The Lion... and the Lamb...

10/5/2005

I am meek and lowly in heart— (Matthew 11:29)

I am gentle and humble in heart— (Matthew 11:29)

It is very amazing that the only scripture in the whole New Testament where the heart of Jesus is specifically mentioned is the one we just read. Of course, there are passages where His heart is talked about, like when the soldier pierced Jesus’ side; but this passage is special because it actually mentions the kardia or heart of Jesus by a specific word. Several passages in the Old Testament talk about Jesus’ heart, such as “Their insults have broken my heart; and I am full of despair” (Ps. 69:20) and that well known one, “My heart is like wax; melting inside me” (Ps. 22:14). But in the New Testament, this is the only place that tells of the heart of Jesus, and so we will think about it with special care.  We have two things to do: first, we will consider the description given of Jesus’ heart and second, we will work to obey the commands that go with the description. For both these things we need the full help of the Holy Spirit, and I pray that He will take the precious things of Jesus and show them to us.

The Heart of Jesus

The Heart of Jesus has two adjectives: “I am meek/gentle and lowly/humble in heart.” There is no pride or performance in either of these words mentioned. They both belong to the gentle list of virtues and are not thought highly of by princes of this world or their warriors.

The first word is meek. It is used in the third beatitude (a “be” attitude is when Jesus told everyone on the mountain how they should “be” and what would happen if they had a good attitude)  “Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5), Also when Peter said “ 4 You should be known for the beauty that comes from the inside, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God, the symbol of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1 Pet. 3:4). When people talked about Jesus they have said: “Look, the King comes to you, gentle (meek), and riding a colt the baby of a donkey” (Matt. 21:5). The original word has the reputation of “mild, gentle, soft and meek.” This is the heart of Christ. And Jesus says this about Himself: “I am gentle and humble in heart.” There are things that you wouldn’t want to say about yourself because it might sound like you are praising yourself, for instance, a long time ago gentleness or meekness was something no one wanted to be. A man could say he was meek without others thinking he was seeking attention for himself.

It is amazing that Moses wrote in Numbers 12 the fact that he was meek. “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men living on the face of the earth” (vs. 3). Some people think that this verse was inserted later and could not have been written by Moses, but I really don’t think so. I believe that Moses, guided by God’s Spirit, wrote that description of himself for our example and was totally free from any desire for attention, just as Jesus spoke about Himself. Meekness never seeks to be the center of attention, and when it puts itself in the front of the line, it is always with the intention to benefit others; therefore no one would tell a gentle or meek person to not talk.  For a man to boast before his enemies “I am wise” or “I am strong,” that would be seeking attention for himself. But to say to them, “I am meek,” would not be boasting but a humble argument for peace, a plea for gentleness and quiet.

Our Savior, who never ran after the praise of man, says about Himself, “I am meek.”  He wanted to remove the fears of those who were afraid to come near Him.   He wanted to win the devotion of those who feared becoming His followers because they might be thinking to serve Him would be too hard.  He cried, “Come to Me, you guilty men, you who feel you don’t deserve My love and forgiveness, you who think that your sins may make Me angry; come to Me, for I am meek/gentle.” It would not be prideful for a man to say, “I am strong,” if he would be able to convince a drowning man to trust him to save his life. Neither would it be wrong for a physician to say, “I know all about medicine,” in order to lead a dying person to take the medicine that he felt sure would heal the person. If God has provided us with the ability to help someone in need, then it is not prideful to see that you have a way to help and to offer the help of another person too.  Jesus knew that His gentleness would give us the confidence we need to go to Him, ask for His help and to know that He is always approachable.

The other adjective is lowly/humble. This is the word that is translated in the famous song of Mary, low degree. “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble” (Luke 1:52). It is also used in Romans 12:16, where Paul says, “Don’t try to act important, but enjoy the company of ordinary people.  And don’t think you know it all!”  So again in 2 Corinthians 7:6, where it is written differently: “God comforts those that are thrown down.” In James 4:6, the word is translated humble: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” If you turn to any Greek dictionary, you will find that the word means more than just what the Bible uses it for, but since the Greeks were a warlike people, a proud people, and thought it their worst nightmare to patiently take an insult, the word that we translate by lowliness they would understand to mean staying near the ground, vile, something you don’t have to submit to.

