Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!

 But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there.  And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.  Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

"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 will declare justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel nor cry out,
Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench,
Till He sends forth justice to victory;
And in His name Gentiles will trust."

- Matthew 12:15-21

Yesterday we read that Jesus went through the grainfields on a Sabbath.  And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"  But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:  how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?  Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?  Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.  But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.  For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."  Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.  And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand.  And they asked Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" -- that they might accuse Him.  Then He said to them, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?  Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?  Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."  Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. 

But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there.  And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all.  Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:  "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 will declare justice to the Gentiles.  He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.  A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust."  At this point, the Pharisees are plotting how they might destroy Jesus.  My study bible says that our Lord's refusal to fully disclose His identity as Messiah is foreseen by Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1-4).  Among the reasons for His secrecy are:  the growing hostility of the religious leadership, the people's misunderstanding of the Messiah as a worldly political leader, and Christ's desire to evoke genuine faith that is not based solely on marvelous signs.  The Servant of Isaiah ("My Servant whom I have chosen," verse 18 of today's passage) refers first to Christ, and by extension all who follow Him, my study bible tells us. 

What does it mean to be a servant?  In all things, we have seen that Jesus defers to the will of His Father in heaven.  He teaches us to do likewise.  In the one prayer He has given us, we are taught to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  This is the first petition of the prayer, a kind of prime orientation for all of His ministry, and for what we understand that we wish to serve with our own lives.  As my study bible says, the Servant of Isaiah refers first to Christ, but also by extension to all who follow Him.  Christ places tremendous emphasis on service, on being a good servant.  He will instruct the disciples repeatedly on the importance of being a good servant.  When the disciples dispute among themselves about who will be greatest in the Kingdom from among them, Jesus tells them, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (20:25-28).   He will repeat this teaching in chapter 23:  "But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.  And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (23:11-12).  He will give them parables about good servants and bad servants (see 18:21-35, 24:45-51, 25:14-30).  He will give examples in still other parables of those who serve faithfully and suffer or lose their lives for it, in this parable for example.  Throughout Matthew's Gospel, Jesus will give us examples of servants as positive models for what a good disciple must be, and as the example He will set Himself, especially in His death on the Cross.  It is this supreme act of service that creates redemption for a universe, a way of life that saves and heals and redeems our own suffering in life.  It is His act of service that separates for us what is essential and what is not essential; it is this act of service that destroys death by death, gives us life, and helps us to see the transcendence possible in any situation we face in life.  Jesus' service is one done with compassion and mercy, but it is also one done to uphold the highest standards of meaning and dignity.  It brings us true goodness, and gives us the gift of joy in its fullness.  All these ways are given to us to teach us about what it means to be a servant, His way, and to follow in His footsteps.  In the modern world, we don't put much stock in service or servitude.  We tend to exalt or admire those who set their own paths, create their own businesses, a sort of independent personal glory, claiming something for oneself.  But service reminds us that we are not creatures who create like God does, out of nothing.  Whatever we perceive from the world as good, whatever we wish to imitate or follow, the things we find around ourselves from which we learn all become somehow things that we serve.  An idea, a person we admire, even the bad or false teachings we may mistakenly follow for a time, all of these things become things we serve.  Our very natures create in us an attitude of service to things we may never think twice about, to ideas we don't necessarily examine well, to assumptions and assertions we never question nor possibly even become aware of within ourselves.   Human beings serve all kinds of things all the time.  What He is asking of us is that we become consciously aware of what we serve and how we serve -- that we begin to understand what it is to dedicate ourselves to the highest good and to serve that which will in turn reward us with good.  We deceive ourselves with thoughts of absolute independence, rather than understanding the discernment, discipline, and dedication Jesus advocates as that which will put us in right relationship with God, with the world, with our own well-being in a wholistic sense of who we are as human beings.  Let us consider that He knows our nature better than we do.  Let us find the way to be good servants, and accept His way as His disciples.  It is the wisdom and the love He gives us that teaches and leads the way, for our joy.