CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 12:18. Judgment.—The idea embodied in the prediction is that it would be the aim of the Messiah, as universal Judge, to put all things to rights among all nations. The judicial function is one of the most important elements in the office of a monarch. It is in virtue of it that differences between man and man are adjusted, while the rights of all the members of the community are vindicated, so that harmony and co-operation may be secured.—(Morison).
Matthew 12:20. Till He send forth judgment unto victory.—The idea is that the Messiah shall persevere in His own quiet, gentle, meek, unostentatious, unobstreperous way, healing heart after heart, and adjusting difference after difference, until He shall succeed in getting His gracious arbitrative action thrust in victoriously upon all the injustices and unrighteousnesses, that alienate man from man, and men from God (ibid.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 12:14-21
Avoiding strife.—The friction with the Pharisees, of which we have just read so much, could have only one end. To be so baffled, so eclipsed, so silenced by one like Jesus, in the presence of those for whose praise they lived (Matthew 23:5-7), must arouse deadly anger at last. So, accordingly, we find expressly stated in Matthew 12:14. The Evangelist proceeds to tell us, first, how the Saviour replied to this move; and secondly how His manner of doing so had been predicted of old. We shall find a striking picture in the first of these accounts, and a striking prophecy in the second.
I. A striking picture.—A picture, first, of very great power. What a sense of power was left behind by that which we read of Him last. Though “filled with madness” (as said of them in Luke 6:11, on the same or on an exceedingly similar occasion) all that His enemies can do now is to “go out” and begin “conspiring” against Him (Matthew 12:14). Such an attempt is, in itself, an acknowledgment of His power. It is only the “powers that be” that are ever “plotted against”! Also now, when away from them (Matthew 12:15), and with “multitudes” of the sick about Him instead, how manifest again is His power. He “heals them all,” it is said (Matthew 12:15). Nothing whatever in the way of sickness can contend against Him. The only limit is as to making known (Matthew 12:16) what He has done. A picture, secondly, of corresponding forbearance and meekness. Forbearance in refraining from meeting the known hostility of His enemies by any counter move of like kind. All we are told of Him is that He first “perceived” it, and then got out of its way (Matthew 12:15). Forbearance, also, in not wishing that anything done by Him should bring Him into conflict with them (Matthew 12:16). What He does, in short, is, so far, to beat a “retreat”; and to take special care, in doing so, that even the mercy shown by Him should not interfere with that object. Anything, just now, rather than enter on strife! A picture, lastly, of wonderful pity and love. Of “wonderful pity” because of the miracles of pity which we see wrought by His hands. Of more wonderful pity because of the circumstances in which that pity is shown. Even when He is perfectly aware that His enemies are seeking His life—even when He is, as it were, beating a retreat from their malignity, even in these chilling circumstances—He is a glowing centre of love.
II. A striking prophecy.—According to the Evangelist a far older pencil than his had drawn the same portrait as he. A certain passage from the prophet Isaiah which he now proceeds to quote, had long ago described, in all essential particulars, what has been described by him now. This he seems to point out to us in four principal ways. Has he, e.g. now presented Jesus to us as the chosen of God, even as one who could say of Himself as in Matthew 11:27? Did not Isaiah also speak, as quoted here (Matthew 12:18), of God’s chosen Servant—God’s best beloved Servant—God’s specially sanctified Servant? Has the Evangelist also just drawn our special attention to the “power” of the Saviour? Has not Isaiah also here, twice over, connected Him he speaks of with the administration of “judgment”? (Matthew 12:18; Matthew 12:20). And what is “judgment” with all its accompaniments—its sword and its robes; its throne and its bar—but an assertion of “power”? Has the Evangelist, again, given us here a special presentment of the forbearance and meekness of Christ? How closely, again, correspond to this those words of the prophet, “He shall not cry nor strive, neither shall His voice be heard in the streets” (Matthew 12:19). Finally, has the Evangelist here especially dwelt on the tenderness of His love? How admirably, once more, does the language of the prophet describe the same thing! Never was there before—never has there been since—a more gracious description! “A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench.” In other words, to the most afflicted, to the most infirm, shall it be His to give the most of His love. So much so, that the very farthest off, when they hear it, shall believe in His name. In that “name shall the Gentiles—even the Gentiles—trust.”
