“Not One to Pick a Fight …”

Matthew 12: 15, 17: “But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there … in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled.” Is this Jesus, the one seen here avoiding conflict, the same Jesus Who said in the previous chapter, “… the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force” (Matthew 11: 12)? It certainly is. The conflict He talks about there is internal, against the desires of one’s own soul as he strives and presses to enter the narrow door. But whenever those were around who simply wanted to make trouble for its own sake, Jesus didn’t oblige them.