Mat 12:15-21, Almighty God the Humble Servant.Thursday February 6, 2025
Mat 12:15-17
Quiet victory: real power is when you can quietly accomplish something great. Ten lines from the opening of the first Servant song intend to explain Jesus’ retreat with its attending command to silence and to give a mid-Gospel review of Jesus’ whole mission.
Mat 12:18-21
“Servant” is pais which means child or servant / slave. One who is committed in total obedience to another.
The elect child or servant reminds us of the opening passages of the Gospel (Mat 1-2), and also of His baptism (Mat 3:17). The devil tried to shake up His Sonship (Mat 4, “If you are the Son of God - He rejected the offer of the world’s kingdoms).
That He would proclaim justice to the people is exactly what He did in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5-7).
Jesus IS: The Servant Son, Mat 1-2. The Spirit Bearer, Mat 3-4. The Proclaimer of Divine Justice, Mat 5-7.
The broken reeds and smoldering wicks represent the weak and outcasts. In Mat 8-9 we saw Jesus touch and heal - lepers, Gentiles, women, and the possessed, giving them His special attention.
Psa 145:14 The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down.
Mat 11:23 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
Mat 12:18 represents the beginning of this Gospel (Mat 1-7).
Mat 12:19-20b represents the heart of the Gospel up to the cross (Mat 8-27).
Mat 20c-21 represents the end of the Gospel, which is the promise (Mat 28, Mat 24-25 also).
Gentiles refers to all the nations.
Jesus is our law.
Isaiah wrote: Isa 42:4 And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law."
Matthew substitutes “His name” for “His law.”
When you follow the Lord Jesus you keep His laws because you are seeing that the laws are Him.
Hypostatic Union: Jesus Christ is true humanity and undiminished deity in one person forever.
Matthew has presented us with the supremacy of Jesus Christ as God and now as elect Servant of God.
The picture is a chosen Son who would be a perfectly obedient servant to God.
The Son of God, the Elected Servant.
1Pe 2:4-6 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight (para - Robertson: “by the side of God”) of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For this is contained in Scripture:
"BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
His loyalty to the Father, to His election, would mean that He would remain submissive to the Father’s will through the worst suffering imaginable. And by this, rather than lashing out at His torturers, He would continue to be merciful to them.
Mat 26:38-39 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me." 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."
Luk 23:34 But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
Phi 2:1-11 says that Jesus emptied Himself of the expression of His deity, and humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross. Phi 2:5 says that we are to have the same mind as Him.
The God Man, Elect Servant made us able to do so. What are we waiting for?
Holy Spirit power needed.
Know Him and be like Him. The wisdom of His life is impossible to calculate. His life has so many dimensions and to live them all, at the right time and wisely, demands a dependence in pure faith upon the Holy Spirit within.
The humanity of Christ relied on the Holy Spirit. How much more should we? The work of the Spirit in our life will not just come because we know it is possible. We must faithfully trust in Him, expect Him to fill us as we humbly obey Him.
L.S. Chafer (Christology, vol. 5): “Of this incomparable One it is said that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God”; yet such a One, who thus occupied the highest place of Deity in company with the Father and the Spirit, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” He who is from everlasting to everlasting was born of a woman and died on a cross. He who according to the mind of the Spirit is Wonderful, was spit upon by men. He who, by the same mind, is Counsellor is rejected by men. He who is The mighty God is crucified in abject weakness. He who is The everlasting Father, is a Son who learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He who is The Prince of Peace must Himself tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, for the “day of vengeance” must yet be in His heart and He must yet break the nations with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces as a potter’s vessel. He who said, “I am among you as he that serves,” also said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” He who is the chaste, wooing Lover of the Canticles is the King of glory who is mighty in battle. He who created all things occupied an infant’s cradle. He who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners was made to be sin on behalf of others. He who was the Bread of Life was Himself hungry. He who was the giver of the supernatural Water of Life was Himself thirsty. He who was God’s Gift of Life to a lost world was Himself dead. He who was dead is alive forevermore. The range of the life and influence of the Lord Jesus Christ, as disclosed in the Sacred Text, is such as to comprehend things infinite and finite, of God and of man, of the Creator and the creature, of things in heaven and things on the earth, of eternity and of time, of life and of death, of supernal, celestial glory and of mundane sufferings and sacrifice. No greater spread of realities can be conceived than is done when predicating of one Person that He is both very God and very man.”
Chafer goes on to posit how God could be born, be human, be tempted, but subject, in need of prayer, in need of power. Conversely, how could a man heal all diseases, still waves and wind with a word, know the thoughts of others, forgive sin, cast demons where He chose.
“The answer is found in the revealed truth that this One, as no other could ever be, is both God and man, yet one adorable Person.” [L.S. Chafer]
Extra Bonus: Servant Songs of Isaiah:
42:1-4, the elect Servant who would quietly bring justice. 49:1-7, the hidden Servant Israel who was rejected but will bring Jacob back. 50:4-9, the disciple of God who is abused and condemned but innocent. 52:13-53:12, the most marred Man of sorrows who saved us.
The reality of Him should make every one of us adore Him, be completely loyal to Him, and thereby, be merciful to all others. |