I hope you all enjoyed our short break from Matthew last week. I do hope that you all had some time to discuss the topic of the Christian and the Sabbath as it is an important one that has farther reaching consequences in how we approach the Old Testament Law as a whole.
This week, we are going to continue with our look at Matthew chapter 12 and the growing rejection of Jesus by the Pharisees. We saw in chapter 11 the progression of the reaction of the nation of Israel as a whole toward Jesus. Indifference growing into rejection, and then here in chapter 12 we are beginning to see the religious leaders planning the downfall of Christ. He was getting out of hand and in their minds it needed to end.
Next week, we are going to look at the most extreme statement of rejection by the Pharisees as they will say to Jesus in verse 24 “this man casts out demons only by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons.” And in that interaction we have in verse 32 what is known as the “unpardonable” sin of speaking against the Holy Spirit. Now we will take time, of course, to dive into what that is, but before we get there, Matthew gives us this statement, this quotation of Isaiah that is a direct pronouncement of Jesus as the Messiah, as the perfect servant of God. But we must remember the context that it comes in and so as we read our passage for this morning I am going to begin back in verse 8 to help us get a picture of what exactly is going on that moved Matthew to insert this messianic quotation.
If you have your Bibles, I encourage you to read along, Matthew 12:8-21. Our passage for this morning beginning in verse 15.
In chapter 12 we see Jesus challenge the Pharisees on their most important traditions, those surrounding the Sabbath. Our text for this morning follows the profound declaration of Jesus in verse 8 that “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath,” claiming for all who were listening that He is divine. Jesus then proceeded into their synagogue and found a man with a withered hand. And after making this amazing claim to divinity, the Pharisees asked the Lord if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. They were not honestly asking this question, recognizing Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath and desiring to know what the rules really should be. They asked this question out of their desire to trap Him, so that they could build a case against Him for blasphemy, furthering their plans to destroy Him.
Knowing their intentions, Jesus disarmed them by asking the question about the sheep, and which man among them was heartless enough to allow this simple animal to suffer or die in a pit rather than simply pulling it out. The answer of course is obvious, every one of them would reach down and pull out their sheep. And so Jesus makes the comparison, He drags out the point all the more, raking the Pharisees over the coals. “So which one has more value? The sheep or the man? How much more valuable than is a man the sheep!” So obviously if it is lawful to help a sheep, it is lawful to help your fellow man on the Sabbath day.
After healing the man with a withered hand, Matthew tells us that the Pharisees went out and conspired against Jesus, “as to how they might destroy Him.” And that as we find ourselves in verse 15. Knowing their intentions, being divinely aware of the plot that is being hatched against Him, Jesus withdraws from that place. Matthew gives us this commentary on the situation, the simple statement of what Jesus did and then explaining it by a quotation from Isaiah.
Matthew gives us this quotation to demonstrate how Jesus is the personification of the perfect servant of God. He is the “chosen servant” as we see in verse 18. A name recognized by the Jewish people as one referring to the Messiah. We also see in this description of Jesus as the chosen servant several attributes that we, as believers, as disciples of Christ, we should emulate.
Before we get to those attributes, with this quote, Matthew is going to show us how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Messiah. And so we begin with the picture of the Chosen Servant was fully committed to God’s plan. Why would Jesus withdraw? Why would He leave that place? The Pharisees were conspiring, and John tells us that they went so far as to involve the Herodians, the people in Palestine that were committed to keeping Herod in power, a Gentile; something that the Jewish people hated. But they were so set on finding a way to destroy Jesus they involved people who were essentially their archenemies.
So why did Jesus leave? Was it cowardice? Of course not. Jesus knew even then what His mission was, He knew that He was going to die. But He was committed to God’s plan, it was the Father who set the agenda. Jesus had other work to do, His training of the 12 apostles and the other disciples that were following was not yet complete and so instead of engaging the Pharisees, instead of confronting them and their plan to destroy them, He walked away.
We see in verse 15 that as Jesus withdrew, many followed Him and He continued to heal them all. Jesus was demonstrating His divine love and compassion for suffering people. He healed in order to reveal the loving heart of God which continually went out from Him to those who were hurting, burdened, and persecuted.
