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Note from Lee: This is a devotional that
I wrote in August 2003 for a Walk To Emmaus servant team meeting.
The Walk
To Emmaus is a spiritual renewal program intended to strengthen
the local church through the development of Christian disciples
and leaders. I attended North Georgia Men's WTE #97 in October 2002.
It was a wonderful experience. You should go!
Gentleness:
What does it mean to be "gentle"?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23
When I was asked to give this devotional, they told
me it could be about anything relating to the fruit of the spirit.
I knew that the topics of Joy and Love were already taken so I immediately
thought about all the great sermons I had heard about Peace and
Faithfulness and I thought to myself, "Surely there's something
I can rip off."
But the word "gentleness" kept coming into my mind.
I don't remember ever hearing anyone speak on gentleness so of course,
I immediately dismissed that idea. But no matter what subject I
thought about doing, the word "gentleness" kept coming back to me.
I figured the Lord was telling me what HE wanted me to speak about
so I quit arguing and said, "OK, gentleness it is."
The first question that came to my mind was: What
IS gentleness? What does the Apostle Paul really mean when he
tells us to be "gentle like Jesus"?
I pulled out my concordance and found a dozen or so
references to the word. I also discovered that the Greek word Paul
used, praiotes (prah-ot'-ace) is translated as "gentleness"
in the NIV but it is translated as "meekness" in the King James.
They are basically interchangeable terms but there was no real definition
offered in my bible dictionary. When I looked up "gentleness" it
said "meekness". When I looked up "meekness" it said "See gentleness".
No help there.
That's when I started thinking about doing a different
topic. But I digress.
The word I most often associated with gentleness and
meekness is the word "weakness". Christians are often stereotyped
as milk-toast weaklings that are afraid to stand up for themselves.
Ted Turner once called Christianity a "religion for losers" and
very few non-Christians disagreed with him. The world does not value
gentleness but rather it glorifies assertiveness and aggressiveness.
Because after all, if you turn the other cheek, you just end up
with two slapped checks, right? At least, that's the way the world
sees it.
(Insert mild and questionable humor here)
Which reminds me of a story I heard about a mother who wanted
to get her oldest son to stop cussing. Her minister told her,
"Just slap the boy every time he cusses."
The next morning when her two sons came downstairs, she asked
the oldest, "What do you want for breakfast?"
He replied. "I want some damn Cheerios."
The mother grabbed the boy by the collar and "WHACK!"
popped him right across the face. As the boy sat there dazed,
the mother turned to the younger son and asked "What do YOU want
for breakfast?"
He said, "I don't know.... but I sure don't want no damn Cheerios!!"
Now obviously, that mother was NOT acting in gentleness!
She was using a tactic called "negative reinforcement" where
you cause pain in order to modify someone's behavior. Unfortunately,
this is something that we as Christians do all too often. In our
desire to see someone change their ways and come to the Lord, we
zap them with the "cattle prod of condemnation" rather that gently
guiding them with the "shepherd's staff of unconditional love".
Over and over, Paul tells us that gentleness should
be the evidence of a Christian life:
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with
one another in love." - Ephesians 4:2
"By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you"
- 2 Cor. 10:2
"As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you,
but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little
children." - 1 Thes. 2:7
These passages conjure up soft and sensitive images. It's like
Paul is asking us to be almost feminine in our ways. It's as if
being gentle would be the opposite of being strong and manly. But
then on the other hand, Paul writes
To the Corinthians: "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith;
be men of courage; be strong." - 1 Cor 16:13
And to the Ephesians, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty
power." - Ephesians 6:10
And to the Church in Rome, "We who are strong ought to bear
with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves."
- Romans 15:1
It was in reading that last verse that the Holy Spirit hit me between
the eyes. Paul says WE who are STRONG ought to bear with the
WEAK. So if we are commanded to be "strong" AND to be "gentle"
then "gentle" can NOT mean "weak" or else Paul would be
giving us contradictory instruction.
The bible says Jesus was gentle? But how? What does "the gentleness
of Christ" look like?
Do you remember the old Charles Wesley hymn, "Gentle Jesus, Meek
and Mild"? Does that make you think of a powerful person? Not really.
I once saw a painting of Jesus sitting on a rock with a child on
his lap. He was petting a baby lamb as a sunbeam from heaven shined
down on His long blonde hair and reflected in His deep blue eyes!
Ahhhh… