Who Is God’s Servant? – 3/30/25

I think everybody wants rest. Yeah, lots of heads nodding. A sea of them. I find it interesting how we describe our life. One way we describe life is we call it the rat race. Our life is the rat race. Another one is the daily grind. How often when you talk to somebody and ask them the obligatory “how you doing” question, at some point you get back the answer, “I’m so busy” or “I’m just tired.”

Even our work is about rest. We, as the song famously says, we work for the weekend. And believe it or not, friends, the work week is shortening.

Lindsay Kohler, in her 2024 Forbes article called “The Quiet Phasing Out of Work on Fridays,” describes how employees are coming together to create what’s called “flex” or “gentle” Fridays, basically telling employers … don’t expect a whole lot from us on Friday. The idea of an important meeting happening on Friday afternoon, gone.

What about you nappers in the room? Any people who really love the nap? In 2024, a survey of nearly 1,300 people revealed that nearly one-third of those people take a nap weekly at work. They need rest.

Everybody wants rest. Rest is great. Naps are rejuvenating. Vacations are glorious. But it’s weird that even after these good things, we’re not rest-full.

Rest as we experience it just in life is temporary. It’s not perpetual. Life seems to fight us against having real rest. It seems so elusive. Jesus looks at all of us and says,

“Come to me … and I will give you rest.”

“Take my yoke upon you …”

which is basically Jesus saying join me, or attach yourself to me, work with me, walk with me, follow me, love me, obey me, and I will actually give you soul rest. Supernatural, internal, and eternal rest.

How in the world can Jesus do that? Well for the past couple of weeks we’ve been looking at Matthew telling us how can Jesus live up to the promise of soul rest.

Two weeks ago we looked at this interaction between Jesus, his disciples, and the Pharisees in a wheat field. The Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, which is a capital crime. Jesus, instead of debating, declares his divine authority. If Jesus is who he says he is, he’s the Son of Man, he’s the Lord of the Sabbath, he is God, then he has an eternal well of divine power. So he can give soul rest.

Last week we saw that Jesus then goes into their synagogue, the Pharisees’ synagogue, and a new Sabbath debate erupts. This one about healing. Are we allowed to heal on the Sabbath, the Pharisees asked, right in front of a man with a paralyzed arm. Jesus exposes the Pharisees’ missing mercy and then he expresses divine mercy by healing the man. He gives the man, through his mercy, the capacity to do what he could not do on his own, to move his arm.

So if Jesus is divine and has a never-ending well of power, then he has a never-ending well of mercy to express that power to people. That mercy of Jesus provides us the capacity to do what we cannot do on our own. I can take a nap, but I can’t give myself soul rest. Jesus can. But God, who’s wealthy in mercy, gives us the power to believe in Jesus, to experience this divine mercy of Jesus, and through that we get real rest, soul rest.

After Jesus heals the man with a paralyzed arm in the synagogue, in front of the Pharisees, the Pharisee storm out, angry at Jesus, and they start plotting how to destroy Jesus.

And that brings us to the end of this little series of stories in Matthew 12. So here’s the end of the story.

“Jesus, aware of this, [aware of the fact that the Pharisees want to destroy him] withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentile will hope.’”

So what happens at the end of this story? Well, the first thing is Jesus is aware. Jesus is aware of the Pharisees plotting.

You don’t have to be divine to understand the Pharisees are mad at Jesus. If you see somebody supernaturally healed of a paralyzed arm, and the religious leaders storm out of the room, you know where you stand with them. They are not your fans.

Jesus knows all too well what these influential Jewish religious leaders think about him. Matthew tells us they want to destroy Jesus, and Jesus knows it.

So, Jesus withdraws. Jesus removes himself from that area, from the synagogue, from those leaders.

But we need to be really clear about Jesus’s motivation in doing so. Jesus is not afraid of the Pharisees. Jesus didn’t see them leaving and plotting and then go, I’ve got to get out of here, I’m in trouble. This is a timing issue, not a fear issue.

We know that because Jesus, in Matthew, is soon going to pull back the curtain and let his disciples know what he already knows is coming.

Matthew 16:21, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Matthew 17:22-23, “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’ And they were greatly distressed.”

Matthew 20:17-19, “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘See, we are going up Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.’”

Jesus knows what’s coming. So for Jesus, this moment at the synagogue is not the right time to submit to destruction. His withdrawal is not defensive. His withdrawal is offensive. Jesus is in charge. Jesus will lead himself to the cross. Jesus will submit to destruction, just not in this moment.

Jesus then heals. He continues to demonstrate who he is by doing what he has been doing. He heals people.

Jesus orders. Jesus ordered them not to make him known. This whole big group of people, many followed him. He healed them all. He says to them, don’t make me known for what I just did. Matthew has told us that he’s done this before in Matthew 8:3-4.

“Jesus stretched out his hand and touched [a man with leprosy] and said [I want to heal you;] be clean. And immediately [the man’s] leprosy [left him]. And Jesus said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone…’”

In Matthew 9:29-31, “Then [Jesus] touched [the eyes of a couple of blind men and said] ‘According to your faith let it be done to you.’ And their eyes were opened. And [I think this is great] Jesus sternly warned them, ‘See that no one knows about it.’”

How would that have worked? I couldn’t see. I can see. But I need to live in such a way that nobody knows that happened.

“But they went away and spread his fame through[out] all that district.”

They told all of Greenville County what Jesus did. So in neither of those cases does Matthew tell us why Jesus did that. But in Matthew 12 he does. Matthew steps in. Now he’s out of storyteller mode, and now he’s stepping in with commentary about Jesus. And Matthew’s commentary helps us understand why does Jesus order the people who’ve been healed to not make him known. Why does Jesus do it?

First, Jesus orders the silence to fulfill prophecy.

Matthew tells us, his comment,

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah…” (12:17)

Now Matthew and Isaiah are tag teaming. They’re a squad. Matthew is using Isaiah’s words to let us understand why Jesus did this. Why did Jesus order the silence? It’s to fulfill prophecy. But what’s contained within the prophecy also tells us why Jesus said don’t make me known. And here’s what’s in the prophecy. Here’s what it says.

The messenger, the message, the manner, and the audience matter.

The messenger, the message, the manner, and the audience matter. All these things in the prophecy matter. And that’s why Jesus said don’t make me known. So let’s talk about them.

The messenger matters. Who’s talking matters. In Isaiah, it says this:

“Behold my servant [with] whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him and he will proclaim…” (18a)

He will declare. He will send my message. The servant in Isaiah is God’s beloved messenger. God chooses, deeply loves, and is pleased with this servant. The servant is not an employee. The servant is relationally close to God, as relationally close as one could be.

Two weeks ago, if you were here, we talked about how sometimes in the New Testament we’ll hear things that are an echo of the Old Testament. This moment in Isaiah is an echo. But there’s another echo in Matthew about this same moment in Isaiah, and it’s in Matthew 3. See if you hear similar language in Matthew 3 to this same prophecy in Isaiah. Matthew 3:16-17 says this,

“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [I will put my spirit upon him.] and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”

It’s an echo. In modern language, Matthew 3 is like an Easter egg. He brings up this idea of the Servant being Jesus, but doesn’t fully explain it until chapter 12. Jesus is the Servant from Isaiah. He’s God’s beloved Messenger.

And Isaiah describes this Messenger multiple times in his prophecies. Together, collectively, they’ve become known as the servant songs. And I want us to see them all, because they all clearly point to Jesus. So I’m going to roll through some of them.

Isaiah 49:6 says this about the servant.

“I will make [the servant] as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

God sends his servant as the light that brings salvation to all peoples.

Isaiah 50:10, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.”

God sends his servant as a reliable voice that leads others to rely on God. Isaiah 52 and 53 describe the servant at length as the suffering servant. We often read passages like this on a Good Friday service.

Isaiah 53:4-6, “Surely [the servant] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on [the Servant] the iniquity of us all.”

God’s Servant suffers on behalf of others to heal them and bring them peace.

You put that all together, and you see that Jesus is God’s beloved Messenger that brings light and salvation, who reliably leads others to rely on God, and will choose to suffer and die on behalf of others so they can experience healing and peace and be reunited with God, the one who sent the Servant. That’s who Jesus is.

Matthew is reinforcing Jesus’s divine authority.

I want to insert something here. I did this in first service. I think, this is not new, but I hear it fairly regularly where people are like, Jesus is a good man. He’s a good teacher. He may be one of the best teachers of all time. But he never really claimed to be divine. No one ever claimed that Jesus was divine. Matthew 12 would differ. It is crystal clear who Jesus claims to be. Jesus claims be God. And if he is, if he’s the Servant who does all of that, he can give you soul rest. The messenger matters.

