Matthew 12:1-28/Isaiah 42:1-4
The Servant of God: a pattern for living.
By Lieutenant Andrew Clark, The Salvation Army.
The wonderful book of Isaiah was written some 600 or more years before the time of Jesus, yet in chapters 40-55, we have what are called the servant songs: songs about the Servant of God. Who is the servant? Well, it refers to three people.
Firstly, the people of Israel, who, of course, didn’t match up to all God had expected. The songs are a picture of what Israel should have been.
Because Israel failed to be the servant of God, secondly and ultimately, the words are perfected in the person of Jesus. You can read the chapters 40-55 through and it is as if you are reading one of the gospel accounts of Jesus life even although it was written so long before he walked on earth as the Servant and Son of God.
They also apply to us as the church. We are servants of Jesus Christ. That is our ultimate calling in life, to be servants of God.
Living as God called us, as a servant of His, gives us the ultimate pattern for living. Jesus himself states that he came "to serve and not to be served and give his life as a ransom for many."
Lets together look at the character of a servant of God. We will see how Israel failed to do it, but how wonderful Jesus did it and it is his example we are to follow.
1. The servant has a relationship with God
Verse 18 tells us that every servant of God is in a living relationship with him. Not just that, he is the very possession of God, that is the main feature of the relationship, we are a possession of God in which he delights. He loves us to the very core of our being. He loves us as he loved Jesus.
Every parent loves their child very much, most good parents would do almost anything for their children because their children are their delight. God proved that he would do anything for us by sending his Son to die.
We often don’t understand this fact. That as a church, as a Salvation Army, as an individual, God has an extreme love for each and every one of us. He has a passion for us. You know, the Greek meaning for the word passion used in this passage means suffering. God delights in us so much that it called him to suffer, it as an extreme love.
We need to accept that the love of God for us is beyond all measure, but also, we, as servants, just like Jesus, have to love each other, the towns we live in, the world we live in with that same deep passionate love that does anything to reconcile people to God, even when love means suffering. Israel we not willing to bend their rules to welcome in the other peoples who did not know God, they wanted God for themselves. We cannot make the same mistake again.
2 The servant has the resources from God
The servant of God, which means you and me, not only is the delight of God, but the servant has resources from God. Verse 18 goes on to say that God will put his Spirit in us. We desperately need the resources of God.
There is the story of an Olympic runner, who as well as his own shorter distance race, chose to run the marathon as a test of his ability, he had done marathon before and thought he could do it. He set of and ran a great race, but be the time he had come to nearing the end, he could barely walk. He fell to his knees and started to crawl. If anyone had helped him, he would have been disqualified. Exhausted, he kept crawling, but then he could go no further and collapsed. Eventually, some stewards had to lift him off the road. You see, the run had taken place in a warm country, he was from a colder country, he had become dehydrated because he hadn’t reckoned on the day being so hot, and had little water to drink, so he fell exhausted.
That is an excellent example of the church, the Army, how we expect to keep on running our lives without stopping to meet with God, to drink deep from his wells of spiritual refreshment. Even Jesus had times when he would come away from all the hustle and bustle and pray alone to seek that refreshing from God, not only when things were difficult, but in the good times also. We need time daily to come before God and be nurtured by him. If you don’t eat for a day, your belly starts to rumble and I am sure we all know, that if we don’t spend enough time with God, our lives start to crumble! Israel forsook God, forgot all about him, and their nation was destroyed.
God has promised us the resource of His spirit. Earlier in the servant songs it says that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, rise up with wings as eagles.
3. The servants character
Verse 19 and 20 tell us that the servant will not quarrel or cry out. We see this perfected in Jesus. When Jesus faced his death, he did not defend himself, didn’t hire a great lawyer to get him off. When he did great miracles, he wanted all the glory to go to his Father: he told people not to say that it was he who healed them. We see that in verse 16 that we read earlier when Jesus had healed the man’s hand.
We all like a good grumble don’t we. We always have something to moan about. Especially when it comes to the weather. When it rains we want the sunshine, when the sun shines, we get too hot and want it cooler. And of course, we all like to moan about the church or the Army don’t we. We all love a good winge about this and that. Israel never stopped grumbling to God.
But more seriously, we all have a selfish element to our lives which makes us want the attention to be on us us us. Do you remember the last time you did something for someone? I am sure as I stand here, that you told the person that you did it. For example, you might do something for someone and then point out that you did it. We always do it, especially when the person hasn’t noticed, we always like to say "I’ve done this thing for you" when we really mean to say, how wonderful of me to do this for you, I am really a great person aren’t I? "
You know, not once did Jesus boast and say, "oh, look at all these wonderful things I am doing for you, aren’t I wonderful, look at brave me dying here for you, aren’t I wonderful" No, he did everything even when the disciples didn’t understand why he was doing it. Here is a challenge, next time you do something for someone, don’t tell them you did it. Just rest in the satisfaction that what you did will have lightened the persons load.
4. The Servants Commission
We see in our last verse, 21, what the servants mission was to be. It was to do one thing: to bring justice. We do this in our world by firstly declaring the reality of God.
A politician sitting in the House of Lords was recently heard to say "Hallelujah! For the first time in the 10 years I have been here, I have just heard a bishop mention God in a speech!" We must not shy away from declaring the name of God, admitting that we love him, know him, and are loved and known by him.
We must also be strong enough to stand for what is right and declare God’s standards of morality. The Salvation Army used to be very good at that. We stood up for the disenfranchised, the poor, the social out casts, but today we almost turn our backs. Most of us would walk away from a drunk person, stay clear of shady characters, walk past the homeless person, reject the rowdy young person on the street, let alone campaign for their welfare, worth and rights. I do it myself!!! This is not what we are called to be by the God who loved US so much! We are called to be God ’s servant. He didn’t look at the world and turn his back, no, he got his sleeves rolled up and did something about it.
5. Conclusion
In Luke’s gospel Jesus quotes from Isaiah these words as his pattern for life and ministry:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has annointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour"
As followers of the servant King, that is our call too. It is a challenge to live as the servant of God. Israel was not good at it, they thought they knew all the answers, they thought they knew better. Jesus was the perfect servant, who gave his very own life as a ransom for many, he came to serve, not to be served. We too are called to lay down our lives, to commit our all to God, to be used as good would have us be used. Israel failed because they did not recognised God, we must not fall in to that trap, but learn from their mistake. We have the resource of the Spirit of God, we must drink deep.
Lets close by reading together the prayer, actually from the methodist liturgy, that I have given you:
A Methodist Prayer
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with who you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you.
Exalted for you, or brought low for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty,
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and gladly yeild all things to your pleasure and disposal.
O Lord, my God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And may this covenant made on earth be confirmed, remembered and rewarded in heaven.
Amen.
