Matthew 12:20  

“A bruised reed he will not break,  and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.”

 

If the reed was bent and bruised it wasn’t worth much except for throwing away. Bruised reeds here are a picture of people who have been hurt. How gracious and tender our wonderful Savior is in dealing with the fallen. People can be hurt in different ways: disappointment, divorce, death of friend or family leaving you in grief, sickness or injury, loss of job or finances. Are you bruised and feel beaten up with life circumstances? No matter how you may have been hurt, Jesus can bring healing into your life today!

 

Isaiah saw the compassionate God that prophesied He will not throw out bruised reeds nor snuff out a wick that still has a glimmer of smoke; it is not dead yet. His mercy will be shown to people. There are people who feel as if their usefulness is over. There was a time when the flame burned brightly, but something has gone terribly wrong with the candlestick. The wick has just about burned out and it is about to die. The only sign of the flame is the faint, white, thin wisps of smoke that are arising from it. Does this not describe the child of God who started out with much vigor, but somewhere, somehow, he has gotten himself side tracked and backslidden on God.
           

Without God’s Spirit as the oil within our lives, the best we can do is smolder and smoke. We may try to live a “perfect life”–to please God and everybody, but our best efforts are not good enough. If you are a smoldering wick entangled by sin, Jesus can set you free and light your fire!
           

Some have seen in this illustration, those who once believed – the righteous who once put their trust in God but have now lost their first love and have drifted away from the Lord. A little smoke and a slight flicker of light are all that remain. The smoldering wick is someone who once knew God, but walked away from God. He has became harassed by sin and enticed by its pleasures. He failed to live a life of holiness and devotion and now the full flame has almost gone out. Doubt and despair and discouragement have taken over. They are like the church in Laodicea which left its first love and had become lukewarm – not hot nor cold.
        

I heard Brennan Manning, a former Franciscan Monk speak. Alcoholism overtook him to the point when he was living in the streets of Florida wandering from drink to drink. He remembered in a drunken stupor when a mother with two children walked on the other side so as not to be near him. He overheard her telling her son don’t speak to him or look at him.

 

He was a monk, and by his own admission had found the pearl of great price and yet finding himself in this despicable condition made him as lonely and full as despair as ever. He came to understand the grace of God was not based on our actions, but on His love even while we were at our worse. He said, “When we experience ourselves as someone deeply loved by God, it comes as such a surprise because the love of God is so radically different from our natural way of loving. In the church we tend to produce amateur theologians rather than witnesses of Jesus who have really experienced Him. In some ways it’s about making peace with our brokenness as human beings who are made in His image but who woefully fall short. We somehow think that pop psychology or positive thinking or getting enough people to mirror back our lovableness is what will bring us to a place of self-acceptance. It doesn’t work that way. When we surrender with childlike confidence and trust that Jesus accepts us as we are--even in our sinfulness--that becomes the root of our own self-acceptance. Then, paradoxically, we are free to forget ourselves and turn our eyes toward Jesus and other people.”

 

Ps. 34:18, "The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit." The Spirit is upon Jesus, gentle for now. He does not kick you when you are down. He does not trample the oppressed. He does not break a bruised reed.

           

Maybe some of you feel like your spiritual lamp has almost gone out. For some the flame is burning very low. The word of the Lord for you this day is that Jesus does not quench the little spark of spiritual life left in you.. "God sent not the Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved." Jesus did not come to snuff out your struggling flicker but to fan it carefully into a torch for His glory.

 

He hears the publican who cries, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!" To the woman in adultery when people wanted to stone her, He gently and kindly did not snuff out her wick but showed others by saying, “He who is without sin cast the first stone.”. She was able to receive His grace and power to go and sin no more.

           

God loves you unconditionally as you are and not as you should be, because you are never going to be as you should be.