Gentle Shepherd
Jesus Will Make You Whole
© Karen Power
A. Bruised Reed Shall He not Break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment into victory. Matthew 12:20
People are always talking about Famous people. Just turn on a television or radio and you will not listen long before someone mentions the fame of one or another.
Jesus Christ is all gentleness; and this is why he has not been famous among men as otherwise he would have been. The Word of God, which is our own Jesus, made flesh is full of gentleness; it seems to have been steeped in love; and I hope I may be able to show you something of the compassion and tenderness of Jesus, as I share with you today. There are three things to be noticed: first, mortal frailty; secondly, divine compassion; and thirdly, certain triumph-"till he send forth judgment unto victory."
A bruised reed and smoking flax-two very suggestive metaphors, and very full of meaning. The bruised reed is an emblem of a sinner in the first stage of his conviction. The work of God's Holy Spirit begins with bruising. In order to be saved, the fallow ground must be plowed up; the hard heart must be broken; the rock must be split up. I take it then that the bruised reed is a picture of the lost soul when God first commences his operation to reach that lost one. he is as a bruised reed, almost entirely broken and consumed; there is very little strength in him. The smoking flax I believe to be a backsliding Christian; one who has been a burning and a shining light in his day, but by neglect of the means of grace, and falling into sin, his light is almost gone out-not quite-it never can go out, for Christ said, "I will not quench it;" but it becomes like a lamp when It is almost out of oil-almost useless. It is not quite extinguished-it smokes-it was a useful lamp once, but now it has become as smoking flax. So I think these metaphors very likely describe the contrite soul as a bruised reed, and the backsliding Christian as smoking flax. but I shall put both the metaphors together, and I hope we may find a few thoughts from them.
And first, the encouragement offered is to
the weak ones. What in the world is weaker than the bruised reed, or the smoking flax? A reed that grows in the water, let but the wild duck light upon it, and it snaps; let but the foot of man brush against it and it is bruised and broken; every wind that comes howling across the river makes it shake to and fro, and well nigh tears it up by the roots. There is nothing that I can think of that is more brittle, or whose existence depends more upon circumstances that a bruised reed. Then look at smoking flax-what is it? It has a spark within it, it is true, but it is almost smothered; a babies breath might blow it out; or the tears of a woman quench it in a moment; nothing has a more precarious existence than the little spark hidden in the smoking flax. Weak things, you see, are here described. Well, Christ says of them, "The smoking flax I will not quench; the bruised reed I will not break." I will go in search of the weaklings. Ah! I shall not have to go far. There are many who are so weak. Some of God's children, are made strong to do mighty works for him; God has his Samson's here and there. Some Gideons, who can go to the camp of the Midianites, and overthrow their enemies; but the majority of his people are weak. They are like the little birds that are frightened at every passer by; a little fearful flock. If temptation comes, they fall before it; if trial comes, they are overwhelmed by it; weak things, without strength, without force, without might, without power. I know I am stepping on some of your toes now, and your hearts too; for you are saying, "Weak! Yes, that I am. I cannot sing; I would, but cannot pray; I would, but cannot believe." You are saying that you cannot do anything;
Oh Please begin to say what GOD says you are, "I can sing praises to my God for he gives me songs in the night!"
" I will pray and God will answer," " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! " " Lord I. Believe and I receive by faith!" "I Thank God He has given me his power through the Holy Spirit!"
Then there are not only weak, but worthless things. I have seen a man stop to pick up a penny on the street, because pennies make dollars, but I never yet heard of a man who would stop to pick up bruised reeds. They are not worth having. Who would care to have a bruised reed-a piece of rush lying on the ground? We all despise it as worthless. And smoking flax, what is it worth? It is an offensive and smelly thing; but it is worth nothing. No one would give the snap of a finger either for the bruised reed or smoking flax. Well, then, in our estimation there are many of us who are worthless things. there are some who, put their own hearts into the balance of conscience, would appear to be good for nothing-worthless, useless. There was a time when you thought yourselves to be the very best people in the world-when if any one had said that you had more than you deserved, you would have gotten mad at it, and said, "I believe I am as good as other people." You thought you were something wonderful-extremely worthy of God's love and regard; but you now feel yourselves to be worthless. Sometimes you imagine God can hardly know where you are, so worthless-not worth his consideration. You can understand how he can look upon a drop of water, or upon a grain of dust in the sunbeam, or upon the insect of the summer evening; but you can hardly tell how he can think of you, you appear so worthless-a dead blank in the world, a useless thing. You say, "What good am I? I am doing nothing. But Christ will not throw you away because you are of no value. You do not know of what use you may be, and you cannot tell how Jesus Christ values you. There may be a mother, perhaps, she says, "Well, I do not often go out-I keep house with my children, and seem to be doing no good." Mother, do not say so, your position is a high, responsible one; For in training up children for the Lord, you are doing as much for his name as any preacher, who so valiantly preaches the word. And you, man, all you can do is to toil from morning till night, and earn just enough to enable you to live day by day, you have nothing to give away, and when you go to church you cannot teach - well, but unto him to whom little is given of him little is required. Do you not know that there is such a thing as glorifying God by cleaning the restroom in the church? If two angels were sent down to earth, one to rule an empire, and the other to clean a churches restroom, they would have no choice in the matter, so long as God ordered them. So God, in his providence, has called you to work hard for your daily bread; do it to his glory. "Whatsoever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to honor Him. "You think if you were like Paul or Peter you might be safe. Jesus Christ says he will not quench the useless flax, nor break the worthless bruised reed; he has something for the useless and for the worthless ones.
First of all what does Jesus say here. What does he say? He says plainly enough that he will not break the bruised reed. There is a bruised reed before me-a child of God under a deep sense of sin. It seems as if the whip of the law would never stop. It keeps on, lash, lash, lash; and though you say, "Lord, stop it, and give me a little respite," still comes down the cruel thong, lash, lash, lash. You feel your sins. "If God continues this a little longer my heart will break: I shall perish in despair; I am almost distracted by my sin; if I lie down at night I cannot sleep; it appears as if ghosts were in the room-ghosts of my sins-and when I awake at midnight, I see the black form of death staring at me, and saying, 'you are my prey, I will steal you! while hell behind seems to burn." Bruised reed, he will not break you; conviction shall be too strong; it will be great enough to melt you, and to make you go to Jesus' feet; but it shall not be strong enough to break your heart altogether, so that you could die. You will never be driven to despair; but you will be delivered; You will come out of the fire, poor bruised reed, and shall not be broken. Because Jesus has come to give you Life in abundance!
When he says that he will not break the bruised reed, he means more; he means that he will nourish, that he will help, and strengthen, and support and glorify-that he will make it glorious for ever. And when he says to the backslider that he will not quench him, he means more than that-he means that he will fan him up to a flame, and It only takes a spark to get a fire going. You may be the beginning God uses for a revival!
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