The Gentle Heart of Christ

Although we covered this text last week, it seemed profitable that we spend another week on the last three verses of this text. This is because it is one of the most comforting texts in the entirety of Scripture, and it is useful and comforting for us to spend time on the gentle and lowly heart of Christ as he invites us to himself and the blessings of the Kingdom which has come with his coming.

The Invitation

John 6:35 ESV

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

The invitation in this text is to come to Christ. Jesus invitation is not to come to a program, to a certain kind of church, to a set of religious works and values, or to a philosophy of life that will offer ease and comfort. It is a personal invitation to himself. Here, Jesus puts himself forward personally as the one to whom the weary and burdened are to come.

As we saw last week, these weary and burdened people are burdened by their sin and by the law which, when mixed with this originally sinful natures, produces great distress. This is seen in the carnal man mentioned at the end of Romans 7. They, under the burden of the law, are working against their flesh and the law of sin makes them unable to work for their salvation. Instead, the law does its good work by humbling them to the point of desperation. They recognize their inability to escape from sinful desires and motives. They see their poverty of spirit and mourn over it, for they are helpless and unable to do what is necessary for the law’s promise of life to be effectual.

To these who are burdened by sin, by guilt, by shame, by hopelessness, by exhaustion, by the heavy weight of their own carnal nature that they are unable to bear because they know that the wages of sin is death, to these Jesus invites them to come unto him. They need not come through a priest, through prayers to saints or to Mary, they need not come with their best good works on display (for they know these are filthy rags before God), they only need to come with their hearts weighed down and their minds set on repentance. They are to turn from the way they have been going, the way of sin or of imagined self-righteousness, and come to him who offers them rest for their souls.

The call to come is not made in a harsh and condemning voice, but is from the gentle demeanor of a gentle Saviour.

When we have an atom of faith in our hearts, we can see God’s face, gentle, serene and approving.

John Calvin

Jesus is not calling us over to scold us, judge us, or condemn us, but rather to offer us that which the burdened soul longs for: rest. Such calls by Christ are not rare.

John 7:37–38 ESV

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

In fact, God had been calling his people from their sin back in the days of the OT prophets. While much of their message was judgement, it was judgement not unto their destruction, but so that they may recognize their burdened state and come to God for rest. The Prophet Isaiah proclaimed in Isaiah 55:1-3

Isaiah 55:1–3 ESV

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

The Holy Spirit would quote this verse in Revelation 22:17. When Jesus calls someone to come, he calls them that they may receive this rest and satisfaction for their own good. But what does it mean to come to Christ? Christ’s incarnate form is not longer with us on this earth, and yet the call to come to him remains. How do we respond to this call?

Recognition and heartfelt mourning for sin.

Realizing our inability to please God ourselves.

Repenting, turning from the way we have been going having been convinced of a better way: the way to Christ.

Most importantly, faith in Christ. Coming to Christ means believing upon him, trusting that his Good News was indeed for the poor in heart, the tax collector, the prostitute, the sinners like you. Believing that he has made a way for you to know God despite your sin. This was done through his shed blood on the cross and in the glorious victory of the resurrection. In that event, our sin was taken upon Christ, our shame was his shame, our guilt was credited to him, and the life he lives in glory we partake in and one day will share in through our own resurrection in glorious, sinless perfection.

A love for Christ. Setting our affections upon Christ is the natural germination of faith. Where true faith in Christ is, there is a love for him. This love is the grateful and hopeful response to the love of Christ shown in his coming and death.

Walking with Christ, which means walking in the way in which Christ walked. This means living life in the way in which he lived, submitting to the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification as we grow into the likeness of him whom our souls love.

This is what coming to Christ means. It means faith, discipleship, following, and loving Jesus. In this way, we find forgiveness of our sins and eternal life with God. The coming of Christ was motivated by love and produces peace between God and man. When the Kingdom of God came, it didn’t come in judgement and condemnation, but in mercy and an offer of peace.

The coming of the gentle king is associated with the proclamation of peace to the nations, extending his reign to the ends of the earth.

D. A. Carson

The Heart of Christ

This reveals to us the heart of Christ, which is described in our text as gentle and lowly.

Proud man would perish unless a lowly God found him.

Augustine of Hippo

This is the coming of peace that had been prophecied about in the Old Testament.