The people that He healed were those who were despised and neglected by the Pharisees and religious leaders of Israel. The Pharisees were only interested in the rich and influential, those they believed were blessed by God. The sick, the poor, and the outcasts had to “obviously” done something to anger God, they had sinned, or maybe their parents had sinned, and so they were facing the curse of God and instead of ministering to them they shunned them. The only interest they showed in those kind of people were when they could use them like we saw in verse 10 as they use the man with a withered hand as a way to trap Jesus.
Unlike the supposed shepherds of Israel, Jesus always had time for those who were suffering and so even in this moment, as He is withdrawing from the Pharisees who were planning to kill Him, He took time to heal those who were in need. He felt compassion, as we saw back in chapter 9, He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd.
And yet we see Jesus warning those He healed not to tell who He was. We have come across this before, Jesus healing were performing some miracle and then instructing the individuals not to proclaim who He was or what had happened. Back in chapter 8 we saw this with the leper and there are several other accounts in the other Gospels where Jesus performs a miracle and instructs the individuals not to say anything. I think that the reason for this can be seen as similar to His decision to withdraw from the Pharisees in the first place.
Jesus knew the plan of God the Father and was committed to it and so He warned them not to make Him known. This is sometimes referred to as “the messianic secret.” There are couple possible explanations as to why Jesus told them to say nothing. One is that Jesus did not want to be inundated with people just wanting to be healed, but that He wanted to preach the message of the kingdom. I think there is some truth to that. In a way, Jesus was balancing His compassion for the hurting and the lost. On the one hand He wanted to heal their diseases, stop the physical suffering but at the same time He knew that their greatest need was to recognize Him as Lord and Messiah in the correct light.
Second, I believe that Jesus did not want His miracles to become too widely known in order to keep them in perspective. The miracles were done out of compassion but were also designed as evidence of His divine power and His rightful claim to Messiahship. As His popularity and influence grew, as more and more people became aware of His miraculous abilities, they would misconstrue His purpose as the Messiah. They wanted a Messiah who would lead them against Rome, liberate them from the Gentiles and conquer the world. A Messiah with these miraculous abilities could do that very easily, He could heal the wounded, or crush opposing armies; He could feed the masses, releasing them from the fear of starvation, one of their greatest enamines. But that is not why Jesus came. He came to die for the people first before He would come to lead them as a king.
It all had to do with Jesus humbly submitting to God’s plan. Jesus would rule as King, but not until He fulfilled the role as the suffering servant and that is what we see in Matthew’s quotation of Isaiah beginning in verse 17. Though the people expected the Messiah to be a great leader in the sense that He would be a commanding presence at the head of the kingdom, facing His opponents head on and defeating them. Matthew assures His reader that Jesus really is the Messiah, but fulfilling His role as the chosen servant in a way that people of Israel did not expect. And in that He was conforming to God’s plan.
The chosen servant was God’s Man and we see that in the way that He was proclaimed by God the Father Himself. This quote begins “behold my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased.” This quote demonstrates Jesus was commended by God Himself as the Messiah. Twice in the Gospels do we hear a voice from heaven proclaiming this truth. The first we saw at the baptism of Jesus. As John baptized Jesus, we read “Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lightning on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heaven said, “this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Then again at the Transfiguration, as Jesus is standing on the mountaintop with Moses and Elijah, in view of Peter, James, and John a voice from heaven opens up and says “this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Here Him.” His final commendation by the Father, the final proof of His position as the Messiah would come in the resurrection and ascension as Jesus would be brought into the throne room of God and sat down at His right hand.
Jesus is the chosen servant of God. Commended by the Father audibly from heaven and demonstrated over and over again in His miraculous abilities; and yet this is the one that the religious leaders of Israel and the Pharisees were condemning. That should show you just how far off, how cemented in their rejection of God the religious leaders were. The one whom God was commending audibly from Heaven, they were condemning.
