The Heart of Christ

Introduction

Now, here before us, is one of those texts for which, I fear I am unable, as a preacher, to rise to the occassion. But this time it is not because of the complexity of the text, but because of the weight of its reality.

All truth that we come to believe changes our perspective, but certain truths can be so heavy that it sends much more than quiet ripples through our mind.

Its implications can be so profound that it leaves you awestruck, as you stare in wonder, as many presumptions in you mind collapse, and you see the beauty of the character of the Lord.

So, as we move ahead, consider me this day, a man struck with the depths of a profound reality, and this sermon, as the mumbles coming out of his mouth.

I’m not quite sure where to begin, and how to go about unpacking this text. You see, there are texts that talk about who God is as a being, texts that reveal the nature and character of God. There are texts that talk about what God has done, continues to do, and promises to do in the future. There are texts that talk about what we are called to do as children of God.

Then, there are texts like this where God welcomes you in, to come beyond the veil, to behold His heart. And when I say heart, remember that it doesn’t mean just emotion. The heart is the core of our affection, the desire factory of our souls, it is the essence of who we are that is projected out to the world before us.

After studying this text, I see the heart of Christ in every text before, and I wonder if I’ve ever preached well.

Another thing that I see is that when we talk about God’s love for us, we have to balance that over and against God’s justice against sin. But we can so easily err in that balance. Because that balance can give us a picture of an emotionally neutral Christ. [It can imprint the wrong demeanour of Christ in our minds]

Jesus altogether hates sin and the wicked, and He altogether loves those who are called to be His children. That display will never be neutral.

How can any preacher do justice to a text that reveals the heart of Chirst? Lord I pray you help me.

Exegesis

Now, you are aware of the broader context in which this text rests.

Jesus sent out his twelve apostles as missionaries into the cities of Israel to carry the message that God’s kingdom is at hand. He sent them with authority and power to perform miracles and preach with wisdom.

After sending them, Jesus went into their cities (possibly the cities from which the apostles hailed), and preached. On one occassion, the disciples of John came to him and they had an interaction, after which Jesus spoke to the people about the greatness of John the baptist as a prophet because of his proximity to Christ.

But then, by that same standard of proximity, Jesus declares woes on the cities that rejected His message and denied to believe Him inspite of His great many miracles.

And that leads us to this text, beginning in verse 25

Matthew 11:25 ESV

25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;

At that time

probably refers to the immeditate context above, but might also be an indicator to the end of this first part of Jesus’ ministry. In which case, this text is Jesus’ final appeal to the cities that he denounced in the verses above.

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;

Behold, my friends, the inner trinitarian conversation where the Son prays to the Father. This is Jesus’ prayer! This isn’t one of those accounts where Jesus secluded Himself from the others to pray. This is one where we witness Jesus pray.

I want you to think about this. Think about the most intentional, spiritual, meaningful prayer that you’ve ever prayed in your life, where you poured your heart out to God. Doesn’t such a prayer reveal your heart?

Now, look at this text and witness the heart of Christ as He prays to His Father.

It is a prayer of thanksgiving. Jesus is thankful. When are we thankful, beloved? Is it when we are afflicted with no hope? Thankfulness is the fruit of a satisfied heart whether in times of affliction or comfort.

Jesus is thankful! For what? He just denounced those cities and criticised ‘this current generation’.

He is thankful that God has hidden the Gospel from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children.

Jesus is thankful for two things. That the Gospel is hidden from certain people, and that the Gospel is revealed to certain people. He is not thankful only for the revealing and upset about the hiding. He is thankful for both.

Jesus thanks the Father for permitting or ordaining that only the humble can believe the Gospel. The so-called ‘wise and understanding’ here is not talking about actual wisdom and true knowledge. We know that true wisdom and knowledge are gifts from God. But here Jesus is referring to those puffed up intellectually. People whom the world considers as having wisdom and understanding.

So beloved, a proud christian or what we refer to as spiritual pride is an oxymoron. If we tilt our balance over to being intellectually puffed up (we feel good about ourselves), we are falling over into darkness where the Gospel is hidden. But to the humble and simple-hearted, God reveals Himself.

Matthew 11:26 ESV

26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

What Jesus was thankful for, the Father was well-pleased to do. The NASB version renders this verse as “Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight”

The grace of God, His will, what was well-pleasing to His sight, was to cloud the minds of the proud, and unveil the minds of the humble to see the face of God.

Matthew 5:8 ESV

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

When we read verses such as,

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

we must not misunderstand what that means. Cultural Christianity today has this message that when Jesus sees you drown in your sin, He looks at you in love, and sees what you deserve, and says, “Don’t worry my son(daughter), I got this”.

