Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight: a bruised reed he will not break for in him the Gentiles will hope. The events narrated in the Gospel passage for today comes on the backdrop of two episodes in which Jesus and his disciples are called out by a section of the religious leadership for not upholding the law. In the first instance, the disciples were deemed to have violated the law of the Sabbath when they picked and ate ears of corn. In the second incident, the one immediately preceding today’s account, Jesus himself becomes the culprit. Jesus entered a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand and by so doing, transgressed against both the Sabbath and the sanctity of the synagogue. The actions of Jesus and his companions did obviously anger the religious leaders, who, in order to preserve the dignity of both the Sabbath and places of worship, came up with a plan to do away with Jesus. Jesus got wind of the plan and decided to withdraw from public sight, a move which identified Jesus with the Isaian suffering servant.
Unlike the religious leaders who saw in the actions of Jesus and his disciples a violation of the law, Jesus saw in his actions an opportunity of proclaiming the good news. The hungry disciples and the man with a withered hand represented the majority of the people who were bruised and battered, feeling lost and dejected as sheep without a shepherd (cf. Matthew 9:36). Already bruised, the people were in great need of encouragement and compassion. The good news that they needed to hear was a show of compassion, not the legalism as was demonstrated by the Pharisees.