church will do a 180 and understand why He suffers. “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (v. 5). Surely!