Today’s reading from Isaiah is the second of four passages classified by biblical scholars as Servant Songs in which the prophet unfolds Israel’s divine commission to extend God’s covenant beyond its national borders: “I will make you a light for the Gentiles …” The first of Isaiah’s songs (Isaiah 42:1-9) introduces the chosen servant’s mission to establish justice in all the world; the third and fourth songs (Isaiah 50:4-9; Isaiah 52:13—53:12) unfold the power of suffering in service to the divine mission.
God’s original covenant with the chosen people of Israel reflects God’s eternal covenant with all peoples and nations. Though the universal scope of God’s promised salvation is focused and fulfilled in the divine humanity of Jesus Christ—God’s Suffering Servant par excellence—the call to sacrificial love is addressed to all God’s divinely chosen people, both as individual believers and as a faithful community. All God’s people, in Israel and in the Christian church, are called to serve one common vocation: to reflect the light of God’s justice, established in Jesus’ passion and death, fulfilled in his resurrection to eternal life in the covenant community of God’s new creation.
Righteous God, strengthen your people in our covenant faith that we may faithfully serve your covenant mission to shine the light of your justice into the darkness of the world within us and around us. Amen. — PL