October 26, 2023

Scripture: Matthew 12:18-21 – “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.  He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.  In his name the nations will put their hope.”

What it means

This is right in the middle of a series of miraculous healings by The Lord Jesus…He healed a man with a shriveled hand (on the Sabbath, to make things yet even more interesting), and a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute.  The Pharisees were less than thrilled to say the least, and more pointedly, they were beginning to plot how to get rid of this man Jesus.  Jesus knows this, of course, and tries His best to keep a low profile amidst all of it, in order to fulfill prophecy in the book of Isaiah (42:1-4 to be exact).  It all points to the coming of Jesus – He is the Chosen One, and He came to proclaim justice to the nations.  Let’s focus on verse 21 a little bit – “In His name the nations will put their hope.”

What it means to me

We all tend to put our hope in something or someone, don’t we? Sometimes it’s in material wealth, or success in our jobs, or a big family…and none of those things are bad in and of themselves, but what if we didn’t have any of those things? What if all we had was Jesus…would that be enough? I guess if you asked Jesus, He would assure you that He was enough.  Same with the prophet Isaiah – all the nations will put their ultimate hope in The Messiah, so if it’s good enough for both of them, how about us? Could we be okay with just Jesus? That’s a tough question – it is for me too, believe me, because I like my stuff, I like money to buy lots of things that I may or may not really need in the long run, and I like to be recognized for doing some good things.  But should I put my hope in those things? Nope, not really – you see, all I need…is Jesus.  All you will ever need…is Jesus.  Let’s put our faith, and our hope, in Jesus – because He is all we will ever need.

Love you guys, see you in church on Sunday!

In Christ,

Brian