In this same thought, also, seems the one application of the whole of this passage. The whole passage is pre-eminently a lesson in trust. It is so, because:—
1. Of the characteristics it combines.—This power which has such complete power over itself; this courage which is not afraid, where need be, to “retreat”; this love of truth which loves peace as much; this dignity which can stoop to the lowest; this tenderness of love which is most at home with those who need it most and deserve it least—is a constellation of excellences to be trusted by us, if anything is! To be trusted by all of us, for it meets the case of us all!
2. Of the evidences it combines.—This incidental illustration of these various excellences does not stand by itself. We have seen something of it before (Matthew 9:10-13). We shall see more of it hereafter (Matthew 14:13). What we are to notice specially here is that it formed a definite part of the whole purpose of the kingdom. This was the kind of High Priest that “became” us (Hebrews 7:26). This, therefore, the kind of High Priest whom God sent into the world.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 12:15. Christ’s retirement from His enemies.—A solemn sign,
I. Not of fear or weakness.
II. But of power, of wisdom, of compassion and of judgment—Lange.
Plotting and persevering.—
I. Pharisees plotting the destruction of Jesus.
II. Christ persevering in works of beneficence and salvation.
III. One district suffers but another gains by the secret council of the wicked.—J. G. Gray.
Matthew 12:18-20. The gentle Servant of Jehovah.—The Elect Servant is the Messiah, and Jesus is that Christ. Mark how He served:—
I. Unostentatiously.—All through His ministry Jesus avoided a mere glare of publicity, and in Galilee actually charged some whom He had healed not to make Him known. He knew that to attract a gaping multitude of followers would do very little to promote the spiritual ends of His ministry, if, indeed, it might not rather tend to hinder them. So little did He think of a “big crowd” that, when He saw it gathering under the influence of curiosity, or a desire for temporal advantage, He often said or did something to disperse the people, or to escape from them. Evidently He regarded it as a better use of His time and strength to attach to Himself a smaller number of disciples, so training them and imbuing them with His spirit, as to fit them to plead His cause, and plant His gospel after He had returned to His Father. It is not to be inferred, that preachers of the gospel are not to speak in the open air, or in chief “places of concourse.” Timidity and fastidiousness have no right to claim sanction from the unostentatiousness of Jesus. There is need of courage and enterprise; only one must not court personal notoriety, or glory in numbers. Ministry is weak when at any point it falls out of harmony with that of the Chosen Servant. One may draw a crowd, and yet gain very few disciples for the Lord.
II. Tenderly.—True, that the ministry of Jesus had a searching power, like that of a “refiner’s fire.” It was even scathing and terrible to hypocrites and vainglorious pedants of the law; but it was full of gentleness to the people, and had special consideration for the weary and heavy-laden. So “the common people heard Him gladly,” and mourners sought Him, and little children were not afraid to come at His call. As, after rigorous winter the breath of spring is doubly sweet, so after the hard prescriptions of the unfeeling scribes and Pharisees, the healing ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was felt, at least by some, to be doubly welcome. Meekness must not be confounded with feebleness, or gentleness with indecision. We know the kind of softness and quietness which belongs to persons of a timid nature, and of weak convictions, who are reluctant to look closely into serious questions, or to assume any resolute attitude involving responsibility. A gentleness which is born of fear or selfishness is not after Christ, for His was the kindness of a magnanimous spirit, the patience of a mind that saw clearly the insufficiency of man and the boundless love of God. Therefore His endurance of the “contradiction of sinners,” and His sweet encouragement of the timorous who sought His help. Therefore the light in His countenance, the grace in His lips, the meekness in His bearing, the compassion in His mien, which drew men out of themselves, to tell their wants to Him, and cast their cares upon Him.—D. Eraser, D.D.