The message matters.

What message is he bringing? He will proclaim justice to the Gentiles, and he’s going to persist in that message until it’s completed because Isaiah says, “until he brings justice to victory; and in his name Gentiles will hope.”

The servant’s message is justice. Our world, about nearly everything, screams for justice. It is everywhere. I really tried to find a particular illustration that would illustrate how we scream for justice in our culture. But there are so many, it’s overwhelming. There’s a justice cry for almost everything; for migrants, for children, for abuse survivors, families of the victims of the recent airplane crashes, justice for women, justice for the owners of homes and businesses in the California fires. There is no lack of a cry for justice. You can hear it everywhere.

But are we crying for the right justice? Or are we even crying for justice? Because as I see justice, this message of the servant, justice seems to be two things at the same time. Justice is a cry that something that should be beautiful and good is now broken. All of those things that I said, whatever you cry justice for, you’re declaring to everybody this is supposed to look and be like this, but something broke it. Justice.

But there’s another part of justice. When you cry for justice, whoever did the breaking, you want held accountable. There is within justice, judgment. Which is so funny in a culture that doesn’t want to judge anything. Every cry of justice is a declaration of something beautiful and good that’s broken, and the resultant judgment for it being broken.

In January, flight 5342 left Wichita, Kansas, headed to Reagan National Airport. This is weird to think of, but flying is beautiful. But it’s crazy, as one comedian said, how can you complain about flying? You’re sitting in a chair in the sky. It’s unbelievable. You can go from one end of the country to the other for relatively little money. That is beautiful. That is good. We believe we go from point A to point B. We should land.

But something was broken. Something about those flight paths was off and that airplane struck a helicopter and resulted in 67 people dying. So now the families of those people are crying for justice. Flying is good and beautiful and should work. Who was negligent? Who did this? How did this happen? It must be held accountable. Justice. Both things at the same time.

God’s servant is proclaiming justice to the Gentiles, to the nations. God’s desired beauty and good for this world has been broken by humanity’s rebellion and sin. And because of that, there’s judgment.

Have we heard Jesus in Matthew declare a desired good and beauty of God? We’re in the middle of it. I’ll give you soul rest. We were never supposed to live in a world outside of rest. We were supposed to live in perpetual rest.

That’s what the Garden of Eden was like. Even work before the fall of man was beautiful and glorious. But when sin entered into the world, it broke it all. And what was supposed to be beautiful and good, God’s desired plan, was broken by humanity; therefore, justice declares the reality and the judgment.

Jesus declares justice all through Matthew, all through the Gospels. He’s announcing God’s desired beauty and good for soul rest, for salvation, for comfort, for peace, for unity, for love. It’s everywhere. His declaration of justice. The servant’s message matters.

The manner matters.

How does the servant deliver his message? Can you guys finish this statement, and can you say it out loud? “It’s not what you say …” We know this. We all know how you give a message matters. How the servant proclaims justice matters.

“He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;”

When the servant proclaims justice, he will not quarrel. He won’t dispute. He won’t wrangle. He won’t strive. When a servant delivers his message of justice, he won’t cry aloud, he’s not going to shout and scream justice. You’re not even going to hear him in the street. God’s servant doesn’t use verbal tricks. He doesn’t us volume shifts to proclaim justice. He’s not a tricky lawyer, nor is he a loud politician.

When you’re trying to get a baby to sleep, you don’t scream at them, “Go to sleep.” When you’re talking to your girlfriend, you do not argue her into believing that you love her. The manner must match the message. And the servant of God is quiet. The servant of God, he’s humble. Jesus expresses divine mercy with humility. The manner matters.

The audience matters.

To whom the message is delivered matters. This servant’s message, it’s for everyone who is needy. The servant’s message is for everyone who is needy. It’s for everyone. He’s going to proclaim justice to the Gentiles. In his name, the Gentiles will hope.

Most commentators agree that what’s meant there is not specifically just the Gentiles, but the nations. This message is for the nations, it’s not just for the Jewish people, it is for everyone. This message of justice that the servant gives is that everyone can have soul rest, salvation, comfort, love, peace, unity with God. But out of that everyone, the servant’s message is for needy people.

