Scripture Study for

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Understanding the Word

By Br. John R. Barker, OFM

This last of the Servant Songs of Isaiah is the most perplexing,  not least because it claims that in the mysterious plan of God, the  Servant’s suffering will contribute to the salvation of others (53:5).  Although our translation reads that God was “pleased to crush him  in infirmity,” more recent translations reflect the idea not of divine  pleasure but of divine will, which is not the same thing. It was God’s  will that the Servant remain faithful despite the suffering, and this  same suffering is now offered for the very people who cause it. The  Servant will be glorified, however, and will see the fruitfulness of his  suffering, which will not have been for nothing. 

The author of Hebrews has been developing the point that the  Son of God entered into the human experience, including death, to  bring his brothers and sisters to glory. Now Jesus is able to fulfill  perfectly the function of the High Priest, which was to worship God  and to intercede for the faithful. The humanity and suffering of Jesus  mean that he is able to commiserate with us, not standing aloof and  indifferent to our struggles and need for mercy but finding common  cause with us in our human weakness. Thus there is no need to fear  when approaching “the throne of grace,” because we find there a  sympathetic and infinitely effective advocate. 

For the last several chapters in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has repeatedly  told his disciples that they must be like children, that they must  give up everything, that the last will be first and the first last, that  they must take up their crosses. Yet the sons of Zebedee, two of  Jesus’ closest followers, have not absorbed any of this. Indeed, as  Jesus’ closest companions, they expect to receive honors when he  establishes the kingdom. Jesus once again tries to drive home his  points about humility, spiritual poverty, and exercise of authority.  The Son of Man is a model for them, and he approaches the world  in a very different way, which the disciples still do not understand  or accept. 

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