Isaiah 50: 4 – 10 (Pentecost 18)

“Learning Patience through Suffering”

Patience is a virtue. Patience is a virtue that I don’t naturally possess. We are constantly waiting for things, and yet we hate to wait. We go to the shortest line to check at the grocery store. We upgrade our internet service so that the home page will boot up faster. We watch the pot in spite of the saying “a watched pot doesn’t boil.”

Israel was waiting, too. They were waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled. They were waiting to find out when this Messiah would come and when the suffering of earthly tyrants would end. In the Psalms David cries out “How Long O Lord?!”

The Messiah spoke through Isaiah and teaches a lesson about spiritual patience. He points us to his own patience in enduring the cross. By teaching us the cross, he teaches us salvation. He also teaches us to patiently put out trust in the promises of God. He helps us learn patience through suffering, by the way of the cross, and with confidence in God’s word.

1. By Way of the Cross of Christ.

Our Savior speaks, “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”

We are hearing the Savior who was silent before his accusers, like a lamb before his shearers. We can’t begin to imagine the suffering of our Savior Jesus, can we? He faced false accusations, physical pain, blood shed, taunting. He saw his name get abused, his word falsely taught, his Father’s house become a den of robbers; his people being led astray.

Sometimes they strew his way And his sweet praises sing,

Resounding all day long Hosannas to their King

Then “Crucify!” Is all their breath, And for his death They thirst and cry.

(CW 110:3)

Talk about patience! He endured the mood swings of his own people, who had no idea how to respond to his ministry. How could the man who taught love and trust to 12 men lose their trust in betrayal and denial? How could the man who gave life to the dead and sight to the blind, be the guy who winds up dead on a cross?

Jesus once said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18 ). The whole point of the lessons these past two weeks has been just that. “Whoever wants to come after me must deny himself take up his cross and follow me.” Patience through suffering is part of being Christian. It is a reality. The world hates Jesus. The world hates those who love Jesus. Along with that hatred comes the suffering that teaches patience.

What did Jesus do? He let it roll off his back. “I have set my face like flint.” That expression is like our “water off a duck’s back” or “I have thick skin.” Jesus put up with a lot! That is an understatement. But he let it all roll off his back.

That is his encouragement to us. We get criticized for being Christian. We get laughed at for standing on the truths of God’s word. We get accused of being “not with it” “old-fashioned” or maybe even foolish for putting all our hope on the God who was foolish enough to kill his own Son. Set your faces like flint. Let it roll off your back. Learn to be patience through sufferings. It is the way of the Cross, after all.

2. With Confidence in the Word of God.

But Jesus does one other important thing is this whole matter of patience. He says, “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” Jesus found joy and comfort in the Word of his Father. He put his complete trust in the promises of that Word. It sustained him morning by morning as he willingly faced the path to the cross. He was confident that God’s promises were going to come true. And they did!

“He who vindicates me is near … It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.” Jesus said, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take back up again.” Jesus and the Father have this unique unity. At the heart of it all is the promise of the resurrection. Later in the book of Isaiah we read, “It was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer … After the suffering of his soul he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many” (Isaiah 53: 10-11). God did promise to raise his Son from the dead. God did raise his Son from the dead. God’s word is filled with such sure promises.

It is in God’s word that we find that same confidence and that same relationship with our Father. God does teach us patience through suffering. God does discipline us as a Father disciplines a child (Hebrews 12) “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12: 11 ).

We don’t always know why bad things happen to God’s people. He asks us to wait for the harvest of righteousness and he asks for us to be patient. He always knows what is best for us, even when we go through pain, sickness, fear, loss, and all the other hardships that exist in a fallen world.

But we do know what to do when we are tempted to ask “Why?” We, like our Savior know “the word that sustains the weary” as he “wakens us morning by morning.” We are confident that the same God who was faithful to his Son on Easter morning will be faithful to us in times of sorrow or trouble. Going to his word will help us wait patiently for all things to work out for the good of those who him.  In the mean time we pray,

Lord in loving contemplation Fix our hearts and eyes on you

Till we taste your full salvation And your unveiled glory view. (CW 111:5).