Other articles from this issue | Version in English | Version in French

Education - The Fifth Gospel?
Mary Travers

The expression Fifth Gospel as applied to the Fourth Song of the Servant of the Lord, or the Suffering Servant (Is. 52113 - 53:12) has long been used in Christian teaching. The prophet has often been portrayed as looking into the distant future, annihilating the centuries (and all that happened in theml) as he gazes straight into the eyes of Jesus standing silently before Pilate, bleeding from the wounds inflicted by the Roman soldiery at the scourging, hanging in agony on the cross, buried in a borrowed tomb and finally rising in triumph as the conqueror of sin and death. How beautifully simple and, like all too many simplistic approaches, how badly distorted, how far from the whole truth!

This particular passage from Isaiah is the first reading in the celebration of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday. Separated from the Passion according to John by Psalm 31 (one of those prayed by Jesus on the cross) and Heb. 4:14-16; 5:7-9, in which can be heard more than one echo of the Song, it is tempting to use the two main texts as simple examples of prophecy and fulfilment. Again that word simple! The Word of God is simple in the sense that it shares in the simplicity, the unity of God. It also shares in his infinite richness and complexity; it is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12).

Christians share the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) with the Jews. The prophecies therefore have levels of fulfilment and interpretations other than, and often pre-dating, the Christian one; indeed the latter is only comprehensible if illuminated by the former. In mainstream Jewish tradition the Suffering Servant is both the Deutero-Isaiah martyr-prophet (see Merendino) and the whole people of Israel (see Remand). In commenting on the Fourth Song, Michel Remaud points out that the Servant never ceases to praise God even in death, that Jesus died praying and that in the Shoah (Holocaust) the heart of Israel never failed to affirm its faith. A careful study of all three main articles in this issue is essential for any teacher or parent who wishes to help others enter into the Good Friday liturgy with a deeper, truer understanding of the Word of God.

Christians have come a long way since Pope John XXIII struck the word perfidious out of the Good Friday liturgy. But we have not come nearly far enough if we still look upon the relationship between the Old and New Testaments as one of simple prophecy and fulfilment! The Book of Isaiah is gospel in so far as the word means good tidings (Is. 40:9) for both Jew and Christian; it must never be denied its valid interpretation and fulfilment in Jewish terms as well as in Christian ones. But more on that subject in the June issue!