A PRAYER FOR MAUNDY THURSDAY

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message

    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 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.

3 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.

4 Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

    stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 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.

6 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 us all.

That can't be our savior

Can it?

Look at you

You don't look very brave or dangerous

Certainly not strong enough to take on

our enemies... our burdens... our needs

We need to look for somebody else

Someone stronger

Leaner

Tougher

Someone who can take on our oppressors and liberate us from their tyranny

That can't be our savior

Can it?

Listen to you

We don't hear anything?

Only silence... Nothing

No words of protest or anger

No shouts at his persecutors

We need someone who will speak up

Declare the time for revolution

Sound the cry of freedom

Utter judgment upon those who condemn us

That can't be our savior

Can it?

You are just giving up

Acting like a lamb being led to the slaughter

No objection

No complaint

No plea of innocence

We need someone who will speak in his defense

in our defense

Someone who will resist the hangman's noose

Who will not die in complicity with his executioners

Someone who will be defiant before the last nail is hammered in the cross

 That can't be our savior

Can it?

Yes, Lord Jesus

It is you who are our savior

You who are obedient

Even to the last

Obedient to what God has called you to do

Yes, Lord Jesus

It you who are our savior

You who through your faith

Shout even in your silence

God's love for humankind

Yes, Lord Jesus

It is you who are our savior

You are the conquerer

over the power of death

and the grip of the grave

Hallelujah

We are saved

Hallelujah

We will rise again

Hallelujah

We will live with you forever

Amen