He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He leads justice to victory ( Matt.12:20 )

One of the most incredible, yet misunderstood attributes of the Lord is His unfathomable love for the lost. We have a very marred understanding of God’s divine love found in His Son Who came to us in a form of a servant. Isaiah 42 verses 1 to 4 speaks of the same character of our Lord where Matthew speaks it to the Pharisees of his day. Why does this scripture in Isaiah’s prophecy have to be fulfilled in Matthew ‘s account of the gospel? These are questions that we will try to examine this evening.

Behold My Servant whom I uphold Isaiah says… “ My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth justice to the gentiles……. Isaiah 42:1-4

Matthew the social outcast of his days being a tax collector after being visited by Christ is the second author of these words, since he truly understood the depth of this reality in an experiential way.

Jesus taking the form of a man bowed low in His love to the worst level of sin to bring us hope through His sacrificial love for us. In Matthews narrative of the good news, he sees this gentle and loving spirit of the Lord in dealing with the worst kind of sinners. Being called the God’s Servant and the Elect One, God the Father was manifesting His mercy in His gentleness towards the most rebellious sinners. Recognizing their bruised condition due to their ignorant sinful state He did not break them, but bowed lower than them to heal their brokenness of sin. He came to them as a gentle dove carrying their sin upon Himself.

In Matthews account Jesus is portrayed as the suffering servant to the Pharisees who were condemning Him for working on the Sabbath restoring men’s broken lives.

He did not wait until they became worthy of His grace or to cry out to Him for help, He came to them while they were a sinner.

He overcame the Pharisaical hypocrisy of seeing worth and value in the perishing sinners willingness to be saved. He overcame the state of man’s understanding of their perishing status by crying out to God saying..

“ Father forgive them for they do not know what they do”. He did not wait to help the dying until they saw their sin or confessed them. He died while they had no acknowledgment of their need for Him. Isaiah the prophet, and the former tax collector are both saying …. “Smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth Justice to Victory” Wow what a marvelous revelation of God’s unfathomable love. Meaning ,He being God and the Judge of all the earth could easily sentence men to Hell, because of their stubbornness of their lack of confession of their sin, yet He stood taller in forgiving them and not to condemn them in their state of helpless ignorance.

The gospel message in Matthew 12 verses 20-21 tell us about the immeasurable tender mercy and loving kindness of Jesus. When we realize the Savior’s gentleness towards undeserving sinners like us as Scripture tells it, how heart stirring and heart melting it is! The aim of this message is that all listening will for sure take refuge with Jesus, either for a first time or second time. Here in this passage the Lord portrays His long suffering towards even those who would not seek Him in their miseries. He rebukes the human arrogance and pride in judging the sinners in a self diluted Pharisaical self righteous attitude before helping the lost. “Oh you know I was a better sinner than this one, since in my heart I was seeking Him”. Yet the Bible says we were all lost and none of us were truly seeking Him. In our state of being lost He did not pass us by in prideful arrogance of denying us His mercy and grace. He did not quench the smoking flax.
In another words Matthew the gospel writer addressing the Jews tries to paint the true picture of grace in the person of Jesus.

He is saying that the gentleness of God’s love towards all men is portrayed in Christ Jesus.

He also magnifies the justice of God having victory over the law of sin and death by Christ’s predestined election according to His marvelous grace for all sinners. We by natural birth being subject to the law of the sin and death constantly condemn the righteous in our minds and hearts, but ignorantly we forget that we also were saved from the same pit. Just as the Law said to stone a sinner caught in adultery, we too are ignorantly subjecting our minds to this law unfortunately. However This is where He stands as a High Priest in His intercession on our behalf.

We constantly break many bruised reeds and arrogantly quench those smoking flaxes, yet He didn’t do the same towards us.

As in the recent movie called “ Stoning of Soraya” Shohreh Aghdashlou played the part of the woman who stood by the woman who was innocently being accused of adultery and eventually condemned to death we need to learn to do the same. He The Servant of the Lord Yahweh is standing by us through His own innocence making intercession on our behalf. Ofcource with one huge difference that we are all sinners and He is the only true place of refuge to us all. As Shohreh Aghdashlou portraying the woman of virtue in that village stood alone in her convictions, so does God. He wants us to stand by His elect in speaking the justice of the Lord over them all. It is very easy to cast the first stone in arrogance, but it is more challenging to stand and show mercy shown to us, especially when we have to stand alone in our convictions at times. Has anyone cried to you lately and you have denied justice to them?

The woman caught in adultery meet Jesus in a Pharisees house. Denied mercy by the owner of the house she ran to Jesus’s feet. He did not deny her guilt nor did He call her the name she deserved, yet in her state of being bruised by sin He allowed her gentle tears wash His feet and her hair dry them in hope. To the host of the banquet it was a blasphemy, yet to Him Who was the answer to her tears it was justice lead to victory.

It is the same today brethren. Our carnal minds and arrogance of our lower nature wants to deny victory to be given its proper stand. Yet Wisdom is justified by Her children as Jesus said it elsewhere.

As the Levite and Priest who passed by the wounded traveler to Jericho, we too many times are passing by our own flesh and blood and are not mindful of bringing His justice to Victory on behalf of the afflicted ones. Being called enlightened we are serving as blind guides’ to our shame .