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01/03/2026

We are hearing the Prophet Isaiah as we hear Jesus go to that cross this Lent. Issiah is often called the ‘Fifth Gospel’ since the gospel writers draw so deeply from his poetic, colourful words about the Servant, whom they knew to be Jesus of Nazareth.

We are seeking some depth and colour and new insight into the Jesus we already know by hearing the Prophet who foresaw his world-changing work seven hundred years before Jesus appeared.

Isaiah’s ‘Servant’ is God’s solution to the age-old problem of God loving his people and his people not able to love him back. God wants to keep his life-long covenant of love with his people alive, but his people have a long history of being incapable of responding with love and trust in his covenant promises of new life for all of life and beyond.

God will send his Servant as his new king of a whole new kingdom, a whole new creation. But he will be different. The character of his kingship will be suffering. He will be named the Suffering Servant. His suffering and rejection will be a sacrifice for all those who have rejected him.

This ‘Servant will be the king most people don’t want. He will look as weak as a gum sapling growing in the hot summer sun.

But that little shoot is tough. It pops up in unexpected places and outlast the toughest conditions.

Ponder the Servant in all his seeming weakness. His weakness is our life and hope.

Pastor Adrian Kitson