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory;”

A smoldering wick. I grabbed this candle from my house. It’s one of those ones that burnt down all the way. So I’m going to light it, and you’re going to see absolutely nothing. And that’s kind of the point. It’s going to smoke. I got one little flare, and now it’s out. It’s a smoldering thing. It’s still a little orange in there. But when we lost our power when Helene came through, am I going to reach for this? No. It’s not helpful. It’s not useful.

Reeds in that culture were used for measuring, and they were plentiful. They were everywhere, right along rivers, lakes. You could get reeds easy.

I got this at Home Depot for .49 cents. It’s similar to a reed. You could measure with this. You could use this to do a straight edge. You could a torpedo level underneath it and hang something. But if it were shaped like this, it’s of less value, right? What about when it’s like this? So when you go to Home Depot, and you have this one or the one that’s good, which one are you going to reach for? Come on. Which one? Of course.

When the servant comes with his message, it’s these people. This is his target audience. When he walks into Home Depot and sees one that is useful and already perfect and thinks it’s fine, he’s like, “No.”

This room right here is full of broken reeds and smoldering wicks. And if Jesus walked into this room, he’d go these are my people. This is who my message for justice is for this kind of people.

Jesus’s message is for everyone who is needy.

And “Jesus’s message for everyone who is needy” isn’t a one-time offer. It’s a perpetual message. How long will the servant declare justice to the world? Isaiah says, “until he brings justice to victory.” The servant is going to keep proclaiming justice until he wins. He’s just going to keep going right up until the point where it’s victory.

Jesus’s mission to proclaim justice — this is a corny, modern phrase — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. He doesn’t just say it one time to you. And if you don’t get it, he’s done with you. Nope, he is going to proclaim a message of justice until he wins, until justice wins.

Let’s do a quick review. Jesus told people, “Don’t make me known” to literally fulfill a prophecy. Jesus also told people, “Don’t make me known” because of the content of that prophecy. So Jesus saying it is both prophetic, he fulfills it, and it’s practical. It gives us reasons why Jesus told these real people don’t talk about what just happened.

Let’s figure out why Jesus telling people to be quiet was wise, based on Isaiah. Remember, at this point in Jesus’s life, he just had really recent tensions with really powerful people who now want to destroy him. There is large-scale potential for confusion if a diverse large group of newly healed people believe they’re Jesus’s publicists, and they run right back into that town and start telling people what’s going on.

Jesus withdrew to lower the heat and tension. He doesn’t want a gigantic group of people running back into town and raising the temperature and the tension. Jesus is acting wisely based on the prophecy.

Consider the wisdom of timing.

He’s not looking to create waves. Now is not his time. He withdrew, he doesn’t want to escalate. Don’t make me known. I healed you, don’t make known. We don’t need to escalate now.

Think of the wisdom of accuracy.

Jesus wants an accurate message. We’ve learned Jesus is more than a miracle machine. He’s claimed to be the divine authority. There’s more to Jesus than just what he does. His miracles are a revelation of who he is. He’s the Messiah, not a magician. He wants the right message delivered.

There’s wisdom of attitude.

Have you ever had someone try to get you, maybe they tried too aggressively, to get to you to try their food? “You’ve got to try this. Here, try it. Try this, try this.” And you’re like, “I don’t want to.”

When I first started dating Rebecca, we went to her family’s for Christmas. And in their family, they’ve got this Jello dish they serve every year. It’s black cherry Jello with black cherries in it and chunks of cream cheese. I don’t do Jello. Jello gets right here and stops. It just has hands, grabs my larynx, and holds on. I’m not eating it. And Rebecca’s like, you’re going to love this at my family get together. And we’re dating, and I was like, “I am not. I don’t eat Jello.” She goes, “No, you’ve got to try it.” I really, I can’t try the Jello. It’s a family thing. It’s aggressive. She was, “Eat it!”

There’s a wisdom of Jesus saying don’t make me known for attitude. These newly healed people would be very excited about quarreling, wrangling, crying aloud, shouting, “You’ve got to meet this guy, you got to get up there, you have got to do this.”

There could be an inaccurate message, but there could be an inaccurate attitude. That’s not how Jesus delivers his message. Remember, he’s quiet. And so he tells people very practically, don’t make me known. Not that way.

The wisdom of audience.