Here’s the clearer picture of what happens. When Jesus sees you drown in your sin, He looks at you and says, “Your heart is wicked and your sin is vile. You cannot see or know me. So, I’m going to break your palace of pride that you’ve built on the foundation of sin. I’m going to break you so that you can see sin for what it is - empty promises. The enemy lied. Eating the fruit did not make you more like me, it made you more unlike me. Let me show you the empty dark hollow that sin is.”

And He breaks our worldly “wisdom and understanding” and we are left gasping at the reality of our depravity before a holy God.

Then, as we look helplessly at the magnificence of God’s holiness and the judgment we deserve, Jesus says, “Don’t worry my son(daughter), I got this”.

God does not save us by accomodating our sin, or in any way approving it. He saves us by condemning our sin in the death of Christ. Therefore His Gospel is hidden from the proud and revealed to the broken.

Matthew 11:27 ESV

27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

All things

here in this context probably refers to all things pertaining to the redemption of man. The functional responsibility of the Son to redeem men and women unto God, is a united agreement between the Father and the Son.

For, no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him

The Son has perfect knowledge of the Father and the Father of the Son. No one knows the Father or the Son like that. This isn’t the intellectual knowledge of the Pharisees, or the scribes, or the scholars, or the apologists, or the greek professor, or the articulate preacher, or the expert pastor.

This is knowledge beyond the intellect. We cannot contemplate the depth of the acquaintance that exists between the three persons of the same Being.

A deep and profound knowledge! Since God is all-knowing, and He knows everthing that is there to be known about you and me, He also knows everything there is to know about Himself.

And the Son chooses to reveal the Father to us, that we may know Him like He knows Him. To be part of that inner-trinitarian acquaintance.

And I know what you’re going to say, “How? How can a finite human being possibly know the infinte God perfectly? How?”

Well, we could if we had enough time.

“What are you talking about? Enough time. No amount of time could help us know God like that. We would need an eternity!”

Yes, we would, and we will.

Have you ever thought of eternity as a consequence, a side-effect to knowing the Father like the Son knows Him? Heaven is the place, and eternity is the duration, but knowing God is the purpose.

Therefore, both the Father and Son are involved in revealing the glory of God and His Gospel to little children.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

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.”

In all the authority given to Jesus, and since it is His choice to reveal the Father to anyone He chooses, here you have the choice and the invite.

He chooses all who labor and are heavy laden. In context, the “wise and understanding” of this world are not heavy laden. They are the ones to which the people of this world run to for rest. That is why you’ve got so many “influencers” on Youtube and Instagram talking about life and how to find happiness and peace. The world flocks to such people. And the pride of worldly “wisdom and understanding” is made evident when people of this stature feel that they are obligated to speak about things that they have no clue about.

Those who labor and are heavy laden are those who see their need for the Saviour.

And Jesus says, “Come, 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.

The yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals as they drag the plough over the field.

Jesus offers to replace the yoke of sin with His yoke.

learn from me is probably specifically addressing the people who are weighed down by the teachings of the pharisees and scribes.

for I am gentle and lowly in heart

[introduce Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane C. Ortlund]

Here we have Jesus Himself exposing His heart to us. He’s saying this is who I am. I am gentle and lowly.

In the one place in the Bible where the Son of God pulls back the veil and lets us peer way down into the core of who he is, we are not told that he is “austere and demanding in heart.” We are not told that he is “exalted and dignified in heart.” We are not even told that he is “joyful and generous in heart.” Letting Jesus set the terms, his surprising claim is that he is “gentle and lowly in heart.”

The word gentle is same as the word ‘meek’ we saw in the beatitudes. Jesus’ meekness or gentleness is not a compromise of His greatness or power. When we see a man 6-foot-5, and with the muscles of goliath sitting down by the park, playing gently with a butterfly that flew into his hands, none of us go, “Huh, weak!”

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.

The word for lowly does have an overlap with gentle, but more precisely shows the common or modest demeanour of Christ.

The point in saying that Jesus is lowly is that he is accessible

This great and mighty God is not locked away in heaven. He descends in lighting and thunder and fire, and sits next to you as quiet waters, and lays your head on His bosom of green pastures.

Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing. If we are asked to say only one thing about who Jesus is, we would be honoring Jesus’s own teaching if our answer is, gentle and lowly.

He doesn’t simply meet us at our place of need; he lives in our place of need. He never tires of sweeping us into his tender embrace. It is his very heart. It is what gets him out of bed in the morning.

He is, by his enemies’ testimony, the “friend of sinners”

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

When Jesus says that He is with you, He is not saying that He is with you in principle. He is actually with you.

His yoke is not easy as in anyone can carry it, nor His burden light as in anyone can bear it. But that His yoke is not harsh and His burden does not break your back in despair.

His heart is for you! He is overflowing with desire for you!