As God’s man, the chosen servant, He was also commissioned by the Holy Spirit. One of the promises of Isaiah 42 that Matthew quotes here is “I will put my Spirit upon Him.” We know that happened in a visible and unique way at His baptism, we just read that passage a moment ago as the Spirit of God to send it like a dove. But there was far more to it than that. Jesus Christ was conceived by the spirit of God and was indwelt by the Holy Spirit from the very beginning. In Luke 1, we read that John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from the womb and he was merely a prophet, the forerunner of the Messiah. How much more would it be true of Jesus to say that the Spirit of God was upon Him. He is God, He was already God.
Now, did Jesus need the Holy Spirit to accomplish His mission? I think there was some need of the Holy Spirit to empower Jesus in His human nature. In His divine nature He was God the Son, but in His human nature He was completely human. We studied Christology in our Sunday school over the last couple of months. We know that Jesus was fully human, He grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. We know that He was tempted just as we are, we know that He was hungry, and thirsty, that He grew tired, that He felt pain and that He had emotions. So when His humanity, He needed the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in order to function just as we do.
And I also believe that Jesus being anointed with the Holy Spirit at His baptism confirmed His Royal service as He was sent to the world. In the Old Testament we read about the spirit of God being poured out onto certain people calling them to service. Most notably King David who was the archetype of Christ to come. Messiah means “anointed one,” and He was anointed, set apart by the Holy Spirit of God to pursue the plans of God in the world.
And that is what He did. At the end of verse 18 “and He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.” The people of Israel were never meant to be the end of God’s work in the world. They were not His chosen people that all others were to join, they were the channel, the highway that was to see the justice and righteousness of God, and salvation brought to the world. Salvation was not meant to come to the Jews only, but through the Jews. The world was always the focus of God and Jesus came to proclaim justice and righteousness to all.
We see in this quotation that Jesus was fully committed to God’s plan, God’s timing and intentions for the chosen servant, the Messiah. We see that Jesus was God’s man, commended by the Father, commissioned by the Holy Spirit, and sent into the world to bring justice and salvation to all. But Jesus also functions as the perfect example of a servant of God. Verses 19 and 20 are not just prophecies about who the Messiah will be, prophecies that Jesus did fulfill, they serve as an example for all those who would come and follow in the Lord’s footsteps.
Jesus is the perfect servant. And we see that He portrays a heart committed to meekness. Why would He withdraw from the Pharisees? Why would He spend so much time with individuals who had questions rather than public debate with the Pharisees? He could obviously best them at every turn. We saw how He silenced them in verses 9-14. They had no real legs to stand on in pursuing their Sabbath traditions and Jesus expose them for what they were and yet that is not what He sought out. We see in verse 19 “He will not quarrel,” He will not wrangle or hassle or brawl. He was not there to beat the Pharisees into submission, physically or verbally.
It has been said in the past “you cannot argue someone into the kingdom.” A Christian may be very good at debate, quick to point out the flaws in someone’s argument and overrun them with logic and truth. But it is impossible to for a Christian to change the unbeliever’s heart with an argument. That is not to say that we should never defend the truth against other worldviews. Apologists, defenders of the faith are necessary and can be helpful for believers who are struggling with questions and unbelievers who God is pulling toward Himself. But an argument is never the right answer.
Verse 19 goes on, “He will not quarrel, nor cry out; nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.” Crying out refers to the barking of the dog or the pointless ruckus made just to shout over someone. It does not have anything to contribute to a discussion, it is just a nuisance. We are seeing this a lot in the protests and commotion that has been going on of the last couple of weeks. There are a handful who are willing to have a conversation, but for the most part there is no reason trying to have a conversation about the differences in perspectives because they just begin shouting their slogans and crying out insults. And if you think that conservatives are immune to this then you have not been on Facebook. We may not be out on the streets screaming over the opposition, but people on both sides of the issue do the same thing all the time. Flooding their Facebook page or comment sections with the noise, never taking time to listen to what the other person has to say; never engaging in real conversation.
Jesus never engaged in this sort of political diatribe. He never tried to organize a mob to do anything, He never appealed to people on the basis of emotion; which is the foundation for so much of the garbage that is going on. He did not indulge the ravings of fools. Ecclesiastes 9:17 says “the words of the wise heard in quietness are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.” There is dignity in meekness, there is gentleness and humility in the kind of wisdom that Jesus portrayed and that we as His disciples are to emulate. We need to remember that whether we are discussing Scripture or politics. To force our opinions our thoughts on someone, even if we know them to be true, to force our views through arguments, emotional manipulation or simply pounding the drum is unacceptable for a follower of Christ. Whether that is in person or on Facebook.
