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

Christ the Humble in Heart

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 the 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."    After His confrontation with the Pharisees, and their subsequent choice to plot against Him and to destroy Him, Jesus withdrew from this area.  Although He is quite popular in terms of His ministry and the healings that accompany it, He seeks to be hidden for the moment.  My study bible comments on His refusal to fully disclose His identity as Messiah.  This quotation shows that this reticence was foreseen by Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1-4, Septuagint).  My study bible cites several reasons for secrecy, among which are the growing hostility of the Jewish religious leadership; the people's misunderstanding of the Messiah as an earthly, political leader; and Christ's desire to evoke genuine faith which is not based only on the marvelous signs that accompany His ministry.  Isaiah's prophecy refers to My Servant, which my study bible says indicates first Christ, and by extension  all who follow Him.  Also foreseen by Isaiah in the final verse quoted above, Christ's eventual mission to the Gentiles.

The inclusion of this quotation from Isaiah at this point in Matthew's Gospel seems to confirm that the true Messiah would not be one who engages in open combat like a military conqueror, but rather one like Christ, who instead spends time withdrawn from conflict.  While He boldly engages the religious leadership when confronted, He does not seek it out.  At this juncture in His ministry, He seeks even to be hidden.   As explosive and popular as His ministry is -- for people all coming seeking healings or to see them performed -- He tries to dissuade those who receive or witness such healings from speaking about them publicly and making Him more well-known.  Of course, this is always a futile request, as the Gospels repeatedly make known to us.  In fact, in Mark's Gospel we're told that the more Jesus commanded people not to speak of the healing He'd done, the more widely they proclaimed it (Mark 7:36).  This ministry simply cannot be kept hidden.  Nevertheless, Jesus fulfills His role as the Servant of Isaiah, one who, in His own words from Tuesday's reading, is gentle (or meek) and lowly of heart.  But in today's reading that characterization goes further, and we are introduced to the humility of Jesus.  That is, nothing in this ministry is done out of selfishness in the sense that He seeks fame or renown.  Everything about Christ speaks rather of His devotion to God the Father, His joy at fulfilling the Father's will.  His ministry invites us into a life of the Kingdom, in which joy and peace do not come as a result of personal gain, but rather as part of fulfillment within God's energies and grace at work in the world.  If we look at Christ's ministry, and His desire to withdraw for this time, we understand that He is on a mission, and it is going according to the will of the Father, not a worldly plan.   There will later arrive the time for Him to go to Jerusalem.  It's important to know that both His withdrawal and His extraordinary courage comes out of this same humility and devotion to serving the Father's will.  The same will follow for the apostles and disciples who come afterward through the history of the Church.  So when we seek to follow Christ, we should understand that we, too, wish to also follow that will in our own lives, and to pray that we can accept it and understand it, and make the changes we need to make, seeking the true image God has for us.  In every way, Christ the Son, as the human Jesus, shows us the way through His humility to the Father, His willingness to sacrifice a worldly notion of ambition for the understanding of God -- which is prophesied by Isaiah.  Let us put that faith to work in our own lives that Jesus displays for us in His, and trust to the love of God in the same way as best we are able.  Like the apostles, perhaps we, too, should pray, "Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5).