And so our Savior has chosen to describe His own heart by a word that unsaved men would understand wrong. Even now, a man who will not fight but has learned to suffer wrong without resenting it is thought by certain people to be a coward and not someone they’d have to listen to. That lowly grace that the world calls unnecessary, Jesus says is His own special quality. He is not lofty, ambitious, proud, and thinking others are below him. He lived with the humble and very sorry; He spent time with men of low position, even those that the ungodly would look down on as utterly beneath even noticing. He made for Himself no reputation and became a servant to all. When He was passionately hated, He loved in return. He did not strive or cry or cause His voice to be heard in the streets; a bruised reed He did not break, and the smoking flax He did not quench (Isa. 42:3). Therefore He was meek and lowly in heart.

This description of the heart of Christ may be understood to mean the opposite of being quick to get angry. Meek men bear a lot of teasing. Some men explode at a single spark; if you even seem to pay them disrespect, they are upset in a moment. But Christ said, “I am meek. I can pardon your unthankfulness and disrespect. I can forgive your profanity, your blasphemy, your insult, your scorn, your enmity, your malice, for I am meek.” Even when put to a cruel death, He muttered no curse and threatened no revenge. “Slow to anger, and full in mercy” (Ps. 103:8), like His Father, is the Son of the Highest.

Meekness and lowliness are also the opposite of a prideful spirit. Jesus did not run after the attention of pomp and state; neither did He desire to be thought well of by men. He did not speak proudly to those around Him and order them around or try to be the boss of them as the princes of the Gentiles do. He was approachable, easy to be reached, and ready for a request. The poor and the sick could easily move His heart to pity and His hand to help. He was called the friend of publicans and sinners, and of Him it was said, “This man receives sinners, and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). As a teacher, Jesus was meek and lowly in heart, and because of that He was the very opposite of the scribes. If you saw a Pharisee in Christ’s day, you would have seen pride in the flesh. By his very name, the Pharisee told others he was a special person, and in the clothes he wore, the way he acted and the way he talked, he set himself up to be some great one. A Pharisee would not come near a sinner if he could help it, passing the sinner in the street like he were a dog. But Christ was gentle and willing to get together with the worst of the worst and the lowest of the low, for He was “lowly in heart.”

The meekness in the Bible is also opposite of that pretended meekness and fake humility that has sometimes tried to fool the world. It is true our Savior was meek and lowly, even in His greatest moment He rode upon a colt, the foal of a donkey, and not upon a horse, which indicated importance. He was forever lowly in the way He looked and the way He behaved, and though He could flame and flash with sacred boldness and speak words that burn in His holy anger against pretending, when He spoke the glad message of the gospel He was very gentle, even as a mother with her little child. Yet the meekness and lowliness of Christ were not things of manner and of word alone: He was really that way in His heart. He was not like those who pretend humility so others would do what they want. Some say Thomas à Becket had the greatest lowliness and humility, and for this reason he washed the feet of thirteen beggars every morning; but still he was arrogance itself and lorded it over his king. He was the proudest of the proud, though he pretended to be the humblest of the humble.

Many men have hidden towering pride beneath the crouching manner, acting humble while hiding their arrogance.  They have pretended to be the friends of the people. This is not like Jesus who always tells the truth. He didn’t pretend to be a friend of the poor and sinners, he really was. He was already on their level in intense sympathy with their sorrows. His heart was with the common people, because he was tempted in every way they were.  He became a real friend of sinners and a willing companion of the needy. He rejoiced in spirit when He said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and educated, and have revealed them to children” (Luke 10:21). His meek and lowly heart was by its very nature to be empty of anger and pride, passion, and enmity. So, from looking at these things we can see more clearly the meaning of the scripture.

It will also help us to see that Christ first, is always ready to forgive all past offenses. “Come to Me, you sinners, for however much you may have sinned and hurt me in the past, I am meek and easy to talk to. I am ready to forgive and forget. My very heart says it, for My heart is full of tenderness and compassion for you. I have borne much from you and can bear still more. I will be mindful of your weaknesses and forgetful of your sins. I will not be so grieved by you rebellions that I would cast you out if you come to Me.” Jesus is long-suffering, full of pity, and ready to forgive; like His Father, He passes by transgression, iniquity, and sin because He delights in forgiving those who don’t deserve it. 