Jesus wants his message delivered to the correct people. If you had something like a paralyzed arm, or something that affected your life for a very long time, and you’re healed, who are the first people you’re running to? I think family. Look what just happened.

Are you immediately going to run to other broken people? Maybe. But Jesus wants to make sure that his message is delivered to the right people. Would healed Jews have run to Gentiles? Probably not. Would healed Gentiles have run to Jews? Probably not. But Jesus’s message of justice is for all people. Jesus requests the crowds not to make him known to fulfill that prophecy, and he requests them not to make him known to practically live out that prophecy in the real world.

Matthew steps into this moment with the use of Isaiah and declares Jesus to be God’s chosen Servant. He’s bringing this message of justice. He’s doing so with mercy to needy people, but he does it humbly.

Jesus, through divine authority, expresses divine mercy with humility to the needy.

We’ve spent this little mini-series for the past three weeks watching as Matthew tells us how can Jesus give us soul rest — divine authority, divine mercy, humbly, to needy people.

As we continue into Matthew 12 next week and further in, I want us to have a couple of things to walk away with from this section of Matthew.

1. Jesus is worth following.

Full stop. He is worth — you read just this section — this guy is worth following. Jesus is worthy to be admired. We should be in awe of a guy like this. He is amazing. In a modern way, not to try to reduce Jesus, but Jesus is cool in Matthew 12. There are a million ways we could keep talking about Jesus.

There’s a quote that Peter has used multiple times over the years. I tried to figure out, it’s probably been 25 years since I first heard him use this quote, and it is so helpful to realize that Jesus is worthy to be followed and admired. It’s from Jonathan Edwards. Edwards says this.

“There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ.”

I will never write as cool a sentence in so few words as that right there. In Jesus, he is worth following and admiring because there is this coming together, this conjunction of diverse amazingness, that is mind-blowing. Just in Matthew 12, here’s what we see coming together in Jesus that is diverse excellencies. Just in this part of Matthew.

Jesus is divine and Jesus is human.

Jesus is the authority with all the power, and Jesus is merciful to eternity.

Jesus is strong. He can stand up to religious influential leaders.

Jesus is humble. He identifies with the needy people.

Jesus is emotionally tender and he’s intellectually astute.

Jesus is the messenger of justice, and Jesus is, at the same time, the message of justice.

Jesus offers people soul rest, and he is the soul rest.

Jesus preaches this message of justice, God’s desired beauty and good for the world, and the resultant judgment that goes with it. And he is the one who will solve the injustice by sacrificing himself.

“There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ.”

He is worth admiring, loving, and following.

2. This is probably kind of a subpoint of one, but Jesus lived courageously knowing people wanted to destroy him.

I’ve argued all three weeks that things change moving forward from now to the end of the Gospel of Matthew. It’s no longer just about debating. The debates are leading to destruction of Jesus. That’s why the Pharisees talk from now on, we’re going to kill him. He’s toast. We’re taking him out.

Can you imagine living a life of regularly loving, and serving, and healing, and caring for other people while you know one of the most influential, powerful groups literally is hunting you down to kill you? And you do so fearlessly. He walked toward it. That’s a person I want to follow.

3. Soul rest is attainable.

Take Jesus up on his offer. If you have never — and there’s lots of ways we can describe it — believed, trusted in, put your faith in this real person named Jesus who lived, died, was buried, and rose again so that he could give you soul rest, so that you could be right with God, the one who sent the messenger. If you’ve never believed in him and your life is restless, take Jesus up on his offer. Literally all it takes is “I believe in you, Jesus. You are who you said you are, I’m following you.” And then from there, you walk along with God’s people and learn more about what it means to follow Jesus.

Finally,  4. Soul rest is eternal, and it’s mobile.

If we believe in Jesus, the soul rest that we’re given goes on forever. I will never not be restful. Is that right? I will always be restful is probably better. If I’m given that soul rest, I’ve got it forever, and it only gets better. When Jesus comes back and brings justice to victory, the soul rest is perfect. But I still have soul rest today. Your circumstances in life don’t define your rest. Jesus does.

If there are people in this room who are suffering, or hurting, you still have rest. It’s mobile. Your soul rest travels with you. It walks with you through life until it’s made perfect.

Jesus, through divine authority, expresses divine mercy with humility to the needy. To him be the glory forever and ever and ever. Amen? Amen.