Last week we saw these Pharisees condemning Jesus’ disciples about picking some grain on the Sabbath Day. We talked about how they completely missed God’s heart and God’s purpose for the Law. They may have missed it, but we need to understand Who He is, and what He is about, so that we can share His heart, and then do the right things. If we do things from the wrong heart, for the wrong purposes, then the things that we do won’t mean anything.
But if we start with a heart filled with the love of God, and the love of others, then we have the incredible opportunity, to actually act for the true benefit of others, and ultimately the glory of God. These Pharisees weren’t getting it, but I hope that we do. And after we talked about those things, at the end of our verses last week, in response to Jesus’ talk with these Pharisees, we saw the plan beginning to form in these people to try and kill Jesus. That’s where we ended and so let’s read the next verses for today.
Read Matthew 12:15-30
Notice verse 15 again, let’s understand the setting for what’s happening, let me read it again.
Read Matthew 12:15
At the beginning of this verse, we see that Jesus was obviously aware of what was beginning in verse 14 from last week. That these guys were starting to plot against Him and trying to figure out how they could kill Him. It says that Jesus knew this, and He chose to withdraw from that place. And this isn’t Jesus running away or cowering from the situation, this is just Jesus de-escalating the situation because it wasn’t the time for Him to die yet.
There’s a plan in place, there’s still much to be done, there’s still people that He is discipling, and preparations that He is making. So, Jesus took off from the synagogue where He had been talking to these guys at, but He obviously wasn’t running and hiding because once again, “great multitudes” followed Him and He let them. And I want us to notice something there at the end of verse 15, because I think it sets the stage for the rest of our passage.
It says that “He healed them all”. And remember it says “great multitudes” were following Him, it doesn’t say a big group of people, it doesn’t even say a great multitude of people, it says great multitudes PLURAL, that must have been a lot of people, that were following Him. And it says that Jesus took the time to heal every single one of them. Even in light of Jesus’ knowledge of the plot against His life, He is still yet patient and compassionate enough, to heal every single one of these people that followed after Him.
And He’s like, you don’t even need to go tell everyone about it, because He came humble and obviously, He wasn’t seeking worldly fame. He could have revealed Himself, in all of His glory, at any time, but instead He came as a servant to save us from our sins. And that’s exactly why Matthew quotes this passage out of Isaiah, let’s read that again as well.
Read Matthew 12:17-21
Right in that moment when Jesus is healing these great multitudes of people, Matthew is getting to see with his own two eyes the fulfillment of prophecy right in front of him in Jesus. Matthew quotes this passage right out of Isaiah 42, this is a prophecy about the Messiah, which makes it a prophecy about Jesus, and Matthew is right there witnessing in the action, in the character, in the life of Jesus these prophecies coming true, so he includes the prophecy into the Gospel here.
There were many people, like the Pharisees, that weren’t seeing and understanding what Matthew was seeing. And remember that Matthew’s main audience in writing this Gospel was the rest of the Jewish people. There might be a lot of questions, there might be things that people are still wrestling through or struggling with, but Matthew is like … LOOK, this is what it said that He was going to be like when He comes, and LOOK, this is what He is doing. It’s right in front of us.
This Isaiah passage references the entire trinity once again, that God the Father planned for God the Son to come with the power of the Spirit of God with Him as well. And it says that He came to declare justice to the Gentiles, really to declare the truth of sin, judgement, but also salvation in Him. And for the Jewish audience reading this, this might even have been sort of offensive to them. A lot of the Jews still did not really see, or understand, that salvation in the Messiah was going to be opened up outside of the Jewish people through Jesus. I think that’s why Matthew referenced back to Isaiah here, because it would probably be a harder pill to swallow if he just said this same thing in his own words, but when it has the backing of one of the major prophets like Isaiah then it would probably carry a lot more weight with his audience.
So, we know Jesus is of course coming for the Jews, but it’s made completely clear that He is coming for everyone else as well. And so, in verse 19 here, Isaiah says, that He’s not going to quarrel, or argue, or cry out, that you’re not going to hear His voice loudly in the streets. And isn’t that what just happened? He didn’t argue with the people now planning to kill him at the synagogue, He had a conversation with them, they didn’t like the way that it was going, they turned towards wanting to kill Him, and so it said He withdrew Himself.
And then He started healing all of these people and He’s like you don’t need to go make this known everywhere right now. He’s not loudly proclaiming Himself in the streets like Isaiah said. That’s not saying that Jesus doesn’t take care of some things, at times, or deal with some people, at times, when it’s needed. But we see how He walks, how He talks, how He engages with people.
And we see that He does this with humility, as a servant, with gentleness, with love, with compassion, with mercy. He literally just healed ALL of the people following Him and again as Matthew references Isaiah we see in verse 20:
Read Matthew 12:20
A reed is a pretty fragile plant and Isaiah mentions a bruised reed, which means that it is damaged or hurt in some way, and so this fragile already plant is in an even more fragile state, but what we see here is the Messiah engaging with such gentleness and care that the bruised reed does not break.
Isaiah also speaks of this smoking flax. The flax would be like the wick of a candle. And obviously what is the wick of the candle supposed to do? It’s supposed to burn, but this wick is not burning, it’s just smoking, and yet the Messiah in His care doesn’t just put the candle out.
He takes care of the reed, He takes care of the candle, and He makes the way to victory.
