Our Gentle Savior

Read: Isaiah 42:1-4 & Matthew 12:14-21

Isaiah 42:1–4 KJV 1900

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, Nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, And the smoking flax shall he not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, Till he have set judgment in the earth: And the isles shall wait for his law.

Matthew 12:14–21 KJV 1900

14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. 15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; 16 And charged them that they should not make him known: 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

Introduction:

Our passage reading is from what some Bible teachers have called a “Servant Song.” There are four so called “Servant Songs” in the book of Isaiah. They are not songs as they were never intended to be sung, but they do all talk about a particular person, who would have an attitude and characteristic of a servant.

In the one we are talking about this morning we see that this Servant would have a special purpose and equipped for a particular mission.

We are also given his mode of operation -

Now Matthew doesn’t hesitate at all to identify who this Servant is,

Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and stirred up the religious leaders who were ready to “destroy him” (Matt. 12:14)

But Jesus hid himself away from them although a large multitude followed him - and I love how Matthew records for us (Matt. 12:15) “and he healed them all” the only stipulation they were not to make him known.

Then he explains why they were not to make him known in Matthew 12:17-21 which is a fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah 42.

But what does it mean? I think it is showing us an amazing picture of God. I see three different pictures of God revealing himself through his Son Jesus Christ in this:

The Gentle Jesus

The Healing Jesus

The Restoring Jesus

I want to look first of all at the Gentle Jesus.

1. The Gentle Jesus

I have twenty of what we call “double second cousins.”

My dad came from a large family and my mother came from a large family.

As things happen sometimes two of my Dad’s brothers fell in love with and married two of my mom’s sisters.

While there were six children in my family 4 boys and 2 girls,

Uncle Delmar and Aunt Margie had 5, 4 girls and one boy.

my Uncle Everette and Aunt Sis. had 5, 4 girls and one boy.

We were practically like brothers and sisters and were all pretty close.

The oldest of this bunch of 26 kids, my cousin Sharon (thought not the first to get married) married a man we all call “Big Jim” and he fit his name perfectly.

He was a hulk of a man. He wasn’t fat it was largely muscle, he was raised on a farm and worked hard all of his life.

But when he opened his mouth to talk all of those muscles just kind of disappeared. “Big Jim” was just a big old teddy bear.

When they had their first child Becca, We went down to Peace Valley to see them. I remember seeing this big old guy pick up this little dainty fragile baby and she seemed to shrink even more.

One little squeeze from that big man and he could have injured her badly - but he was so gentle, so careful, so fatherly to her.

This is the picture I get when I read this - You remember Jesus is GOD! He’s not part god and part man - He is ALL GOD AND ALL MAN!

He had the ability to just breathe on those religious leaders and they would have fallen to the ground dead - but not one time does Jesus do that.

He could have called fire from heaven and destroyed all of his opponents and ruled the world - but he doesn’t do that.

Matthew 12:19 KJV 1900

19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.

IN fact they are able to take him all the way to the cross and nail his hands and feet and lift him up to die - and a legion of angels were standing by just waiting for the signal to come and destroy his captors and torturers, but not once does he even begin to signal -

Yes Jesus the Son of God was gentle in every respect - he came with a gentle an almost undetectable approach - Matthew continues on look at verse 20

Matthew 12:20 KJV 1900

20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.

Some of this verse overlaps with our next thought which we will get to momentarily but I want to talk about this bruised reed and smoking flax a little

This “bruised reed” and “smoking flax” both speak of fragile or easily broken or ruined items.

Jesus would be so gentle that he would not cause a bruised reed to break as he walked by - or flax that was smoking to go out. we will explore these in a moment

but we get just a tremendous picture of God being so gentle, caring, concerned, loving and delicate. Not often the picture we get of God.

It makes me think of the lovely picture of God found in...

Zechariah 9:17 KJV 1900

17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.

Not only is he The Gentle Jesus but That brings us to our second thought about Jesus God’s Servant -

2. The Healing Jesus -

I love how in this story people were flocking to Jesus and at least in this instance “He healed them all.” and not one bit of his power was lost!!! He was just as much Jesus the Son of God after this as he was before he healed all those people! Those diseases, infirmities, ailments, problems, viruses, they couldn’t take his power!!! PRAISE THE LORD and your situation doesn’t have him incapacitated either!!!

Jesus healed in this instance all that came to Him. I want to remind you that whatever your problem you can come to Him as well - HE WILL NOT CAST YOU OUT.

Now I do believe in divine healing - I also know that sometimes God has something greater than healing - that through suffering and pain we bring greater glory to God and that is his business -

But I do know that we can come to HIM whatever it is and he will either keep us from or keep us through whatever we are facing!!!

I’m so thankful for that today

But while he healed them all - they were all instructed not to tell anyone - they were not to make him known - he was to be working in secret.

Isaiah and Matthew talk about the bruised reed and smoking flax that isn’t broken or snuffed out by this Servant of God that Matthew identifies for us as Jesus.

We have seen already that He is The Gentle Jesus and the Healing Jesus but I also want us to notice this morning that he is the RESTORING JESUS!!!

3. The Restoring Jesus

I don’t want to read too much into this passage -

but wherever Jesus went - not only was the bruised reed not broken but it was healed.

Not only was the smoking flax not snuffed out - it was refilled and ready to shine God’s light brighter than it ever had before.

Are you a bruised reed or a smoking flax today?

Lets look a little at what that means.

Bruised Reeds -

A reed in those days was used for many purposes -

A flute

pen

walking stick

basket

Many other things

but was also used for measuring.

If that reed became damaged, bruised, or bent it was no longer useful and was often discarded or thrown away.

Our passage talks about someone who when He comes by not only does not break the reed, but doesn’t discard it - it speaks of a restoring it.

One Puritan writer looked at this bruised reed as a person suffering from sin. He wrote; “Are you bruised? Be of good comfort, he calls you. Conceal not your wounds, open all before him and... go to Christ.... There is more mercy in [Him] than sin in [you].”

A Smoking Flax

Flax was a plant that was used to get thread or linen from. It was often used for a wick in oil lamps. and when the oil ran out you couldn’t see any fire but it would smoke something terrible. ALl that was left to do was to put it out and throw it away.

I think both of these speak of the frailness of people - bruised reed smoking flax both are ready to be put in the discard pile -

My Dad used to like to fish when Mom and Dad were dating that is how they would date. Mom didn’t like to fish but wanted to be with Dad so she would take a book and sit on the bank while dad would fish.

Occasionally Dad would do an all night fishing escapade. We children would usually accompany him. I remember for Christmas one year someone got him a new lantern. I don’t remember the fuel it would use, but you would fill it up, pump it a little and then hang a little silk cloth thing called a mantle near where the fuel was dispensed, then you would light the mantle.

I remember one time when the fire went out in the lantern and Dad accidently bumped and jarred it. That poor little mantle in there just disintegrated. It was gone.

THere was nothing Dad could do but just get another one.

NOT SO WITH MY JESUS - He is able to pick up all those disintegrated pieces from what we have done in our lives and brought brokenness and ruin and loss - and can piece them back together in a beautiful picture of GRACE AND MERCY.

He fixes the bruised and broken reed - he refills the lamp with oil and relights the flax - we have a GOd who can restore

One songwriter said, “Lifes situation by Him are ammendable” they can be changed they can be restored.

How about you this morning? Are you a bruised reed? A smoking flax?

I want you to know that Jesus will be so delicate and gentle when working with you - he won’t break or discard but he will heal and restore.