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Jesus knew that the Pharisees were planning to kill and so he withdrew from them. It was not yet the appointed time or the appointed place for the Messiah to to die.
for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem (see Luke 13:33).
My time has not yet come (see John 7:6).
Jesus knew and understood himself to be the chosen and beloved of the Father, in whom he took delight. Because Jesus was absolutely secure in this identity he didn't need to contend with the apparently important classes of individuals in his day to seek their validation. The validation of his Father was the only approval which he ever sought or desired.
Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom I delight;
By not engaging the Pharisees directly and immediately he gave them time and space to repent. They were bruised reeds that he did not break. Giving them more evidence of who he was would have only resulted in greater condemnation, for them whose hearts were closed to him. It would have broken the bruised reed, rather than leaving it in hope that it would not in all cases be lost. Or at least, if it was to be broken, it wouldn't be by his provocation.
He avoided the Pharisees, not out of fear, but out of mercy. For the same reason he did choose to bring his mercy to Gentiles. It was because Jesus was entirely filled and animated by the Spirit of the Father that he was able to love those whom his society saw as undeserving, and who could not offer him anything in return. By helping them, his own status was not improved, but if anything, popular opinion of him was tarnished. But he was able to transcend concerns about what others thought or about what others deserved because he saw in the Gentiles a smoldering wick which might yet ignite into flame.
A bruised reed he will not break,
a smoldering wick he will not quench
The Gentiles might have seemed to be a lost cause, so full were their traditions of falsehood and illusion and idolatry. But Jesus saw a spark within them, made in the image and likeness of God, with the natural law still in their hearts (see Romans 2:15), that might yet be set afire by his words and burst forth into a fire of holiness.
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
Jesus brought justice to victory, not by force of arms, but by the power of the Cross. It was by not contending or crying out, not by breaking his opposition or extinguishing those who were not his allies. Rather, by his entire life even unto his death on the cross he proclaimed the justice was to be found, not in men, not in violence, but only in the will of his Father. The resurrection was therefore the victory by which what Jesus demonstrated about the justice of God was vindicated.
In our own lives we probably sense that the victory of the justice of God is not immediately evident or obvious. We still see poverty, sickness, and death ravaging the world. We see the love of money and the fear of death motivating more people than the love of the Father's will. Perhaps we ourselves are more motivated by those things. Why, we wonder, isn't the Kingdom of God more aggressively enforced upon the world? Perhaps, in this age of the Church, God is still holding out hope for the smoldering wicks and bruised reeds. Just as he relied on Jesus, filled with the Spirit, to manifest the victory of the justice of God, not apart from the conditions of the world, but at the very epicenter of the worst of those conditions, so too does he use the followers of Jesus in our own day. He calls us to live lives marked by the justice and mercy of God. Like Jesus, we are called to invite, not to fight. We are called to see hope for those people whom the world has abandoned as hopeless. Our own lives can reveal the victory of the justice of God as we demonstrate definitively that worldly circumstances do not have the final say, that evil does not have the last word.
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
We should be eager to participate in this victory, for once his Kingdom fully comes, once he reveals himself completely on the last day, there will no longer be time for reeds to heal or sparks to catch fire. We are meant to regard such things as hopeful signs of life and do what we can to cultivate them while time remains.
We are on a pilgrimage very much like that of Israel leaving Egypt. We must give priority to the direction and destination rather than the lack of comfort or challenging circumstances that we encounter along the way. We must be content to sacrifice the niceties of Egypt for the promise that awaits us. But unlike those pilgrims, we have received the Spirit of God, and we have been told that we are the beloved children of the Father. Because of this we can trust in his promise and follow his direction with a supernatural fidelity, following in the path first walked by Jesus himself.
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