“You are our sure defense, O God!”1 As believers, how can we doubt this? But once in a while, when this reassurance runs into unyielding reality, we can tend to doubt if God is on our side.
Taken as it is from deutero- (or second) Isaiah, which was composed during Israel’s Babylonian exile, this confident statement is uttered in the midst of what was likely for many exiled Israelites a hopeless situation. In context, then, it can be taken more as an aspiration, as hope. Knowing the end of the story (that Israel returned from exile), we can take it as a true and reassuring statement.
Genuine hope begins where optimism ends. This what Saint Paul meant when he wrote about Abraham’s hope in God’s promise that he would be “the father of many nations.” At the time of God’s promise, Abraham was already an old man. He and his wife Sarah, who was also past child-bearing age, remained childless. Hence, the apostle wrote that “hoping against hope,” Abraham believed God’s promise.2
We all know through our experience that God does not typically function as a Deus ex machina, that is, as an unexpected power swooping in from nowhere to save a seemingly hopeless situation. There is a reason we find novels, stories, and plays that feature this plot device unsatisfying. The scriptures abundantly reaffirm that God works through, not over, above, around or under the sometime desperate circumstances in which we find ourselves.
The opening words of this morning’s hymn provides us a clue as to how God defends us, how God saves and heals us: Christ bore the weight of human need through humble service.3
As Jesus made his way from Roman praetorium to Calvary it was not intuitively obvious to the casual observer that he bore the weight of human need. Without a doubt, to most who witnessed this, he appeared to be just another unfortunate Jew who ran afoul of the Roman imperium.
Crucifixion, by El Greco, 1600
It is not so much that God accomplishes his purposes in hidden ways- though he does sometimes. Rather, it is that God accomplishes them in the most counterintuitive way. In other words, it’s not how I would’ve done it. Once I see and experience Christ’s humble service, I quickly grasp that his is not just a counterintuitive way but the only way given his purpose.
Leave it to the Director of the Office of Deacons to point out that the original Christian word for “service” is the Greek word diakonia. It’s easy to see how the word deacon, or servant, is derived from diakonia.
In Saint Luke’s account of the Last Supper, Jesus asks his companion a rhetorical question: “who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves?” Of course, as the Lord goes on to note, the correct answer is the one seated at table. Jesus then tells them, “I am among you as the one who serves.”4 Translated more literally, he tells them "I among you as a deacon." The service to which our hymn refers- his crucifixion- is the height of diakonia.
Just as there is a priesthood of all the baptized, there is also a diaconate of all the baptized. As Jesus shows us, service precedes sacrifice. Our call is both to receive the humble service Jesus renders and to serve others in his name for the sake of God’s kingdom. Believe it or not, especially when you are experiencing difficulties, this how you come to know that God is on your side. Saint Paul captures our diaconal vocation very well:
Called from worship into service/
Forth in your great name we go/
To the child, the youth, aged/
Love in living deeds to show/
Hope and health, good will and comfort/
Counsel, aide, and peace we give/
That your children, Lord, in freedom/
May your mercy know and live
5
1 Isaiah 54:15.↩
2 Romans 4:18.↩
3 "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service."↩
4 Luke 22:27.↩
5 "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service," verse 4.↩
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