The Paradoxical Sayings of Jesus
Gentle Strength
Matthew 5:5 & Selected Passages
This morning I've chosen for our Paradoxical Sayings of Jesus series one of the Beatitudes in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:5: "Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth."
Now, I suspect some of you will wonder, well, what's so paradoxical about that statement? Certainly, gentleness is a good thing, an excellent quality and to be desired in any and every person. We would expect Jesus to encourage us to be gentle.
Well, what's paradoxical about this statement is not that Jesus encourages us to be gentle, but the promise that comes with it—that those who are gentle will inherit the earth.
Now when Jesus made these statements, I'm sure that He was very deliberately intending to surprise us, and to make us wonder and think. He understood the power of putting two concepts together which generally don't go together. He knew the power of predicting that a certain character quality would predict an unlikely outcome. And that's exactly what He intended when He spoke this Beatitude. It was, at the time He said it, and still is today, an entirely unlikely result or outcome for a person who is characterized by gentleness.
Now just think about it for a moment. In this world, in this life, is gentleness a character quality that often promises that we will inherit territory; that promises that a result will be that we will take land? In this age, is gentleness something that promises us that we will inherit the whole earth, the world, as a result?
Absolutely not! In fact, qualities that are the very antithesis of gentleness are what characterizes those who take territory in this age. Violent and brutal aggressors throughout history have been those who conquer and subdue the nations of the earth. World history alone demonstrates this from the great empires of the Assyrians, to the Babylonians to Alexander the Great and then the Roman Empire, and even in the expansion of our own nation, the good ol' U.S. of A., the reason that these nations became so big and powerful was their willingness to enforce their authority and power on other nations because of their use of violence, their willingness to take up arms and aggressively take whatever they wanted. If anything, in the history of the world, it is generally the gentle and humble folks who end up being disenfranchised by the arrogant, the rich, the powerful, and the violent. And so when you hear this sort of promise, this sort of guarantee for the gentle, it makes absolutely no sense unless it is spoken by someone like Jesus, someone who is at least a prophet, and in this case the very Son of God—someone who knows the future, and knows and can achieve what God, as God Himself, has planned for those who serve Him.
What Jesus is encouraging us with here is the notion that a wonderful character quality like gentleness, which often produces little reward for us in the short-term, will in the long-term, in the Kingdom of God, produce great reward. The gist of what He's saying here is this—Repent, change your mind and be gentle, because will greatly reward the gentle in His coming Kingdom.
That's the only way gentleness in this world is going to be greatly rewarded—by God ensuring that it's rewarded in the Kingdom He will yet establish on the earth so that right makes might, rather might making right as it is in our world today.
This morning we're going to look first at what Matthew 5:5 meant to those who first heard it in their historical context and what therefore it should mean to us, then we're going to consider how gentleness is a characteristic of our God and especially His Son Jesus Christ. We're going to look at what gentleness is—how to define it. And finally the kinds of situations in our lives that especially call for gentleness.
So, imagine the scene once again when Jesus first spoke the Sermon on the Mount. He was on a green hill above the Sea of Galilee with thousands of people who had seen him do great miracles listening to Him. In Matthew 4:17 we have the message that Jesus was consistently proclaiming in the early days of His ministry, and it was this, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand."
God's Kingdom is near, it's right here. Why! Because, as it would turn out, Jesus was the King of the coming Kingdom. And now as their Messiah-King he had shown up in order to prepare them for the coming Kingdom. And for people to be prepared to enter the Kingdom, they must repent. They must change their mind about their sin and selfishness, and begin to follow God, they must begin to follow Jesus. For when the Kingdom comes, there will be a grand reversal. In the regeneration that will mark the coming of the Kingdom, the things of this world will be turned upside down, so that the righteous and the gentle will be greatly rewarded, and the unrighteous, the harsh and the violent will not be rewarded; in fact they will not even enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And so it's incumbent upon all those common, humble people who had come to see Jesus in that northern province of Galilee to repent of all those attitudes and actions they may have served them in this life, but will not serve them will once the Kingdom of God is established. And among those character qualities that needed to be jettisoned was the tendency to be ungentle—to be violent, to be harsh, to be unloving and to be uncaring.
And so Jesus essentially told these common everyday people who came to hear them that if they wanted to be part of God's Kingdom, they would need to repent, and be gentle now to be greatly blessed in the long run. Repent, be gentle now to inherit the earth.
Now remember, it is unlikely that there were many rich, powerful, or influential in these crowds of common people. In fact, many of these folks were distressed and disenfranchised. In a sense, the whole Jewish nation had been disenfranchised by the ruling Roman Empire, who was the occupying force and ultimately authority, humanly-speaking, in the region at the time. And why, because Rome was the superior military force, and by violence, if necessary, Rome had subdued and taken over the entire region around the Mediterranean, including Israel. And they were none too gentle about enforcing their authority—Pontius Pilate had mingled the blood of the Jews with their sacrifices, in other words used violent even deadly force to enforce Roman Authority in Judea. So this was a very revolutionary statement in the ears of these hearers. All they had ever known was that violence and brutality ruled, and now Jesus was promising that it would be the gentle, the lowly, the non-violent that would ultimately inherit not only Israel, but the whole earth? What a concept! But this is exactly what will happen when Jesus comes to establish His kingdom. He will turn the world and its values completely upside down, because what counts in this world, will not count with God in the world to come. And one of those things, or character qualities, that is going to count big-time in the Kingdom to come is, of all things, gentleness, or meekness and humility. Jesus is encouraging all of us that if we want to inherit the earth, in absolute contradiction to worldly and sinful wisdom, we need to cultivate, of all things, gentleness.
Is gentleness something you actively cultivate in your life? Is it a character quality you have admired, or seek to pursue, or do you just make your way through life letting the chips, the bodies and the hearts fall where they may?
So why would gentleness be such a big deal to Almighty God and His Son Jesus? Well, guess what, God is a gentle God, and Jesus deals gently with us on His behalf. As many of you understand, our goal in this life is Christlikeness. And essentially, we need to be gentle because Jesus Christ is wonderfully gentle.
Now Matthew 5:5 is the only place where Jesus makes this kind of promise, but we see numerous places in Jesus' ministry where he either characterized Himself as being gentle or demonstrated clearly just how gentle He was and is.
The Greek word used in Matthew 5:5 for gentle, praus, actually appears three times in the Gospel of Matthew. It actually is translated in most of your translations as meek or meekness. It can also be translated as humble or in some contexts considerate. It appears to have developed in the context of breaking horses or animals, and it literally means a tamed neck, as opposed to a stiff-neck. It speaks of bridled strength, like a powerful, but gentle horse considering the welfare of its riders and all those around it. So gentleness or meekness is not weakness, but it is strength under control, considerate of others feeling's, devoted to their welfare, rather than throwing care and caution aside.
One pastor described gentleness as "love touching." Love expresses gentleness through a tender touch. He describes it in this way, "without gentleness love does not touch others. Without gentleness or meekness our touch is harmful instead of helpful, painful rather than pleasing, selfish instead of selfless. Only as our strength is submitted to God, only as power is brought under the control of the Spirit through love, can we reach out and touch one another."
Chuck Swindoll says, "In our rough and rugged individualism, we think of gentleness as weakness, being soft and virtually spineless. Not so! Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may be angry or otherwise beside themselves, and possessing tact and gracious courtesy that causes others to retain their self-esteem and dignity . . . . Instead of losing, the gentle gain. Instead of being ripped off and take advantage of, they come out ahead!"
