"You say that I am a king. For this I was born, ..., to bear witness to the truth" (Jn 18,37). These words link the royal and priestly mission of the Messiah with the prophetic mission.

The prophet is called and sent to bear witness to the truth. As a witness to the truth he speaks in God's name. In a certain sense he is the voice of God.

The task of proclaiming the truth by speaking in God's name is a service, both in relation to God who gives the mandate, and to the people to whom the prophet presents himself as God's envoy.

This introduces us to the figure of the Servant of God (Ebed Yahweh) which is found in Isaiah. The messianic tradition of the Old Covenant finds in this figure a particularly rich and important expression in which the prophet unites in himself the qualities of priest and king as well.

The Songs of the Servant in Isaiah present an Old Testament synthesis on the Messiah, open to future developments. Written so many centuries before Christ, they serve in a surprising manner to identify his figure, especially as regards the description of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh.

"Servant," "Servant of God," is widely used in the Old Testament. Many eminent personages are called or identified as "God's servants". For example, Abraham (Gen 26,26), Jacob (Gen 32,11), Moses, David and Solomon, and the Prophets.

The Songs of the Servant in Isaiah do not regard a collective entity, such as a people, but an individual person, whom the Prophet distinguishes in a certain way from Israel-sinner.

The Songs of the Servant of Yahweh are fully echoed in the New Testament from the very beginning of Jesus' messianic activity. The description of the baptism in the Jordan allows one to establish a parallel with the texts of Isaiah. Matthew writes,

"When Jesus was baptized . . . the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him" (Mt 3,16); in Isaiah it was said, "I put my spirit upon him" (Is 42,1).

The evangelist adds, "And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, 'This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3,17), while in Isaiah God says to the Servant, "my chosen, in whom my soul delights" (Is 42,1).

John the Baptist points out Jesus approaching the Jordan with the words, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn 1,29), an exclamation which summarizes, as it were, the third and fourth Songs of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh.

The first messianic words were spoken by Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth when he reads the text of Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, ..., to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lk 4, 17-19), words of the first Song of the Servant of Yahweh (Is 42,1-7; cf. also Is 61,1-2).

If then we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, he appears to us as the Servant of God, who brings salvation to the people, who heals them, who frees them from their iniquity, who wishes to win them to himself not by force but by goodness.

Jesus speaks of himself as a servant, clearly alluding to Isaiah 53, when he says, "The Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10,45; Mt 20,28). The same idea is expressed by the washing of the feet of the Apostles (Jn 13,3-4, 12-15).

Throughout the whole of the New Testament, beside the passages and allusions to the first Song of the Servant of Yahweh (Is 42,1-7), which underline the election of the Servant and his prophetic mission of liberation, of healing and of covenant for all people, the greater number of texts refers to the third and fourth Songs (Is 50,4-11; Is 52,13-53,12) on the Suffering Servant.