Text: Isaiah 42:1-4
Date: April 10, 2022
Event: Palm Sunday, Year C
Isaiah 42:1-4 (EHV)
Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight.
I am placing my Spirit on him.
He will announce a just verdict for the nations.
2He will not cry out.
He will not raise his voice.
He will not make his voice heard in the street.
3 A bent reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out.
He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict.
4He will not burn out, and he will not be broken
until he establishes justice on the earth.
The coastlands will wait for his law.
Your Savior Is Gentle and Effective
Do you want gentle or do you want strong? If you look at various cleaning products, you know that they have different degrees of strength. And while it may seem like strong is always the better option because we really want to get something clean, sometimes it’s really the wrong idea. If you use a very strong cleaner on a TV or laptop screen for example, it has the chance to eat through the protective layer on the screen and ruin it. It was too strong for that use case.
In Isaiah’s book of prophecy, we see a lot of God being very, very strong. Isaiah is tasked with bringing bad news and terrible consequences to God’s people. The people of Isaiah’s day were often unfaithful to God. He gave them rules to follow and promised earthly blessings if they did so. Instead of doing that, they ignored God and did whatever they wanted. And much of Isaiah’s message is one of doom and gloom because they had abandoned God. Foreign nations would run roughshod over them. People would be carried off into exile. This sounds disastrous.
But that’s not the only thing that God announces. He also, repeatedly, promises that his Servant is coming. Time and time again this Servant is promised and more insight is given into what he would do and endure.
Our First Reading for this morning is the first of these promises in Isaiah’s book. In this first “Servant Song,” God announces that his Servant his coming. This Servant is described as the one in whom God delights and the one on whom God’s Spirit rests. And for the sinner, whether that be unfaithful Israelites at Isaiah’s day or our often-unfaithful hearts, that brings some trepidation. Who is this guy and what is he going to do? But then the kicker comes: He will announce a just verdict for the nations.
Oof. That’s not what you or I would want to hear. A just verdict from God means only one thing: eternal death in hell because of our sins. We don’t win this battle in court. We don’t want to hear anything about a just verdict because we are as guilty as guilty can be. This is bad news for us.
But Isaiah continues with words that seem a bit at odds with this assumption: He will not cry out. He will not raise his voice. He will not make his voice heard in the street. A bent reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out. He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict. This description seems far less worrisome. It fact the Lord’s servant seems rather gentle, doesn’t he? No screaming and yelling, no harsh handling even with delicate things like a cracked reed or a barely-working wick. But that just verdict does show up again.
So, how should we understand the Lord’s Servant and his work?
First of all we should be clear, that Isaiah is not talking about himself or any other prophet or messenger. It may be self-evident, but it’s good for us to say clearly: the Lord’s Servant is the Messiah, the Christ. Isaiah is speaking directly about Jesus in these verses.
So Jesus is the one bringing this just verdict to us, but doing so in a gentle way. How does that work? What is he doing?
Well, we’ve seen Jesus’ gentle nature since his birth, right? Content to be born among animals and sleep his first night in a feeding trough, Jesus has been gentle and humble from the very beginning. In his ministry we rarely see Jesus get upset with anyone. He is forever patient, forever calm, forever calling to people to listen to him and follow his guidance. And we see him treat both friend and enemy with that same gentle patience.
This morning we see another striking example of his gentleness and humility. He enters into Jerusalem not riding a majestic, well-trained steed, but on a young donkey that had never carried anyone before. He rides in amid shouts of praise, but not by the leaders and people of prominence. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his final time coming to that city before he dies, is overflowing with this gentle attitude.
You might not immediately think of gentle and effective going together. If you’ve ever worked in a factory or a mechanic’s shop, you’ve probably used the soap that seems to be half-soap and half-sand to abrasively clean off whatever gunk got on your hands during the day. If you’ve had a headache, you probably don’t go for the weakest possible option. You want something powerful, something that will work.
But there’s the rub: gentle does not necessarily mean weak. Gentleness can appear weak, but that appearance can be deceiving. And that is truly the case with Jesus.
We walked with him during his entry into Jerusalem where he looked the strongest he’s going to look all week. But you know where this is going. Jesus is going to be washing his disciple’s feet, like the most lowly of lowly household workers. He’s going to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane without a fight or any resistance. He’ll be lied about and mocked and beaten at the hands of the Jewish leaders and with approval from Pontus Pilate. He will utter hardly a word of self-defense during this abuse, and takes no action to free or protect himself. Then he’s going to be led, again without complaint or resistance, to Golgotha to be executed, crucified, despite doing nothing wrong. Gentle certainly, but weak?
Through the eyes of faith we see what is going on here. This is not a man too weak or powerless to save himself or too cowardly to defend himself. This is the Son of God going into battle, a battle that we cannot see with our eyes. Here Jesus is going to war with sin and death itself. Jesus is gentle, kind, and compassionate to the people around him. But to Satan? Hardly.
The crucifixion serves as the means for the Father to punish Jesus for every sin ever committed by any person. That’s the Father’s goal and that’s Jesus’ goal, to save us from our sins. A weak Savior would have failed. A weak Savior would have given up. But you don’t have a weak Savior. He will not burn out, and he will not be broken until he establishes justice on the earth.
The justice or just verdict that the Lord’s Servant brings is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not justice in light of what we have done; it’s justice in light of what the Servant has done. Jesus brings a just verdict on all of us as a result of his life and death in our place. While it was an injustice that Jesus should suffer and die for our sins, it would be even more of an injustice for us to be punished for our sins when Jesus had already paid that price. So the just verdict that Jesus comes to proclaim over and on us is that of “Not guilty.” You are forgiven because of your gentle Savior’s powerful victory for you.
And Jesus’ gentleness goes well beyond his passive-looking nature during Holy Week. Even now, to this day, he deals with you and me patiently, lovingly, gently. We may find ourselves sinning by being harsh with a spouse, parent, child, or anyone else in our life. But not Jesus. When we fail, he gently builds us up. When we are on the wrong path, as our gentle Shepherd, he leads back to the right path.
When guilt weighs us down, he is not harsh. He does not berate us. He looks you and me in the eye and he says, “My sister, my brother, I love you. I forgive you.” And in that forgiveness he encourages and empowers us not to live our lives chasing after whatever our sinful nature desires, but instead to chase after his will with our life. His forgiveness, found in his Word, in the water of baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper, emboldens us to live as the members of God’s family that we are.
A bent reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out. My fellow bent reeds and dimly burning wicks, may we find comfort and joy in this treatment by God’s Servant today and always. And as we journey to the cross this week, remember the Savior who seems weak and powerless is gentle and effective to save you from everything that threatens you. Thanks be to God. Amen.
