NOTES for Mat 12:15-21

We remember well the words, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt 10:34). Sometimes they seem to us to contradict what we read in today’s Gospel passage: “He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smouldering wick He will not quench, until He brings judgement to victory.” But whenever we encounter an apparent contradiction in the Word of God, it is a sign that a profound meaning lies there, for a deep meaning cannot be expressed in a simple statement with only one sense. We might call it not merely a sign but a signal, a signal for us. So we search for the meaning. What does a sword do? Why do we perceive it here specifically as an instrument of killing? The connection “sword—violence” is firmly fixed in our minds. A sword can cut something into two parts so that they can never be put together again. This is how the Lord came to separate good from evil. But how will He do it? In the way described in today’s passage: so that no one can be compelled to this victory, not only against their will but even by accident. Even if we are not atheists but people almost ready to accept faith, when it seems that only one more moment is needed for our inward resistance to God to break like a reed, even then we ourselves will come to faith, while Jesus will simply wait. For He is not a consuming fire but a sanctifying lamp.