But the words include also a willingness to let you hurt him again. “I am meek” means “not only do I forget the past, but I am ready to bear with you still, though you will hurt Me again. Though you are ungrateful and give me unkindness for My love, I will endure it all. Come to Me, although you cannot hope that tomorrow you will get it all right. I will help you to grow into holiness and be patient with your failures. If you come to Me, I am planning to forgive you seventy times seven, as often as you give into sin, every time you turn to Me, I will forgive you and restore you. As frequently as you grieve Me, so frequently will I forgive you. If you take My yoke, I will not be angry if sometimes it appears heavy to you. If you learn of Me, I will not be bothered if you prove to be a slow learner. I will bear with you today and tomorrow.” Beloved, what a heart Jesus has to receive sinners with the holy heart of God, so unlike our own!

As to the second word, “I am lowly in heart”; that means “I am willing to receive the lowest and the poorest among you; the most unknown, hated, and ignorant, I welcome to My salvation. O you who work and are very burdened, when you come to Me, I will not feel that you are too bold and that your company is a dishonor to Me. I will not say to you, go away because I have chosen to be with kings and princes, or the wealthy and the witty.” No, Jesus doesn’t desire to be with the so-called “beautiful people” but seeks after men of all backgrounds. The poor have the gospel preached to them. Some people who say they are working for Jesus have looked down upon the working class, but their Master said, “Come to me, all of you that work hard to the point of exhaustion” (Matt. 11:28). Do not stand back because you are poor in your spirit, for Jesus is of a humble heart. Come to Him, you who feel like offcasts, outcasts, and men of no caste at all, for Jesus also was rejected by His brothers. You, who are not liked, come to Him who was hated by men. You, who are homeless, come to Him who had no bed of His own to sleep in. You, who are needy, come to Him who was hungry and thirsty. You, who are lost, come to the Son of Man, who is come to seek and to save those who are lost.

His lowliness also means that because He is willing to receive the lowest, He is also willing to do the very lowest and most boring service for those who come to Him; willing to bear their burdens, willing to wash their feet, willing to clean every last bit of their sins in His own blood. Jesus waits to show grace and has a ton of joy in His heart when He saves to the uttermost those who come to God by Him. For sinners He has done great acts of humble love, for He has carried their sin and their shame, the wicked desires they were born with, and their sicknesses. He willingly stooped to the lowest position to save the worst of men. My heart glows in me while I am telling you these things about my own dear Lord and Master, “whose shoe strings I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:27). Jesus has, in these two words, as with two masterly strokes of the pencil, given us a perfect picture of His dear, gentle face; no, not of His face, but of His inmost heart. I wonder why everyone is not in love with Him. “Meek and lowly in heart!” When sinners see their own hearts, those two words are the most lovely and fascinating characteristics that calm their fears and capture their hearts. He, who has eyes to see, let him look there, and looking, let him love.

To talk about these words a little more, I beg you to remember that they are more valuable if we realize who it is that speaks them about Himself. Remember it is the Lord God, the Son of the Highest, who says, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” At first these words speak to me with a still, small voice and make me very glad. Then, like Moses at the bush, I draw near to it, but just in case I should be too bold and grow cocky, it changes its tone, and I hear crack after crack of thunder coming from it as I listen to the words: “I am.” Can you hear in those words the unspeakable name of Jehovah, who doesn’t need anyone or anything to exist? Yet, as I listen amazed at that thunder’s crash and fear that it might tell of a storm to come and of its destruction, I feel the soft drops of eternal mercy fall upon my forehead and hear again the gentle voice of the Mediator saying, “Meek and lowly in heart.” Jehovah Jesus is gentle, tender, and very willing to make himself just like me. What a divine blending of glory and grace! It is marvelous!  Words cannot say enough!  Omnipotent, which means to not have a beginning or ending and to be everywhere at once, yet lowly!  Eternal God, yet a suffering with patience! King of kings and Lord of lords, yet “gentle and humble in heart”!

