God's Delight

Matthew 12:15-21

I'm almost half-way through the book of Matthew, and the plot of Jesus life just got tense. This might not seem to be a tense moment in the book, but it is. It is the first wisp of a cloud that will become the storm of the crucifixion.

The verse that gives me this hint could be easily overlooked. It comes right after the story of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath. The verse is this, "...The Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus" (Matthew 12:14).

I have many pictures of Jesus in my head: I see him working in the carpenter's shop, sitting with little children on his lap, or touching the eyes of a blind man. But here's the picture I often overlook.

It's the picture of the Pharisees turning their back on him. It's the picture of the rulers and the teachers meeting secretly. "How can we kill him? What can we do to rid ourselves of him?" They had made up their minds; he would not be their savior.

So Jesus withdrew. He knew the the Pharisees plots; he knew their plans. But he couldn't stop working. The people kept following him, and if he was in hiding he was having a hard time doing so because "many followed him" (Matthew 12:15). It's pretty difficult to be inconspicuous when you have a crowd following you!

Matthew breaks in here with some commentary about Jesus healing the sick that followed him as he tried to remove himself from the Pharisees. Matthew said, "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight" (Matthew 12:18).

Here is the moment. Jesus's life is threatened. Jesus knows that he's starting down a road that leads to Calvary. And in this tense moment we are told that God delights in Jesus. I somehow like to think that this is what Jesus knew when his life was threatened, when he was worn out from ministry, when he was saddened by the lack of acceptance of the religious leaders. I hope he could hear Isaiah's words ringing in his head:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope.”

This is what God the Lord says—
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Isaiah 42:1-7