Saturday in the 15th Week of Ordinary Time, July 20, 2024

Matthew 12, 14-21

The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the Prophet: Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope.

From what St. Matthew has told us earlier, the Lord has been preaching somewhere in Galilee not very far from Capernaum — evidently not on the coast of the Sea of Galilee because the Lord led his Apostles through a wide grain field to get to it.  The Pharisees followed him too and began to plot how they would kill him, even before the Sanhedrin did.  Acting without direction or approval from Jerusalem, we can see how much the Pharisees hated the Lord and felt threatened by him. “When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place.”  That is, Jesus left just before the Pharisees could act: he stayed as long as he could where he was so that he could reach every soul in the place.  When Jesus does leave, he does not do so out of fear for his life but of concern for the Pharisees, to whom he gives all possible time while he lived for them to convert.

“Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known.”  Many people followed him from that particular place so as to be cured by him.  The Lord warns them to stay quiet about his having cured them in order to prevent the Pharisees from taking action against him, lest they lose their souls, and in order to give them a way to participate in his work.

“This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the Prophet.”  Matthew now quotes from Isaiah 42, 1-4.  The quote is taken from the Greek Septuagint.  Since Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew or Aramaic, as the earliest Fathers tell us, the Greek translator of the Gospel must have resorted to the Septuagint text for the Old Testament quotes, rather than simply translate the Hebrew into Greek.  This makes sense if the readers for whom the translator worked were Greek Jews who would have been much more familiar with the Septuagint.

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.”  The Jews at the time of Jesus would not have read Isaiah 42, 1-4 as pertaining to the Messiah.  Instead, they would have seen them as telling of a prophet like Jonah, who would preach to the Gentile cities.  The Jews believed not in a Messiah who preached but in one who would revive Jerusalem, as they would read in Jeremiah 33, 15–16: “In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely.”

“He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory.”  That is, the Lord’s Anointed would not rouse the people for war.  Rather, he would have mercy on the weak, the sick, and those suffering injustice.  Indeed, “In his name the Gentiles will hope.”  The Messiah would not march against the Gentiles but preach the Gospel to them.  They shall long for his coming more than the Jews, as St. Paul would discover: “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16, 9).

Let us follow him closely too so that he might heal us of our sins.