Do you know Jesus’ heart? How do you think his heart is inclined toward you? Does that thought make you flinch?
In Gentle and Lowly Dane Ortlund wants us to get to know God’s heart. Ortlund believes that many of us misunderstand God’s heart. We think he’s frustrated and disappointed with us, irritated with our lack of obedience.
Ortlund takes us to Matthew 11, where Jesus says, “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 in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Here Jesus tells us about his heart. In fact, Ortlund tells us, it’s the only time he speaks about his heart in the Bible. And what does Jesus say characterizes his heart? That he is “gentle and lowly.”
Is that how you think about Jesus’ heart in relation to you? Jesus’ heart is gentle and lowly. It is love incarnate. Thomas Goodwin said, “Christ is love covered over in flesh.”
The reader might be surprised that Ortlund’s companions on this journey into Jesus’ heart are the Puritans. One might expect these pastors and theologians to have a cold and distant perspective of God (that is their reputation, after all), but instead, these thinkers steeped in Scripture, see the boundless mercy of God’s heart.
Ortlund gives us eyes to see Jesus afresh. He explains Jesus’ words in Matthew 11, “Consider what Jesus is saying. A yoke is the heavy crossbar laid on oxen to force them to drag farming equipment through the field. Jesus is using a kind of irony, saying that the yoke laid on his disciples is a non-yoke. For it is a yoke of kindness. Who could resist this? It’s like telling a drowning man that he must put on the burden of a life preserver only to hear him shout back, sputtering, “No way! Not me! This is hard enough, drowning here in these stormy waters. The last thing I need is the added burden of a life preserver around my body!” Praise God for the “non-yoke’ he offers us, for the rescue of his yoke.
Ortlund tells us that the compassion of Jesus invites us to come and experience his rest with no prerequisites. He says, “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.”
What a gift to begin to see the invitation of Jesus and the heart of Jesus with the scales of our sin peeled back. Ortlund says, “the most vivid and arresting element of the portrait, is the way the Holy Son of God moves toward, touches, heals, embraces, and forgives those who least deserve it yet truly desire it.” Who doesn’t want to experience Jesus like this? Who doesn’t want to be changed by the power of our merciful Savior. Ortlund sums up Jesus’ purpose on earth: “Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry was one of giving back to undeserving sinners their humanity.”
Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly is a breath of fresh air and encouragement, full of grace and truth. I heartily commend it to you.
PS. A bonus to the book snobs out there… the book is beautifully crafted, with an aesthetically pleasing layout and feel.
Photo by Alessandro Bellone on Unsplash