The Gentleness of Jesus

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“Oh! that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force!”

~Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), novelist and poet in Jane Eyre

“Meek. Humble. Gentle. Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms … You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come.”

“When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish and perplexity and sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them.”

~Dane Ortlund in Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

“Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day, for good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control this great force.”

~Irving Berlin (1888-1989), famed songwriter

“People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.”

~John C. Maxwell, author and speaker

“As we come to grips with our own selfishness and stupidity, we make friends with the impostor and accept that we are impoverished and broken and realize that, if we were not, we would be God. The art of gentleness toward ourselves leads to being gentle with others – and is a natural prerequisite for our presence to God in prayer.”

~Brennan Manning (1934-2013), author and clergy

“The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that it’s most potent.”

~Bryan Stevenson, lawyer, activist, and professor at NYU School of Law

SERMON PASSAGE

selected passages

Galatians 5 (ESV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Proverbs 15 (NIV)

1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 2 The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

Ephesians 4 (ESV)

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Philippians 2 (NIV)

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,

 did not consider equality with God

 something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing

 by taking the very nature of a servant,

 being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

 he humbled himself

        by becoming obedient to death—

 even death on a cross!

Matthew 12 (ESV)

[said of Jesus, as quoted from Isaiah 43:1-3]

18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

  my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

  I will put my Spirit upon him,

  and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud,

  nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;

20 a bruised reed he will not break,

  and a smoldering wick he will not quench,

  until he brings justice to victory;

21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

Matthew 11 (ESV) [Jesus speaking]

28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”