In today's reading, the evangelist Matthew applies to Jesus of Nazareth one of the Old Testament's most remarkable prophecies about the Messiah: Deutero-Isaiah's words about the Servant of the Lord, who “shall not break a bruised reed.” This prophecy was spoken in the second half of the sixth century BC, when the first caravans of returnees were coming back from Babylon to Jerusalem to revive life among the ruins of the House of the Lord. The Lord reveals to the prophet that His Servant will bring people salvation without violence. Several years later, the Lord will say something very similar to the prophet Zechariah: salvation will come “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.”

For the evangelist Matthew, who wrote his Gospel for Jews, it is important to let the reader see that Jesus of Nazareth is the One who is truly meek, and that this prophecy was fulfilled precisely in Him. It matters to the evangelist that Christ carries out His saving ministry by proclaiming the word of truth—“showing judgment to the nations,” as Deutero-Isaiah puts it. The evangelist applies the words about the Messiah's meekness directly to the moment when the Lord Jesus “charged them that they should not make Him known.” By quoting the prophecy in full, Matthew also applies it to the events he will relate next. In the logic of this passage, “till He send forth judgment unto victory” is a prophecy of the Cross, while the words “in His name shall the Gentiles trust” are fulfilled in the Church that embraces the whole world.

Disputes about the Sabbath between Jesus and the Pharisees were constant—accusations of breaking it accompanied the Savior throughout His earthly ministry. Observing the Sabbath prohibitions would not seem to have been especially difficult—so why did He continually, and often pointedly, disregard them? One might, of course, explain everything by saying that Jesus Himself, like His followers, held a particular understanding of the norms and rules for observing the Sabbath rest, but was that the only issue?

If we turn to the Sabbath's original meaning, it becomes clear that this is a special, sacred time given to God and intended solely for communion with Him. All the rules and prohibitions are secondary; they are merely a means to the main purpose: that every seventh day should be spent not on ordinary, everyday affairs but in communion with God and in His presence. The strict treatment of those who violated the Sabbath rest was chiefly connected with the fact that an offender could easily disturb those around him—people who wanted to spend the day in peace and quiet but risked losing that opportunity because of neighbors who were too noisy or active. Yet as the Yahwistic, and later the Jewish, religious tradition developed, the prohibitions became ends in themselves, losing their supporting role and becoming almost the very purpose of the day. For many members of the Pharisaic brotherhood, the chief meaning of the Sabbath became not communion with God but observance of numerous prohibitions.

Jesus restores the Sabbath to its original meaning and enriches it with the new revelation He brought into the world. It is no accident that, in response to the Pharisees' accusations, He recalls the story of the consecrated bread that the high priest gave David even though he had no right to do so. There are situations in which an established order is broken. If the One who bears within Himself the fullness of the Kingdom has come into the world, then the Sabbath without Him loses all meaning. The situation has changed radically: it is now possible to spend the day not merely in communion with God but in communion with the Messiah in His Kingdom. To ignore this and behave as though nothing in the world had changed is to hollow out the Sabbath, leaving only its outward legalistic form. The Savior never tires of reminding His listeners of this so that the Sabbath may become for them not an observance of religious formalities but the beginning of the way into the Kingdom.

Jesus' answer to the people who looked at Him reproachfully does not appear entirely logical at first glance. From the point of view of those around Him, what He was about to do, and did in fact do, was a violation of the Sabbath. And He reminds them that even a domestic animal whose life is in danger is rescued on the Sabbath, and such actions are not a violation of Sabbath rest.

Reasoning in human terms, from the point of view of our untransformed world, healing a man whose main problem was a withered hand is something fundamentally different. If this man's life had been in danger, if medical intervention, in modern terms, had been required for vital indications, no one would have said a word to Jesus. And even if the issue had been a threat to the life of a domestic animal that needed help, no one would have reproached Him. The whole point was precisely that there was no threat to life: the man with the withered hand, with which he had already lived for more than one year, clearly would have lived calmly in the same way for one more day. And then, after the Sabbath ended, he would have received the expected help without violating Sabbath rest. So why hurry?

But Jesus, as we can see, looks at the matter quite differently and does not want to wait. And not because He is a principled opponent of the rules of Sabbath rest accepted in those days. He simply wants to convey to those around Him the true meaning of the Sabbath: this day is given so that it may be spent with God.

If this were simply a matter of medical help, those around Him would perhaps have been right. But this was not about medicine, but about the Kingdom; not about treatment, but about healing, and that changed everything completely. For if the Sabbath is, in fact, the time to be spent with God, then every manifestation of the Kingdom, together with the healings that accompany it, should only be welcomed. In essence, Jesus offers those who are nearby the chance to spend the Sabbath with Him in His Kingdom, and they do not understand Him and do not notice the Kingdom, seeing only a violation of the prohibitions connected with Sabbath rest.

He offers them the fullness of life; hence the mention that even an animal whose life is in danger has a right to help, even on the Sabbath. For without this fullness everyone is doomed to death, and only He, Jesus, can save them from death. But when He does this, joining to the Kingdom at least one person whom He heals, they accuse Him of violating the Sabbath. The spiritual meaning of the Sabbath has moved into the background, while religious formalities, on the contrary, have come to the foreground and obscured the Kingdom, which the people surrounding Jesus do not even notice.