This chapter begins with a description of the Messiah. Verses 1-4 read,
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.”
Jesus cared about people. Jesus loved people. He didn’t go around making a commotion as He served His Father. It was the religious leaders that made the commotion. He didn’t hurt fragile people. As many times as His ministry seemed hopeless, when even His most trusted disciples didn’t seem to understand, He didn’t give up. He kept the end in mind. He cared about justice. He healed the sick. He forgave sins. He made people new. He brought with Him the New covenant so instead of following countless impossible laws we are to love one another as He loves us. He sacrificed His Life so that we could live.
This prophecy was fulfilled purposely by Jesus. He knew the scriptures and He acted accordingly. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were disgusted that Jesus would break their Sabbath traditions and “work” by healing someone. Rather than be in awe of the miracle, rather than rejoice over the restoration, rather than glorify The LORD they were upset over broken tradition. The “Law” was more important to them than The Lord. Looking pious was more important than loving people and serving God. They used this incident to find a reason to destroy Jesus.
Jesus reacted by quietly moving on, but He didn’t stop healing. In fact He healed many people and told them to keep quiet about it. Matthew 12:17 says that He did that to fulfill this prophecy.
We are not supposed to put on an affected face and behave in a false manner, but we are supposed to conform to God’s Word. We are being transformed by The Spirit to the image of Christ. He is doing that. But we have a part to do as well. We allow it. We exercise self-control, faith, patience and the other characteristics of His presence in us. Jesus acted intentionally to conform to the Prophecies about Him. We are not better than Him, we must behave deliberately to conform to His Image. We do not do that by following tradition and countless laws. We do not do it by pretending. We do it by loving God because He loves us. We do it by loving people the way God loves them. We do it by loving others the way Jesus loves us.
The prophecy about Jesus can also describe His believers. We are chosen. Our Father delights in us. He has given us His Spirit and He expects us to bring His justice to the nations by loving them, teaching them about Jesus and leading them to Him. Jesus chose to obey His Father and conform to the scriptures. We must make that same choice.