We’re those reeds, we’re those candles, some of us are hurt, some of us have been damaged in some ways, some of us are trying our hardest and just smoking like that candle but aren’t able to get the fire burning. But please listen, and please notice, the care that Jesus shows in these situations. He doesn’t just break off the reed, He doesn’t just put out the candle, He doesn’t just leave behind the broken or hurt person, He doesn’t just cut off the person that can’t get the fire burning. It says that He sends forth justice, that He takes care of business, and leads the way to victory, victory in Him and by Him, and it says in verse 21:
Read Matthew 12:21 (“And in His name Gentiles will trust”)
And we absolutely should.
We’ve seen Him actually caring for people, we saw the prophecies of how HE was going to come and do things this way. But now I want to answer the question of, How? How is Jesus going to care, for people like me, when I’m hurt like that bruised reed, or I’m just barely smoking like that candle wick and so many of the things of this world, and Satan, and even other people might be trying to tear me down? Let’s read the rest of these verses again.
Read Matthew 12:22-30
And maybe you’re thinking, how in the world are we going to answer our question from this? I believe the answer is here, but let’s deal with the situation that’s going on here really quick first. Jesus is obviously healing all of these people and then there’s another man brought to Jesus that is demon possessed, blind, and mute. And Jesus continues what He is doing, and He casts out the demon and this man can now see and speak. The crowds observe the situation and are like “Could this be the Son of David?” Which is just another way of saying, could this be the Messiah? Because the Messiah was prophesied to come from the line of David. So just like Matthew saw the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus and referenced Isaiah, a lot of these other people are starting to see it too.
But in jumps the Pharisee’s ONCE AGAIN. And they’re like, this Guy isn’t casting out demons by the power of God, He must be casting them out by the power of Satan. And so, Jesus then engages with these guys from the standpoint of just basic logic. He says in verse 27, that OK, you are saying that I am casting these demons out by the power of Beelzebub or Satan, well then by whom are your own sons, or your own people trying to cast them out? The logical question here being, are they trying to cast them out by the power of Satan as well? Then why are you making this claim against me?
But the greatest logical point here is in verses 25 and 26. Jesus says that a kingdom divided against itself is not going to stand and then in verse 26 that if Satan casts out Satan or Satan’s minions the demons, then he must be divided against himself, and his kingdom is going to fall apart. The logic here once again is why would it ever benefit Satan for Satan to use his own power to cast out his own demons. That just doesn’t make any sense and Jesus is just pointing out the massive hole in their logic. But the problem is that these guys probably aren’t really all that interested in the truth anyways, and they just want these rumors to spread to try to hurt Jesus’ reputation, but it’s obviously just nonsense.
But now that we have dealt with that situation, let’s try to answer our question. “How is Jesus going to care for people like me when I’m hurt like that bruised reed, or I’m just barely smoking like that candle wick and so many of the things of this world, and Satan, and even other people might be trying to tear me down?” Let’s read verses 28 and 29 again.
Read Matthew 12:28-29
Jesus made His very logical point to these guys and then He follows it up by saying basically, if I am doing this work by the power of the Spirit of God, then the very Kingdom of God must be at hand, and He must be exactly Who He says He is. He must be the Messiah. And then with the point made, the Messiah speaks again, and I believe He answers our question. He says in verse 29:
“How can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.”
We really need to understand what is being said here. The strong man in this passage is actually a reference to Satan. Satan is strong, he does have power, he has negatively impacted all of our lives in many different ways through sin, temptation, and all types of other problems that he can bring in this world. We can’t blame everything on him, a lot of times it’s our own fleshly self, causing or own problems, but often times he is still bringing the temptations and opportunities to our doorstep to cause problems. But Satan is the strong man in this passage. But please make sure that we notice, that someone is coming into Satan’s house, to plunder his goods, and to do that, this someone has to deal with the strong man first. So, what we have here, is the strong man Satan, and what obviously must be a stronger man coming into his house.
The stronger man in this scenario is Jesus, and He has come to plunder Satan’s house and take his goods. Jesus has come to rescue people from the strong man’s control, because He is stronger than the strong man Satan. And what we see through this passage is an overwhelming picture of His care, His compassion, His healing, His heart, and of course His strength.
We may be sitting here today, bruised like that reed, maybe we’ve been hurt, maybe by people, by circumstances, maybe we’re mentally just in a bad place, maybe Satan’s been on the attack.
Maybe we’re sitting here just smoldering or barely smoking like that candle, maybe we haven’t found our purpose, maybe we’ve been caught up in other things, maybe we just don’t know what to do, maybe Satan’s been distracting us with money, pride, or whatever else.
Well today let us know that we’re not the strong man, or strong woman, far from it, maybe we’re the very weak man or woman right now. But if I see anything in this passage, I see a God that cares and is absolutely powerful enough to take care of His business even if the strong man of Satan tries to get in His way. Whatever the struggles, whatever the difficulties, or maybe we just need real purpose in this life. The answers, the help, the victory, for all of these things, will only truly be found in the STRONGER MAN, Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:31 tells us “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” and then in verse 37 it says, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Talking about Jesus, and then Romans 12:21 tells us “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Jesus is that good and we actually know Him.
There’s an old saying that I have always appreciated that says:
The Christian’s midnight is brighter than the sinner’s noon
So, we had our question earlier. Basically, how is Jesus going to care for people like us with all of the different struggles that we have? Maybe we’re bruised, we feel beaten, maybe we lack purpose, maybe the fire hasn’t been burning, and we’re just barely smoldering. Let’s start with a radical perspective shift, knowing that my darkest moment with Jesus is still way brighter then someone’s brightest moment without Jesus. And let’s put all of our faith, all of our trust, let’s call out with all that we are to the STRONGER MAN, JESUS CHRIST.
We have seen that He is loving, He is caring, He is gracious and merciful, and as our question was answered, He is absolutely strong enough to deal with, or carry us through, all of our situations.