Zechariah 9:9 ESV

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Jesus comes in a humble, lowly, and peaceful way. This displays the tender heart of Christ. Hebrews 4:15-16

Hebrews 4:15–16 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus comes to the weak, the burdened, the sinners, those burdened by their knowledge of guilt, and he comes with hands outstretched and a heart of peace. He comes to search for the lost sheep, to help the burdened, to wipe the tears off the cheeks of those mourning their guilt and sin, and welcome the sinner into the holy presence of God. Again, this heart was displayed and prophecied in

Jeremiah 31:25 ESV

For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

To the frightened, God is friendly; to the poor in spirit, he is forgiving; to the ignorant, considerate; to the weak, gentle; to the stranger, hospitable.

A. W. Tozer

While Jesus does condemn the unbelieving, he is open and welcoming to those who, burdened as they are with their sin and unworthiness, come to him as their only hope. He is not hard to reach, but comes near, even taking on the flesh of a human being, and he comes with a humble and gentle heart. He will not punish, yell at, or discourage these sinners when they come to him, but with a gentle and lowly spirit, Jesus welcomes sinners to himself whatever sins they have committed. As long as they come to him with full trust in him and repentance from the life they have been living, they are welcomed by him who came into the world to save sinners.

Are you burdened by your sin? Do you feel like the face of God is one of anger, frustration, and judgement towards you? Is your sin burdening your conscious and is guilt and shame overcoming you? Do you recognize your inability to please God in yourself by your own works? Do you long for peace with God? Jesus’ simple message to you is to come to him, without any righteousness of your own, without demands, without concessions, just come and rest in his promise of eternal life and the forgiveness he purchased at the cross.

Christians can often get lost in life, ministry, duty, and fears that slowly take their eyes away from the Saviour. Others are ridden with shame over sin and ironically that shame has them coming back to that sin for comfort because they imagine that God will not comfort them. God loves you and wants to offer you comfort in the person of his Son. If the one who is seated at the right hand of God with all authority and power in heaven and on earth, whose will is the will of the Father, has a heart of compassion towards you, there is nothing that can stop you from coming to the Saviour with a lowly heart knowing that he will comfort you, bind your wounds, heal you of your broken heart, forgive your sins, and help you walk in repentance and faith. The Christian walk is never one we walk alone, but one we go along hand in hand with a loving Saviour and a gracious King who has invited us to join in his inheritance from the Father if we will just come to him.

The Yoke

Jesus does mention a yoke, as we mentioned last week, but this yoke is not burdensome to those with a burdened heart. It may seem odd that Christ, offering rest to the weary, offers them a yoke and a burden, however light it may be. However, Jesus promises us in this text that in taking on this burden we will find rest for our souls.

The Garden of Eden was a place both of rest and work. To work freely in God’s presence is not a burden but a delight, and to labour in Christ is not something that will make us weary but rather will give rest to our souls. Many come to Christ expecting their burden to be lifted, but are afraid to take up the yoke of Christ, even though it is through this yoke that we find true rest.

But what is this yoke and burden which Jesus informs us is so light and easy? We may look at the answer to this from two perspectives: first, it is a walk, and second it is conformity.

A Walk

Throughout the Scriptures, there is a dichotomy drawn between the way of life and the way of death. Everyone is walking a road, but only those on the road leading to life find rest, while those on the road to death find labour and heaviness. While the road to death seems easy at first, since it is the path our sinful natures are most inclined to, it becomes weary and difficult as the guilt and shame of sin piles up on us. It may seem easy for the whole way through for many, but for those who have an effectual calling from God it becomes a labour too heavy to bear. The unregenerate are unable to feel this burden, even though it very much exists. Some feel this burden when they reap the sorry consequences for their sin, but still many refuse to leave the way that is slowly leading them up Mount Sinai, where the law of God will finally destroy them because of their guilt and sin. But to those who have eyes to see that their burden is to heavy to bear, they are invited here to the path of life. Though the path is steep and difficult at first, there are two things that make this way easier and in the end a rest in itself.

First, the burden of sin is gone when one steps on the road to life. This is the path that leads to Mount Zion, the city of God.

Jeremiah 6:16 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

To walk this path, the Scriptures make it clear that one must come to Christ, and walking with Christ means walking this path of life, what Paul in Romans 8 calls “walking in the Spirit”, mean walking in the way that Christ leads. It means walking in a way that is consistent with love for Christ, looking to him in faith and walking with the confidence that the Holy Spirit is working in us the strength and ability to walk in this way of life, growing in righteousness and walking in the commands of God.