In verse 20 we see Jesus fulfill perfect gentleness. He was characterized by comforting the week. “A battered read He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out.” What does that mean? The reeds in the marshy areas around the Jordan River were used for a lot of things. They could be cut into simple flutes to be played by the shepherds or fishermen. They were used as writing utensils. Whatever they might be used for, there were millions of them and so if you were looking for Reed to turn into a flute and it was bruised or battered, you would just break it off and throw it away and grab another one. The same was true of the smoldering wick. The oil lamps that lit houses needed a wick protruding out the front and in order to keep the flame alight. These wicks were made out of flax that was twisted tightly together. Like the reeds, they were prevalent everywhere, not even a dime a dozen, and if a wick was not burning right, or just about spent such that it was not working you would just toss it out and stick and another one.
So what is this referring to? The picture here is of hurting people. The bruised reed and smoldering wick are people who are battered and burnt out by a world filled with sin and its consequences. The kind of people that the Pharisees stepped on everywhere they went. The week, the powerless, the helpless, the ones destroyed by sin and suffering, the unworthy. The ones who had no spiritual resources and were very much aware of it. The kind of people to whom Jesus looked to in chapter 9:36 and “seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” They were the ones to whom He said “come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
The kind of people that the world has given up on, the kind of people that the world treats with as much contempt as a broken and useless reed or a burnt out candle. When RC Sproul was beginning the prison ministry in His church, they were trying to think of a logo, a symbol that people would be able to recognize and He said that when the question came up, immediately He knew what it would be; a bruised reed. They were going to be ministering to the people rejected by the world; yes, imprisoned because of their sin, but bruised people, broken people. The ministry of the church is never to destroy them.
Verse 20 is not just saying Jesus refrained from breaking the reed or smothering the wick, He would do the exact opposite. He would strengthen them, He would pick up the bruised reed and turn it into the perfect instrument in His hand. He would fan the flame on the smoldering wick so that it would brighten the room. He did not simply refrain from trotting on the sick and the broken people, He healed their diseases and ministered to their hurts. He did not simply ignore the tax collectors and sinners, He sat with them and told them about the rest, the relief from their sin and guilt that He offered.
You see it is not enough that we feel sorry for those who are suffering, it is not enough that we feel bad about other people’s situation. We are called to minister to the bruised reeds and smoldering wicks in this world. We cannot do that when we are arguing and fighting, we cannot do that when we are crying out, trumpeting our slogans, adding to the din. We are called to go out as shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. Sometimes that means walking away from the person who is just there to yell and fight and argue, trying to batter their opinion into the opposition. Sometimes that means withdrawing from those who are seeking our destruction. That sounds like such an un-American thing to do, right? We are supposed to fight for our rights, we are supposed to stand up to evil men. But that is not what Jesus did, we must be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in us if they are going to listen, if there is even a chance they might hear us, but if they are just out for blood then we are to humbly withdraw. Even if that means we are going to suffer for it later.
At the same time we are to look for those who are suffering, the weak, the broken, the hurting. The bruised reeds and smoldering wicks that the world cares nothing about. We are to seek them out and offer aid, comfort them in whatever way we can. Always looking to meet their greatest need, their need for the love and forgiveness of Christ. You see there is one last bit at the end of verse 20. “A battered read He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory.”
Jesus is coming again, He is coming as a king and He is coming as the perfect judge; and He will bring with Him His perfect justice and wrath against sin. That is both a promise and a warning. A warning to those who continue to despise Him, a warning that His perfect justice will be meted out against those who continue to live in rejection of Him. A promise to the faithful that He will bring justice. Whatever injustice in this life we may face, however our “rights” have been trampled in this life, He will bring justice to victory; and so, we put our trust in Him, we allow Him the final say and we go on in humility and in meekness and in gentleness proclaiming His gospel. That is a hard thing to do for proud people; but God does want the proud. “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”