The Servant of the Lord

On the solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord last Sunday, the readings helped us recall the term “Servant of the Lord,” referring to Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God. In the first reading for this Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, the prophet Isaiah speaks of Israel’s vocation to be God’s servant. Similarly, other great figures in the Bible are also given the title of Servant of God. For example, we can mention Samuel, Jeremiah, and John the Baptist.

Regarding the reading from the prophet Isaiah that we will hear at Mass this Sunday, the prophet says that God chose Israel from its mother’s womb to fulfill a great mission. The prophet must have been referring to the mission of the small group of Israelites who remained faithful to God’s precepts. They were a small group that resisted the allure of paganism amid a people estranged from their God.

Let us remember that Jerusalem was destroyed and the Israelites were exiled to Babylon in the sixth century B.C. They had been humiliated and degraded in a foreign land. They had lost all hope of returning to their homeland. In this humanly desperate situation, the Lord’s message reaches the small group of faithful, calling them Servant, the faithful Israel. The Lord entrusted them with a twofold task: to gather all the children of Israel and bring them back to the land of their ancestors, and to become the light and sign of God’s salvation to the ends of the earth.

However, the task entrusted to them requires exceptional skills and resources to be fulfilled. Faithful Israel seems insufficient for the task. But we have a God of surprises: the Lord has decided to manifest “his glory” through the seemingly weak Servant Israel.

Now, the figure of the “Servant of the Lord” depicted by Isaiah is perfectly embodied in Jesus. Like the Servant, Jesus carried out his mission by gathering the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He desired that his light shine especially in Galilee. Ma􀆩hew reminds us of this when he tells us that the people who lived in darkness have seen a great light.

The “Servant of the Lord” described by Isaiah seemed inadequate for the task, and Jesus also experienced apparent failure by dying on the cross, but God intervened. God transformed apparent defeat into triumph; Jesus rose from the dead. After the resurrection, Christ’s mission extended to the whole world through the disciples who followed his command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Today, you and I are baptized, we are disciples of Jesus Christ, and we are called to continue Christ’s mission in the world, in our communities, in our families, in our workplaces, wherever we go. We have received this calling, and today Jesus reminds us to be “servants” of the Lord, to be faithful disciples of Christ, willing to build the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, a Kingdom of justice, peace, solidarity, mercy, compassion, and reconciliation. In a word, a Kingdom of love.

May the Lord always give you his peace.

Fr. Lalo Jara, OFM
Pastor, Mission San Luis Rey Parish