Don’t forget that Jesus, who said these words is the same Jesus who said, “All things are given to Me from My Father” (Matt. 11:27). Yes, He owns all things, and still He says, “I am gentle/meek and humble/lowly in heart.” It is hard to be a man of power and yet to be gentle, to be a king and to give orders that everyone must obey and yet to be humble, to be master of all and to suffer patiently the mocking and abuses of those who you wouldn’t even want to take care of your dog.  To have all things given to Him by God and still be so gentle and to endure all kinds of conflict of sinners against Himself, to allow sinners to spit in His face, to pull His hair out, and to scourge Him cruelly. There has never been another person in all time, before and since that is so gentle and humble in heart! Yet this was Jesus Christ as God Almighty and as the most humble man. Having an unstoppable power to go to God for us, with all things given to Him, and still our Redeemer is “gentle and humble in heart.”

Remember also that Jesus said, “the Father…has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). If it were your business and mine, even though it is not, to make a judgment for the whole world, I tell you it would be an extreme difficulty to be able to stay gentle and humble in heart. But Jesus Christ is judge of the universe. His eyes, like flames of fire, can tell the difference between the precious and the vile, burning up the stubble and purifying the gold, and although ruler of all mankind and soon will sit on His throne to judge both angels and men, He still said while He was here on the earth, “I am gentle and humble in heart.” These are very wonderful words. I do not know whether you catch the contrast.  A perfect person, matchless in power and given all authority to judge people and yet, for all that, “gentle and humble in heart.”

It is quite possible that the very reason of His gentleness and humility may lie somewhere in His glorious greatness, though it may seem a contradiction, for who are the meekest in the world but those who are truly strong? You can pass down the road and a yelping dog will bark at you, but a powerful bull feeds on in peace. Real strength is the backbone of meekness. Those who get mad and angry are weak, those who fight to be patient and turn to Jesus are strong; the heart of Jesus is a gentle heart and He embraces all people, partly because His heart is bottomless. And I have noticed, too, that really great men are humble men; at any rate they are only as great as much as they are humble. When a man really likes being important especially to show off in front of others, he is really a little man. Those who look and wait around for anyone to notice that little thing they did are the very small men. The man who must have all his titles written after his name shows that he is insecure and feels like he needs them. The more popular a man becomes, the plainer his name becomes in men’s mouths. The greatest men among us in the state are seldom or never called even by their full names and referred to by what they’ve accomplished but are known by the shortest descriptions. The greater a man is, the less he cares what others think. All over the world, the man who wants others to think he’s great is really little, and the man who is ready to serve others no matter how hard, already has the ABC’s of greatness in his character. The Lord Jesus Christ is so infinitely great that no one can add to His glory, and therefore He is surpassingly low, too. We are too proud to seek the conversion of such a sinful woman, but He was not; He went to Samaria to find her and talk to her. We think we are too great to speak to the babes, but He said, “Permit little children, and don’t forbid them to come to me” (Matt. 19:14). It is a delightful thought that He should be so great and yet so lowly, and there is an intimate connection between the two great facts.

Our Lord, loved by God, proved throughout His life the truth of what He proclaimed by saying, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” All that He talked about, scripture proves that He lived out every word of it. When He came to earth, His first appearance was in a stable and to a humble woman. His childhood was spent in a carpenter’s shop, and when some glimpses of His matchless wisdom were seen in the temple, he still went back with His mother and His earthly father and was submissive to them. Throughout His life His time was spent with the poor. He never put on fancy clothing or paraded in the courts of princes. Herod might be anxious to see something of Jesus, but Christ never went to the palace to flatter Herod or to amuse his curiosity. Jesus was quite happy to be with Peter and James and John, humble fishermen as they were. His tenderness toward children was something you would always notice. His gentleness toward all that approached Him was what people mostly remember about Him. Who did He ever ignore?  To whom did he ever speak in a prideful way?   When was he ever irritated?  Did He not carry insults in silence?  Did He not answer those who tried to trick him with very wise responses? Was not mercy His only reply to malice?  Even in His death His silence before His enemies was His humility, and His prayer for His murderers was His meekness. While “despised and rejected of men,” He was still their friend and loved them very much by returning good for all their evil. He was indeed “meek and lowly in heart.”