The other places it is found in Matthew are extremely significant. It is found in Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus identifies Himself as being gentle in an invitation for all to come to Him. He invites us to do so in this way: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Now I don't know about you, but I find it absolutely incredible that Jesus, as Almighty God Himself, describes Himself as gentle and humble in heart. Here is one who is the epitome of power and perfection and holiness, and yet with all His power, all His intelligence, all of His authority, our God, as manifested to us in the person of Jesus Christ, is gentle and humble in heart. That word gentle, yes, is the same Greek word found in Matthew 5:5. And obviously Jesus describes Himself in this way in his invitation to assure any of us who might be willing to come to Him that He will deal gently and humbly with us. That His goal is not hurt or harm us in anyway way, but that His desire is to do good to us and to help us and even to save us. He will be entirely humble and gentle in His approach to us when we come to Him.
Now the other time that this adjective for gentle is found in Matthew is in Matthew 21:5. There an Old Testament prophecy is both quoted and fulfilled as Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem just before the Passover on a colt, the foal of an ass, to present Himself to Israel as Her Messiah and King. Zechariah 9:9 is the prophecy that is being quoted in Matthew 21:5 and it goes like this: “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’”
So, even as Jesus the Messiah presents Himself as Messiah and King of Israel in Jerusalem, gentleness, and its accompanying character quality, humility is evident. Gentleness and humility are two characteristics that work to bring reconciliation, peace and unity. And Jesus is revealing and presenting Himself to Israel as a gentle and humble king, who will deal considerately and carefully with her issues, who comes in peace and who ought to be completely acceptable to the nation of Israel because of these qualities. Instead of coming on a spirited white war horse with His armies following, to conquer Israel, Jesus is coming humbly and gently to His people to assure them He has come for peace and for their welfare, and to be entirely reconciled. Of course, sadly, we know the outcome of all of his gentle appearances and efforts—He was brutally and violently crucified—the real nature of man coming forth to manifest itself again.
And so we see Jesus, our Savior, and our God, deliberately characterizes Himself as being gentle and offers to deal gently with us if we are willing to receive Him as our Savior and our God.
Even when gentleness is not explicitly stated as a quality of Jesus, we see it as evident throughout His ministry. We know that He welcomed and blessed children, even correcting His disciples when they were not willing to allow the children to come to Him. Just a couple weeks ago we spoke of how He tenderly took a child in His arms in Mark 8 and said that if we don't become like children we would not enter the Kingdom of God.
And then think of how the great God-man entered into His life and ministry among us. He came not as a conquering and brutal king, but rather was born as a harmless baby to a peasant couple in a stable in Bethlehem and placed at first in an animal's feeding trough, or a manger. He was not at all threatening or harsh in His entrance into this world, but gentle and humble in every respect. And think about how He related to sinners, especially prostitutes and tax-gatherers and those who were of ill-repute in His ministry. He was roundly criticized by the religious leaders of his day because he allowed prostitutes to touch Him, and forgave their sins; because He ate and drank with renowned tax-collector and sinners and gave grace to them. In John 7 when a woman was caught in adultery and the religious leaders brought her before Him for judgment, putting Him on the spot, how did Jesus respond? "Let him who is without sin cast for the first stone." And when everyone, beginning with the oldest, had finally left the scene, and He who was without sin was left alone with the adulteress—did He then cast the first stone? No, He dealt gently with her sin and only kindly advised to go and sin no more. Wow!
And more than that, think about how gently He dealt with all of our sins on the cross. For those of us who would believe, He took the wrath of God upon Himself and suffered all of that so that we wouldn't have to experience any of the pain of God's wrath. He so gently deals with our sins that He took all the suffering upon Himself for eternity to save us from having to experience any of it. He literally threw Himself, and His body over the top of us to save us from the just wrath of His Heavenly Father—that's how gentle He deals with all of our sins. What an incredible God, what an incredible Savior. How could anyone trample under the foot the blood of the New Covenant which He shed gently and mercifully for our sins?
