“...a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.”
~ Isaiah 42.3
I spent some time thinking this morning about the gentle character of our Savior. What wonderful words we have for our Jesus, who will not break a bruised reed or quench a faintly burning wick!
The image presented by Scripture is a tender one. To be a bruised reed is to be half-broken already. The word translated here as “bruised” can mean “crushed” and is most often used to refer to those who suffer under oppression (see how this word is used in Isaiah 58.6).
Can you picture it? The riverside reed trod underfoot, bent and misshapen, or the faint wick flickering with flame? Both simply struggling to stay alive in a cruel world, perhaps one good breeze from annihilation. Yet here comes Jesus. Gentle. Mending. Binding up wounds and fueling flame.
More images flood forth. A Samaritan woman measuring her days, one husband and one bucket of water at a time. The unembraceable leper groping about with disease-riddled hands. The blind beggar sitting at the city gate who can’t even watch the people pass him by. You know, the sort of people unable to hide their sins and wounds as deftly as you and I. Still more images appear: a lame man at the pool, little children desperate just to be noticed, Mary weeping at the tomb. Jesus loved them all.
Most striking of all to me is the fact that if anyone deserves to be a reed-breaker and flame-snuffer, it’s Jesus. For starters, he suffered more than anyone: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53.5). Not only that, but this suffering servant also knows our foibles, sins, and outright rebellion against him. Strangely, these things have not embittered him as they might embitter me. Reviled, he did not become a reviler. Suffering, he did not threaten (1 Peter 2.23). Instead of crushing us as we deserve, his suffering purchased our redemption. He gently mends our hearts and souls. Gentle and tender he remains.
To be sure, this suffering servant is both a lover and worker of justice. Isaiah goes on, “He will not grow faint or be discouraged (bruised) till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law” (Isaiah 42.4). This suffering servant is also the conquering king who will subdue us to himself, restraining and conquering all of his and our enemies (Westminster Shorter Catechism 26). He will bring salvation to the oppressed and victimized. He will trod his enemies underfoot.
But, Isaiah says, he will not trod upon the bruised reeds. Our savior knows the difference between the stiff-necked and the bruised, the penitent and the high-handed sinner. He doesn’t confuse the two. Can I say the same of myself?
The Christian grappling with same sex attraction or gender dysphoria, the wayward young adult, the abuse victim, the ethnic minority, the immigrant of questionable legal status, the teen with an eating disorder, the disoriented, the jaded, the searching, and the faltering—sinners, like me, desperately needing daily grace.
Lord, please make us gentle like Jesus.
~ Jeremiah Hill