Matthew 12:18-21. A lovely portrait in an unlovely frame.—Observe the spirit in which our Lord meets the repeated attacks of which the record is given in this chapter. There are four in close succession. The first is the charge of Sabbath-breaking made against the disciples, because they rubbed a few ears of corn in their hands as they passed through the fields on the Sabbath day; and following it, the entangling question put to the Master in the synagogue. Then there is the accusation founded on the healing of the blind and dumb demoniac (Matthew 12:24). The third attack is the hypocritical application, “Master, we would see a sign from Thee” (Matthew 12:38), the word “Master” being evidently used in mockery, and the request for “a sign” a scornful way of suggesting that all the signs He was giving were worth nothing. These three attacks were made by the Pharisees, and were most irritating and vexatious, each in its own way. The first was annoying on account of its pettiness, the second because of its bitter malice, while the third was a studied insult; and yet, galling as these repeated attacks must have been, we may well suppose that the keenest wound of all to the gentle spirit of the Son of man would be the last, inflicted by the members of His own family, who seemed at this time as unsympathetic and unbelieving as the Pharisees themselves; for the untimely interruption recorded at the close of the chapter was intended, as we learn from the account in the second Gospel, to put Him under restraint as a madman. This last interruption, in which even His mother joined, must have been gall and wormwood to that tender heart. How does He bear Himself through these storms of calumny and insult? He bears Himself so that out of this dark chapter of His history there comes to us one of the loveliest portraits of Him to be found anywhere. It had been sketched by one of the old masters as an ideal portrait, and is now at last matched in real life. “Behold, My servant whom I have chosen,” etc. (Matthew 12:18-21). What gentleness and tenderness, yet what strength and majesty!—for, though “He strives not,” nor lifts up His voice in angry altercation, while He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, He will nevertheless declare judgment and secure victory, and make His name such a power in the earth, that the Gentiles shall hope in Him and the world go after Him. We can fancy the glow on the Evangelist’s face as He pauses in the midst of the sad record of these cruel assaults, to look at, and show to us that lovely portrait of the Son of man. And is it not all the lovelier that it shines out from such a background?—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
Matthew 12:20. Smoking flax.—“Smoking flax” may mean that which has fire smouldering among its fibres, which may yet break out into a flame. But probably we ought to prefer the marginal reading, “a dimly burning wick shall He not quench” (Isaiah 42:3).
I. It suggests the faint beginnings of penitence and faith, and newness of life.—The wick is not trimmed, or does not draw sufficiently from the reservoir of oil, and therefore does not yield a steady flame.
II. Or it may illustrate some degree of spiritual declension, the lamp that once was bright now needing to be trimmed with care, and fed with fresh oil. The Lord Jesus does not disdain every disciple who is not “a burning and shining light.” He is willing to recognise and to foster what is defective and dim. He knows how to bring good results out of confused and hesitating beginnings. He does it by gentleness; and it cannot be done any otherwise. A strong wind will blow out a lamp which a gentle current of air will brighten. Violence has the fatal power of extinction. Severity irritates into defiance, or crushes into despondency; but kindliness can evolve happy results from unsatisfactory rudiments, and love is the supreme secret of success in Christ and all Christlike men.—D. Fraser, D.D.
Bruised reed and smoking flax.—President Davies says: “The imagery of the ‘bruised reed’ may be derived from the practice of the ancient shepherds, who were wont to amuse themselves with the music of a pipe of reed or straw; and when it was bruised they broke it, or threw it away as useless.” But the bruised reed shall not be broken by this Divine Shepherd of souls. By way of securing the practical applications of this view of our Saviour’s relations to His people, we will consider:—
I. Christ’s ways with bruised reeds, or humbled sinners.—
1. Bruised reeds seem very fitly to represent such. The reed itself may properly stand for the sinner. It is so straight, so upright, and to all appearance so firm and strong; and yet it is one of the weakest things that grow. The storm will bend, and bruise, and spoil it. In mockery of the kingly claims of Jesus, they put a helpless reed, instead of a sceptre, into His hands, taunting thus the weakness both of His kingdom, and of Himself as King. There is much appearance of confidence and strength in the sinner, at least while life goes smoothly and easily with him. He would not wish you to take up the idea that he is only a reed. But let God but try his strength by buffeting him with some fierce storms, and you will soon see that poor reed bruised and bent, and hanging low. There is no strength in such reeds for the days of trouble that come round to every man, to try of what sort he is. Now it is God’s wise and gracious way of dealing to bruise such reeds.
2. How is He wont to deal with “bruised reeds,” humbled sinners? “He does not break.” Bruise He may, but break He never does, and never will.
II. Christ’s ways with smoking flax, or feeble believers.—
1. Perhaps the best explanation of this metaphor is that flax was used in the East for the wicks of oil lamps; and these wicks, unless well-cut and constantly trimmed, would give but a flickering and smoky light. And this may effectively illustrate the feeble, struggling, often fainting Christian, whose life is a smoke rather than a fire; a spark rather than a flame; a glimmer rather than a glow; a name rather than a living reality and power.
2. How does Christ deal with such? “He does not quench.” Let Bunyan’s Interpreter show us the fire in the wall, on which the soul’s enemy is pouring the water-floods, but whose flames still rise high. There is a secret. Look behind! One stands there, like unto the Son of man, pouring in the oil of His grace, that makes the flames leap, and the fire glow.—Weekly Pulpit.