The Servant Who Did Not Disobey
Logos 5.
“But I do not disobey, nor do I speak against it. I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting; and the Lord became my helper. Therefore I was not put to confusion, but I set my face like a solid rock, and I knew that I would never be put to shame; for He who justified me draws near” (Isaiah 50:5–8).
In the passages already read, or rather already examined, he has raised a very great outcry against the disobedience of the Jews. For he said: “I came, and there was no man; I called, and there was none to answer” (Isaiah 50:2). He then brought in between them the person of those who accepted the faith, saying: “The Lord gives me the tongue of instruction, to know when I must speak a word” (Isaiah 50:4), with what follows these words, and they raised their voices in thanksgiving. Now the person of Christ Himself enters again, as He is eager to set His own obedience against the madness of the Jews, so as to expose them completely as hateful to God, since they lift a proud and harsh neck against Him who calls them to salvation.
“For I have called,” He says, “and there was none to answer.” They have grown sluggish toward obedience, slow and wholly without understanding when it came to grasping what would bring them profit, and the means by which they might well have escaped, and very easily, both the tyranny of sin and the plots of the devil’s malice. “But while they disobeyed, I do not disobey. For when God the Father willed to sum up all things in me, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:10), I lowered myself to self-emptying and came down into the limits of human poverty, appearing as a man, that I might become obedient even to death, and death on a cross (Philippians 2:7–8). So I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows; and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting” (Isaiah 50:6).
For these are the very things He came to suffer, when the boorishness of the Jews raged against Him like drunken men: Pilate tore Him with scourges (John 19:1), one of the unholy attendants insulted and struck Him (John 18:22), and others spat on Him (Matthew 26:67). But the One who suffered had a single aim: to carry the good will of the Father through to the end. Indeed, Christ said somewhere: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me” (John 6:38). And this will …
Greek
ΛΟΓΟΣ Εʹ.}1 9Ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἀπειθῶ, οὐδ' ἀντιλέγω. Τὸν νῶτόν μου δέδωκα εἰς μάστιγας, τὰς δὲ σιαγόνας μου εἰς ῥαπίσματα, τὸ δὲ πρόσωπόν μου οὐκ ἀπέστρεψα ἀπὸ αἰσχύνης ἐμπτυσμάτων, καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἐγε- νήθη βοηθός μου. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐνετράπην, ἀλλ' ἔθηκα τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ὡς στερεὰν πέτραν, καὶ ἔγνων ὅτι οὐ μὴ αἰσχυνθῶ, ὅτι ἐγγίζει ὁ δικαιώ- σας με.9 ∆ιὰ τῶν ἤδη προανεγνωσμένων, ἤτουν προεξητα- σμένων, πλείστην ὅσην πεποίηται τῆς Ἰουδαίων ἀπειθείας τὴν καταβοήν. Ἔφη γὰρ ὅτι Ἦλθον καὶ οὐκ ἦν ἄνθρωπος, ἐκάλεσα, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ὑπακούων, παρεισβεβληκότος δὲ μεταξὺ τοῦ προσώπου τῶν προσ- ηκαμένων τὴν πίστιν, καὶ λέγοντος· Κύριος δίδωσί μοι γλῶσσαν παιδείας τοῦ γνῶναι ἡνίκα δεῖ εἰπεῖν λόγον, καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἐπενηνεγμένα, καὶ χαριστη- ρίους ἀνατεινάντων φωνάς. Εἰστρέχει πάλιν τὸ αὐτοῦ πρόσωπον τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τὴν ἰδίαν ὑπακοὴν ταῖς Ἰου- δαίων ἀπονοίαις ἀντιπαρατιθέναι σπουδάζοντος, ἵν' ὁλοτρόπως αὐτοὺς θεομισεῖς ὄντας ἐλέγξῃ, γαῦρόν τε καὶ ἀπηνῆ τῷ καλοῦντι πρὸς σωτηρίαν ὑψοῦντας αὐ χένα. Ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ κέκληκα, φησὶ, καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ὑπακούων. Ὀκνηροὶ γεγόνασι πρὸς εὐπείθειαν, βρα- δεῖς καὶ ἀσύνετοι παντελῶς εἴς γε τὸ χρῆναι νοεῖν τὸ τελοῦν εἰς ὄνησιν αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὰ δι' ὧν ἦν εἰκὸς 402 δια- δρᾶναι δύνασθαι, καὶ λίαν ἀμογητὶ, καὶ τῆς ἁμαρ- τίας τὴν τυραννίδα, καὶ τῆς διαβολικῆς σκαιότητος τὰς ἐπιβουλάς. Ἀλλ' αὐτοὶ μὲν ἠπείθησαν, ἐγὼ δὲ οὐκ ἀπειθῶ. Ἐθελήσαντος γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ Πατρὸς ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα ἐν ἐμοὶ, τά τε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καθῆκα πρὸς κένωσιν ἐμαυ- τὸν, καὶ ἐν τοῖς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης πτωχείας καταπε- φοίτηκα μέτροις, ἄνθρωπος πεφηνὼς ἵνα ὑπήκοος γένωμαι, καὶ μέχρι θανάτου, θανάτου δὲ σταυροῦ. ∆έδωκα τοίνυν τὸν νῶτόν μου εἰς μάστιγας, τὰς δὲ σιαγόνας μου εἰς ῥαπίσματα. Τὸ δὲ πρόσωπόν μου οὐκ ἀπέστρεψα ἀπὸ αἰσχύνης ἐμπτυσμάτων. Ταυτὶ γὰρ αὐτῷ συνέβη παθεῖν, τῆς Ἰουδαίων ἀπαιδευσίας ἐμπαροινούσης αὐτῷ, καὶ Πιλάτου μὲν μάστιξι κατα- ξαίνοντος, ἑνὸς δὲ τῶν ἀνοσίων ὑπηρετῶν ὑβρίσαντος, ‹70.1093› καὶ ῥαπίσαντος, καὶ κατεμπτυόντων ἑτέρων. Ἀλλ' ἦν εἷς ὁ σκοπὸς τῷ πάσχοντι τὸ εἰς πέρας διεξαγαγεῖν τὸ ἀγαθὸν θέλημα τοῦ Πατρός. Καὶ γοῦν ἔφη που Χριστὸς, ὅτι "6Καταβέβηκα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, οὐχ ἵνα ποιῶ τὸ θέλημα τὸ ἐμὸν, ἀλλὰ τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμ- ψαντός με Πατρός."6 Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ θέλημ