1 John 5:3 ESV

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

These commands are summarized in two commands: to love God and to love our fellow human being. Notice that John says these commandments are not burdensome, because our nature is changed by the Holy Spirit to desire these things. This is because, when we come to Christ, we come with love for him who is the Saviour of our souls. Coming to Christ means coming with love, and since the command of God is to love, this yoke is not a burden but a delight and the path to life.

Augustine:

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1.6: Saint Augustin: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels Sermon XX. [LXX. Ben.]

For love makes all, the hardest and most distressing things, altogether easy, and almost nothing.

Although living a life of love for God and for God’s image-bearers, especially those who are saved and have Christ dwelling in them, is not an easy burden, those who love Jesus don’t count this a burden at all. It is all they want to do because their hearts have been transformed by him to whom they came for rest and salvation.

Conformity

This love leads to life and glory that Christ has won for us in his sacrifice on the cross. It means emulating Christ which leads to the second perspective of this yoke of Christ: conformity. As we walk the way of life, we are walking a way that leads to a change in us. Most journeys we take change us in some way, but this great journey of a life of sanctification conforms us to the image of Christ. Again, this is a delight because of the love we have for Christ. It is a love that is so overwhelming, we are called to hate family and earthly goods compared to the love we have for Christ. This is not a love that we have along with love for many other things in life, but rather our chief love in our life that leads us to grow more and more into his likeness.

Notice in our text that Jesus says “learn from me”. The reason believers are called disciples because we are called to follow and learn from him for the explicit purpose that we become like him and emulate the way he lived his earthly life as a human being. To learn from Christ is not only a learning of theological and hypothetical knowledge, but a learning that we may walk in the way he walked and taught. This was the purpose of the sermon on the Mount as Christ taught the way in which a member of the Kingdom of Heaven ought to walk in holiness so that they may become like Jesus.

There is a specific way we are called to become like Christ. Jesus says, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. The gentleness, mercy, and humility of Christ is not only for our comfort, but is also an imperative in how we must walk in the way of life.

That is to say, just as his true glory was to follow the path of lowly service culminating in the cross, so for them the true glory lay in the path of lowly service wherever it might lead them.

Leon Morris

Christ lived a lowly and humble life, with gentleness and mercy for the sinner. Those who come to him come to him to be saved by him and be saved from their old nature by becoming like him through what we call sanctification. It is not merely a matter of doing the right thing, following the law, and being righteous, but rather having a submissive, humble, loving, and gentle attitude towards our fellow human sinner. Paul makes this clear in Phil 2:5-8

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Coming to Christ and taking on his yoke means becoming Christ-like through our love for him as a response to the love with which he loved us. This means becoming gentle and lowly in heart. In becoming like Christ, we have rest from the oppression of our sinful flesh and have a Sabbath in Christ by becoming like him, holy and righteous in the sight of God.

There is no rest apart from this yoke. If we make a pretense of coming to Christ but do not submit to this easy yoke, we will find no rest in Christ. That would be hypocrisy and is not a true coming to Christ. But for those who submit to this yoke of love, we find rest from our sin, forgiveness from sin, and just as we have experienced the joy through the humility of Christ we ourselves are to walk humbly in love. This conformity is the way we experience rest and peace in the love of God.

Conclusion

God is closed to those who are proud, spiritually self-sufficient, and who feel no need for a Saviour. Jesus did not come for those who think they are righteous enough to enter the Kingdom or worthy to be a part of God’s plan, but quite the opposite, it is the unholy, the sinner, the tax collector, the prostitute, those burdened with their sins and knowingly unable to please God by obeying his law. In Christ there is rest and peace with God through his shed blood. For the sinner there is forgiveness, for the burdened there is rest, for the depressed there is joy, for the lowly there is a lifting up, for the ashamed there is redemption, and for the labouring there is relief.

The offer to come is for you today. God comes, not with the wrath you deserve for your sin, but with mercy and help for those who are burdened by their sin. Abandon your pride and let yourself be humbled by your guilt, don’t try to escape from your burden by worldly means, nor should you try to lessen it by acts of self-righteousness. Instead, come to Christ, the lover of your soul, who loved you and gave himself for you. He smiles upon the sinner who is humbled, he helps the weary and mourning, he gives eternal life to the dying, if they will just come into his loving arms and walk with him on the road of life. Do not stay in your burdens, do not be satisfied with this world and its distractions, and do not be lulled by a sense of self-righteousness. Come to Christ as a sinner, the worst of sinners, and trust his kind intentions to love you, to make you holy, and to make you like him so that you may enjoy eternal life as a righteous child of God in Christ.

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