GENTLE AND HUMBLE

 

“Like a bull in a china shop”—have you heard that expression?  It is used to describe someone who runs around, throwing their weight around, shattering all around. Sadly, that is how some pastors do ministry!  When a bull finishes his destructive work, the fragile, valuable people left behind are broken.  Some preachers not only fail to understand how to build people up, but they are good at tearing a church apart!

That is not the spirit of Jesus as we hear in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

We consider HIS MISSION.  “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  He saw people who were worn down by the burdens of life and offered them a lift.  We are sent to a world where people are broken by sin and burdened down by life’s trouble. Being like Jesus means we see our task as attracting the hurting. As someone has said, “If you preach to the hurting, you will never lack an audience.”

Then, observe HIS MESSAGE. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me…”.  His teaching summoned them to wear His yoke—one that fit them perfectly. Jesus taught them God’s Word and that truth pointed to Him.  May our message never be about us, but about Jesus. It must be rooted in Biblical exposition, “This is what God says.”  But, it then must go to practical application, “This is what we need to do about it.”  Above all, it must be Christocentric.  Wherever we take our text, it must direct people to Jesus.

Finally, we note HIS MANNER. “For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. No wonder the weak limped to Him, the fallen dared approach Him, the rejects of the culture sought hope in Him, and even little children ran to Him.  Don’t think that Jesus was weak because He was meek. He could flip tables and whip hypocrites if need be—and there is a time to be forceful in ministry and confront wrong intensely. But, that was not the typical manner of Jesus.  Indeed, it was the brutality of the religious mafia that angered Him so, for He wanted them to be like Him—drawing people and not repelling them; lifting the burdened and not crushing them; instructing and not just demanding; gentle and humble in manner.

I have recently been studying the book of Jeremiah. On the surface, it might seem that he did not minister like Jesus. People did not want to listen to him.  His denunciation of sin and declaration of judgment was direct. Yet, he is known as, “the weeping prophet”—not so much for how he suffered, and indeed he did, but with the grief for how God was rejected and the high price the people would pay for their disobedience.  Let us be sure that when our sermons are scorned that it is because people reject the message and not our manner, and may we mourn for sinners accordingly. Over the course of nearly a half century of Gospel ministry I have seen those who despite my love for them, loathed me. I have witnessed how God disciplined them. Yet I find no gladness in their suffering, but sorrow for it.

The saddest part of all is that in some occasions when people were repelled by me, it was that I failed to be like Jesus in being directed by His mission, delivering His message, and displaying His manner. May the Lord have mercy upon me!  Brothers, let us renew our commitment that by His Spirit we will be like Jesus!