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Thoughts From Dane Ortlund

Dear Friends,

Not long ago I picked up a new book by Dane Ortlund entitled, “Gentle and Lowly – The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers.” I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is one of the better books I have read in a long time – well-researched, well-written, Christ-focused, and much needed! It is Gospel-saturated. This particular selection comes from the opening chapter and simply gives you a taste for what follows. In reading his book I do have to say I feel like I’ve not only gotten to know the heart of Jesus better, but have drawn closer to Him as a result. Enjoy.

“My dad pointed out to me something Charles Spurgeon pointed out to him. In the four Gospel accounts given to us in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – eighty-nine chapters of biblical text – there’s only one place where Jesus tells us about his own heart. We learn much in the four Gospels about Christ’s teaching. We read of his birth… ministry… disciples… travels… prayer habits… the way he understood himself to fulfill the whole Old Testament… his unjust arrest… shameful death and astonishing resurrection… But in only one place – with perhaps the most wonderful words ever uttered by human lips – do we hear Jesus himself open up to us his very heart: ‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11:28-30).

In the one place in the Bible where the Son of God pulls back the veil and lets us peer way down to the core of who he is, we are not told that he is ‘austere and demanding in heart.’ We are not told 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 heart drives all we do. It is who we are. And when Jesus tells us what animates him most deeply, what is most true of him – when he exposes the innermost recesses of his being – what we find there is: gentle and lowly… The Greek word translated ‘gentle’ here occurs just three other times in the New Testament… [in Matthew 5:5 where it is translated ‘meek’… in Matthew 21:5 where it is translated ‘humble’… and in I Peter 3:4 where Peter speaks of ‘the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.’] Meek. Humble. Gentle… 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… [And] The point in saying that Jesus is ‘lowly’ is that he is accessible. For all his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, his supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in history has ever been more approachable than Jesus Christ. No prerequisites. No hoops to jump through…

Verse 28 of our passage in Matthew 11 tells us explicitly who qualifies for fellowship with Jesus: ‘all who labor and are heavy laden.’ You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come. No payment is required. He says, ‘I will give you rest.’ His rest is gift, not transaction. Whether you are actively working hard to crowbar your life into smoothness (‘labor’) or passively finding yourself weighed down by something outside your control (‘heavy laden’) Jesus Christ’s desire that you find rest, that you come in out of the storm, outstrips even your own.


‘Gentle and lowly.’ This, according to his own testimony, is Christ’s very own heart. This is who he is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing. If we are asked to say only one thing about who Jesus is, we would be honoring Jesus’ own teaching if our answer is, gentle and lowly… This is who he is for those who come to him, who take his yoke upon them, who cry to him for help… This is why we need a Bible. Our natural intuition can only give us a God like us. The God revealed in Scripture deconstructs our intuitive predilections and startles us with one whose infinitude of perfections is matched by his infinitude of gentleness. Indeed, his perfections include his perfect gentleness. It is who he is. It is his very heart. Jesus himself said so.”


For the sake of length, I pared this down a bit. Yet, Ortlund's point is well-taken: When given the chance to reveal the essence of what defined who He was, Jesus did so in Matthew 11:28-29 – giving us the two qualities that dominated His heart. And in the entry above Ortlund is just getting started! The rest of the book expands what all this means in regard to how Jesus looks at us, loves us, intercedes for us, interacts with us, and perseveres with us.

Yet it is not just Ortlund giving us his thoughts. He is well-read and draws from the writings of such well-known saints as John Newton, Jeremiah Burroughs, John Flavel, Richard Sibbes, John Bunyan, Thomas Goodwin, B.B. Warfield, Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, David Brainerd, Charles Spurgeon, J.I. Packer and more. It really is an eye-opening exploration into the heart of Jesus.

Yours in the Bonds of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

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