Isaiah 42:3 “a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.”
The triumphant entry to Jerusalem mid shouts of “Hosanna.” The Last Supper when Jesus displayed the full extent of his love. Judas’ unthinkable betrayal. The anguish of Gethsemane and utterance of the most powerful words in history: “Not my will but Yours.” The trial. The mocking, spitting and beating. The cross, death and burial. Then, finally, Resurrection Sunday! It’s Holy Week for believers in Jesus Christ.
Maybe you’re a bit like me. You want to be drawn nearer to the heart of Jesus this season. To step away for a second from the global atrocities, chaos and confusion of a world gone mad. To focus this week, of all weeks, on the good, the beautiful, the redemptive.
On Jesus.
So here are some thoughts I’m pondering as I approach this Holy Week.
Tim Keller writes in Making Sense of God, how Jesus possesses “strikingly beautiful qualities we think would never be combined in the same person.” He says Jesus lived his life with unequalled self-sufficiency and yet relied completely on his heavenly Father. Jesus showed “tenderness without weakness, boldness without harshness, humility without any uncertainty.” He displayed unbending convictions but was completely approachable. His insistence on truth was always framed in love.
Isaiah describes Jesus as so tender that he wouldn’t break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick, but he would faithfully bring forth justice. No one possesses more compassion, more mercy, more true affection for people than Jesus. He finds ways to fan into flame the fading embers of diminishing hope. And no matter how bruised or splintered we might be, Jesus longs to heal us, not break us.
Yet a more just person never walked the earth. He never compromised the laws of God, maintaining a standard of right and wrong our present culture can barely comprehend. Evil could not find a landing stirp in Jesus.
As I think about these seemingly incongruent virtues contained in Jesus, Holy Week becomes more to me than “just another” remembrance. It fits that the darkest day on the planet—the day God died—prepared us for the most brilliant day in history. Resurrection Sunday!
I pray this week won’t be just “another Holy Week” for you. May you drink in the depths of your Savior.