Jesus, the Contrast!

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Ex 12:27-42; Mt 12:14-21

Today’s Gospel highlights the uniqueness of Jesus as God’s servant. 

Jesus’ uniqueness can be contrasted with the cunningness of the religious leaders of his time. 

1. During Jesus’ time, the religious leaders were known for their legalism when it came to the observance of the religious laws. In fact, today’s Gospel text follows Jesus’ healing of a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The religious leaders, who believed that righteousness came from a strict observance of God’s law, found fault with Jesus for performing the cure. While their attitude was one of fault-finding, Jesus went ahead with curing many who followed him. However, the more good Jesus does, the more evil rises against him. The religious leaders sought to silence Jesus because their hypocrisy got exposed when Jesus came announcing the true will of God, which prioritized humanism over legalism. 

 2. As today’s Gospel shows, the Pharisees plot the death of Jesus. Their deliberation to get rid of Jesus is unbecoming of religious leaders. What worsens their behaviour is that they were already oppressing people in the name of God. Hence, the fact that they will go to any extent to eliminate a man like Jesus who exposed their hypocrisy is made clear in the reading. Here, we must note the intensification of enmity toward Jesus. What Jesus faces is not mere misunderstanding. It is his death that is plotted by a group of people who dislike his rising popularity among people. However, Jesus, the personification of goodness, decides to continue God’s mission amid threats and opposition. Jesus takes on hatred with love. 

3. Jesus is God’s true servant, and therefore, for Matthew, Jesus’ suffering at the hands of unjust religious leaders mimics Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 42. Matthew cites Isaiah to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Suffering Servant. We must note that though this passage is on the Servant’s suffering, it is not a display of God’s weakness. Instead, for Jesus, the suffering servant, suffering is the way to victory. In other words, Jesus’ suffering reveals God’s strength in disguise, and therefore, it is a strategy. Unlike what we might expect, Jesus confronts evil with suffering love, not with a sword. Hence, the uniqueness of Jesus lies in the fact that in his suffering love, Jesus does not destroy his enemies but dies for them. Suffering love of Jesus conquers enmity. 

In his uniqueness, Jesus leaves behind a missionary model for us to follow.

Let us pray that following Jesus, we may overcome evil with an overwhelming love. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar