From Isaiah 42 (NIV) Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in
whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. 2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. 3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering
wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he
will bring forth justice; 4 he will not falter
or be discouraged till he establishes justice
on earth. I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
Matthew 5:14 (NIV) You are the light of the world.
We live in a society where our sense of self-worth
is derived largely from what we have achieved and possess, and that makes us
very vulnerable to loss. The people of Israel had lost everything – their
homes, possessions, members of their families, their country, and their freedom.
And they had lost their confidence in themselves as God’s chosen people. They
were broken people, physically, materially, and spiritually. To those people
languishing in despair, Isaiah makes this surprising announcement, Here is my
servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. Three
times Isaiah repeats that the servant will bring forth
justice, and He is to remove the
illusion that people cling to about the way life is and reveal to them the way
life really is. For the people of Israel this meant casting off the illusion
that they were rejected by God and would always be a slave nation.
Could
it be that you and I still cling to some illusions about the way life really is?
The illusions are assumptions we have made about God, about ourselves and others,
about what it takes to live happily. My experience with God and people has
convinced me that we all live with a certain amount of illusions about the way
life really is, illusions that are so much a part of the way we view life that
we are hardly aware of them and never dare to question them. And I am convinced
that these illusions always take their toll on our life in one way or the
other.
The
work of the Servant is to confront these illusions and to conquer them with God’s
truth. But, notice how this is
done: He
will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. 3 A bruised reed
he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. He
will be gentle. We see the gentleness of God’s judgment often in the way
Jesus dealt with people. Jesus conquered sin with love and forgiveness.
Jesus
continues to confront those sinful and false illusions we hold on to about the
way life really is. As we go through the process of losing these illusions, we
become the light of God to help others see what the true way of life really is.
Jesus said we are the light of the world not because of what we have achieved
or what we possess. We are the light of the world because of what He is making
of us. By virtue of the fact that Jesus is working in us we become His great,
wonderful gift to the world.
From a
sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 26, 1981
© Rhonda
Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)
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