Of course, sometimes it's necessary to speak of what qualifies as gentleness and what does not. Ray Stedman. And one thing that does not qualify as gentleness is passive-aggressive behavior as a story told by the late Ray Stedman amply illustrates: Some Americans were stationed in Korea during the Korean War. While there, they rented a home and hired a local boy to cook and clean for them. These Americans were a bunch of jokesters, and they soon began to take advantage of the young boy’s naiveté. They’d smear Vaseline on the stove handles so that when he’d turn the stove on in the morning he’d get grease all over his fingers. They’d put little water buckets over the door so that he’d get deluged when he opened the door. They’d even nail his shoes to the floor during the night. Day after endless day, the little fellow took the brunt of their practical jokes without saying anything. No blame, no self-pity, no temper tantrums.
Finally, the men felt guilty about what they were doing, so they sat down with the young Korean and said, “Look, we know these pranks aren’t funny anymore, and we’re sorry. We’re never gonna take advantage of you again.”
It seemed a bit too good to be true to the houseboy. “No more sticky on the stove?” he asked.
“Nope”
“No more water on door?”
“Nope.”
“No more nail shoes to the floor?”
“Nope, never again.”
“Okay,” the boy said with a smile, “no more spit in soup.”
So be gentle as Jesus is gentle, genuinely gentle. If you follow Jesus, gentleness will be a result. . In fact, indeed, it is listed as one of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:23. If you walk as a believer, in the power of the Holy Spirit, gentleness will be a supernatural outcome of your life.
And we do need that supernatural help. In fact what is interesting is it seems the words for gentleness appear both in the Old and especially in the New Testament in the context of times when we would naturally be tempted to be harsh. And so with this comes our third point this morning: Think gentle when tempted to be harsh. Think gentle, Christlikeness, when tempted to be harsh.
Gentleness brings healing. An Old Testament verse gets us off to a great start on this theme, Proverbs 12:18: "There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword,
But the tongue of the wise brings healing." Given the context, you've got to think that's a gentle tongue!
Proverbs 25:15 tells us that gentleness combined with persistence can be persuasive, even when nothing else works: "By forbearance a ruler may be persuaded, And a soft tongue breaks the bone."
Proverbs 15:1 is perhaps the best known of the Proverbs I'll quote on gentleness. It encourages us that we can turn away someone's wrath or anger with a gentle answer: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." When do we need to be gentle, but when a harsh word is spoken to us. How hard is that? I know I failed on this one this week!
Then there's Galatians 6:1, about when someone has really blown it. Gentleness is especially necessary and useful when attempting to restore someone who has sinned: "Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted." So when someone is caught in a sin in the church, it's especially at that point that we need to restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, and humility, knowing that we, too, could be tempted.
Gentleness also encourages unity: In Ephesians 4:2 as Paul exhorts the Ephesians church to pursue unity, even when unity is threatened, He puts it this way: "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit it he bond of peace.
Colossians 3:12 tells us gentleness identifies us as having been chosen of God—it displays who we are: After having exhorted the Colossian church to put aside their evil desires such as anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech from their mouths, he says, "So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you."
Gentleness is necessary for pastors, elders and church leaders whenever they're involved in correcting others: Gentleness corrects: II Timothy 2:24-25: "The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to each, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth"
Gentleness also resolves quarrels. In James 3 in the context of the quarrels and conflicts discussed in James 4, we find this exhortation: "Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom."
Gentleness can even win the lost. In witnessing to unbelievers, gentleness is a necessary trait. I Peter 3:15: " but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence."
So, how will we treat a neighbor who is not like us? Will we respond with prejudice, the elitism of pride or will we have a gentle touch?
So how will we treat a friend who has been immoral? Will we condemn them, or will we have a gently seek to restore them as Chrsit has been gentle with our sins.
And what about those who have been dishonest and selfish? Will we push them away or will we have a be gentle, even with them?
And how will we treat our mate or our child who speaks harshly to us. With a soft answer, or returning evil with evil—a harsh reply rather than a gentle, patient answer?
The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness—strength submitted to God.
Remember meekness is not weakness; gentleness is strength submitted to God; gentleness is love touching.
Jesus is gentle and humble even in dealing with our sins—having taken them upon Himself so we wouldn't have to.
Be gentle as Jesus has been gentle with you, for God will greatly reward you in the Kingdom to come!
Let's Pray