Obeying Christ’s Commands

There are three commands: “Come to Me,” “take My yoke upon you,” and “learn about Me.”

First, I have great pleasure in telling every reader who feels the weight of their sins in their mind and heart and trying their best to be good is invited to come to Christ; and you are persuaded to do so because He is gentle.  No matter what your age is or how long you have ignored Jesus or however great your sins are or whether you have refused His mercy a thousand times, yet He says to come.  He will forgive all this, for He is gentle, and He invites all guilty sinners to look into His heart and see if they can discover anything like vengeance or unforgiving anger.  He does not push away even the Godless people.  He says “Come as you are.  You are not good enough and unworthy, yet still come.  I know what you are, I have thought about you. I know that your body is like dust and that your nature is sinful, yet still I say, come, for I am able to keep you from falling.”

To overcome another set of excuses that don’t really come from sinfulness but more from feeling like you don’t really matter, Jesus declares, “I am lowly in heart.”  Jesus loves the poorest, the wretched, the ignorant, the unknown, the ones everyone makes fun of, the sick and the troubled.  Jesus rejects no seeking soul.  No one is too low for Him:  His love can descend lower than you have ever fallen.  If you lie between the jaws of hell, Jesus can pluck you out.  It is delightful to my soul to tell this good news to you. Does the tender love of Jesus not attract you?  Nothing should draw your attention and encourage you more.  Jesus, by His own lips, speaks to you: “Come to me, all you that labor and have a heavy heart full of sin.”  May His Spirit lead you.  Come and trust the Savior; Come and bow at His dear pierced feet; Come and take from His wounded hands the boundless mercies that He delights to give. Come and look into His face, for it beams with love and welcomes you to His friendship.

The second command to obey is to “take My yoke upon you.”  This is for you.  Obey Christ, for He is no fierce master.  It is very easy to serve a man who is lowly and meek.  It is very difficult, I should think, to be continually employed by a person who thinks too much of himself to speak to you, whose commands are impatient, and who, if you do not fulfill them to the letter, will yell at you with mean words.  It must be hard to be a servant to a hard master.  But, oh, to serve Jesus is to serve one whose service is perfect freedom, who is ever understanding toward our faults, who forgives us as soon as we hurt Him, and if when He is saddened by us, it’s only because we hurt ourselves when we sin.  Who would not obey Jesus?  Who would not serve so kind a Prince?

The third command is to “learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.”  This is a lesson that I want to learn:  To be gentle!  We are not all meek, and some of us who might look gentle and kind are only that way maybe because we were born that way, not because we have seen Jesus clearly; but the true meekness can only come from God Himself through grace.  Matthew Henry says that there are only three men in the Bible whose faces are said to have shone light out from them…Moses, Jesus and Stephen-and all of these were gentle and kind men.  God will not make angry men’s faces shine.  If anything can put a divine glow on a Christian’s face, it is a readiness to forgive.  If you are ready to forgive, you have some of Jesus’ character.  It is wonderful, the power of meekness, if we would just believe it.  There is no power in anger after all.  “Man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”  (James 1:20). 

Get on your knees to win; submit to overcome. Nothing conquers like meekness, not the meekness that is pretended, but real gentleness.  Of all things in the world, I think the most sickening is the pretense of forgiving a person when you yourself are the individual who needs to be forgiven.  The self-righteous pretense of meekness when you deserve to be rebuked is horrible.  May God grant us grace to find peace by getting rid of anger, for only by meekness shall you find peace in your souls.  You cannot be at peace while you are harsh and severe and ready to resent every small hurtful thing done to you.

The other word is “lowly in heart.”  This is one of the things every believer should learn from Christ.  Augustine was once asked what the most important thing there was in a relationship with Jesus. He replied, “The first thing is humility, the second is humility, and the third is humility.”  There is more than that essential, but at the same time in  perfect Christian character, one of the rarest but at the same time one of the most precious pearls is humility.  The lowliest Christ is the loveliest Christian.  A full man is a humble man; a proud man is an empty man.  Conceit means weakness; lowliness of heart is strength.  Jesus Christ was strong and yet meek, great and yet lowly.  Oh, that we might learn that lesson from Him and be “meek and lowly in heart.”

(Charles Spurgeon)