Galatians
5:22-23; Matthew 5:5; 11:28-30
As we have studied the Fruits
of the Spirit I’ve noticed an interesting dynamic that takes place. Each one of these – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – is a quality that we
would like to have in our lives, certainly. As I have worked on each one individually I noticed that
certain people come to mind.
Thinking of love, certain
people came to my mind as I worked.
Working on joy, certain people
immediately came to mind as great representatives of joy, and so on.
This morning we come to gentleness. I would like for you to take note of
who comes to mind when you think of gentleness. Just let the person or person pop into
your mind.
People come in all varieties.
There are those who are possessed of very strong personalities, who
dominate their surroundings and conversations. Then there are those who are gentle – not weak – but
gentle. They exude such a sense of
gentleness that after a few moments in their presence you notice that you feel
more relaxed and at ease.
Gentleness may be one of
the most misunderstood of words. Many
people think of gentleness as being weak, timid, or passive. This is not the
biblical understanding of gentleness.
In fact, the Bible tells us in Numbers 12:3 Moses was a very gentle man, more gentle
than anyone else on the face of the earth). I don’t know about you, but I have never thought of Moses as
being gentle. My image of Moses has
always been of a very strong, no-nonsense, type of leader. After all, it does take a great deal of
boldness to confront the Pharaoh of Egypt and demand, let my people go.
Moses did not lead his people to freedom by using gentleness. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and
found the people had fashioned a golden calf to worship, he did not react in a
spirit of gentleness. His anger
flared when he saw what was taking place.
In Matthew 11:29 Jesus refers to himself as
being gentle – Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. I imagine that Jesus was, very often, a
gentle type of person. But he
wasn’t all the time, was he? When
he cleansed the Temple that wasn’t gentle. In John’s gospel, in fact, we read that Jesus made a whip out of cords, and drove all from
the temple area (John 2:15).
That image of Jesus fashioning a whip is a very deliberate kind of
image. It wasn’t a spur of the
moment decision, but one Jesus makes after witnessing all that was taking
place, and he has to go and gather the materials needed to make a whip, and all
the time you can imagine the indignation arising within him. Does that give an image of
gentleness? Not to me.
The great philosopher Aristotle defined
gentleness as the person who is angry at
the right time and never at the wrong time. I like that description. It certainly is descriptive of Jesus.
I want to provide three definitions of
gentleness this morning. Gentleness
actually comes from one of the most difficult words in the Bible to translate,
because it carries a broad scope of meanings. I want to use three of those meanings to give us the core
descriptions of gentleness.*
1. The
first meaning is being submissive to the will of God.
This is the idea of gentleness – or meekness –
that we find in the Beatitudes – blessed
are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth.
It’s not the Donald Trumps of the world who are ultimately the ones
who are in control of the world.
What the Scriptures often teach is a reversal of what we see in the world
around us – the last shall be first, and
the first will be last (Matthew 20:16) and whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant
(Matthew 20:26). This reversal of
the norm is a reminder that while the world is operating in a particular way,
it’s not the way it was meant to operate.
The kingdom of God operates very differently, and the kingdom of God
will eventually be established, and those who are submissive to the will of God
are the ones who will help bring about the kingdom, because it doesn’t come
about by force, but by gentleness, the living example of how we are meant to
live.
One of the most common fears I hear people express is their anxiety
about the condition of the world, and their perception that things are getting
consistently worse, that we are moving away from God, and that we are heading
down a road toward destruction. We
are, in the opinion of many, headed southerly, in a handbasket, and very
quickly.
I don’t believe that to be true.
For one, the world has always been a mess, and it has been a bigger
mess that the one that we currently see.
But faith tells me that God’s kingdom will eventually be established,
and I believe we are moving that direction, even if it doesn’t appear to be so. I think the connectivity of our world
magnifies the perception of how bad our world is, but God is doing a lot of
work in the world, and I believe he is moving it in the direction he desires it
to move. It may not always appear
to be so, but I believe that is true.
This is where the idea of gentleness seems a bit contradictory in
Moses and Jesus. There are people
placed in history by God, I believe, who really push his cause forward in a
major way. Moses was certainly
one. As was Abraham, David, and
Paul. Jesus was the pinnacle,
certainly. In our own age we
continue to see those who operate in such a prophetic way to demonstrate the
justice and healing God desires to bring to the world. I would place C. S. Lewis, Martin
Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa in the category of those who have moved us
forward in our day as people who sought the justice of God, such as Martin
Luther King; C. S. Lewis brought the truth of God to so many people by his
great gift for writing; and Mother Teresa embodied the call to service.
It’s not easy to be submissive to the will of God, but it is part of
the call to being gentle.
2. The
second meaning is being teachable.
James 1:21 says that we ought to accept the word that is planted in you. I believe that is speaking about an
investment of teaching in our lives.
If you think about the ministry of Jesus, what
did he spend most of his time doing?
Teaching his followers.
It’s not just our age that recognizes the value of learning; Jesus was a
supreme model of the importance of teaching and learning.
As you read through the gospels you can find
examples of Jesus taking advantage of opportunities to teach his disciples.
Wherever Jesus traveled he would teach his
disciples. Everything became a
learning opportunity. When he was
seated by a well and spoke with a Samaritan woman; when people brought their
children to Jesus and the disciples complained, that became a teaching
opportunity; when the storm came upon the sea; over and over we find examples
of the way in which Jesus was constantly teaching his disciples.
It’s hard to make it in today’s world if you
don’t seek out an education. And
it doesn’t end when you are done with school; the need for continuing education
is imperative. Faith is no different,
but we can become lax in our learning; we can become lax in our seeking
opportunities to learn more about the Scriptures and theology.
3.
The third meaning is being considerate.
I am not very in touch with popular culture
these days. I watched about two
minutes of the VMA awards last week, and part of those two minutes happened to
be Miley Cyrus. Can I just skip the obvious commentary about that moment? I am out of touch with popular culture
because so much of it is coarse, crass, and rude, and it seems that the
culture-shapers – those who create reality television, etc. – want to lift up
that kind of behavior, but I don’t believe that is most people. Putting something on TV and in other
forms of communication falsely magnifies the importance and significance of
certain behaviors. It is not the
norm, I don’t think, and it is not the way most people live and behave.
Gentleness is a way of life that treats other
people with kindness, consideration, decency, and respect.
Proverbs 15:1 tells us that a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a
harsh word stirs up anger.
Just because someone else is harsh and abrasive, doesn’t mean it’s
required for me to be harsh and abrasive. Ephesians 4:2 says that we should be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another
in love. Just because someone
else is not gentle or patient with others, doesn’t mean I should forsake those
important qualities.
One of the interesting stories from history has
to do with Attila the Hun. In the
5th century he was storming through toward Rome. Nothing and no one had succeeded in
stopping him. If Rome fell, all of
Western society would fall. As he
prepared to march on Rome, Pope Leo the Great ventured out to meet him. There was one man, in front of the army
that conquered all resistance as it marched across the world. One man who came to stand in front of
this great army, and the army turned back.
(A Short History of Byzantium, John
Julius Norwich, page 49).
History does not give us all the details of
that encounter, but one person comes out to this mighty army and they turn
away. It couldn’t have been might
that convinced Attila to turn away.
I believe it is the power of gentleness, of a person who is willing to
confront the great might of the world with a far greater power.
*William Barclay,
editor of the Daily Study Bible Series
was helpful in providing insight into the various ways of translating the word
for gentleness.
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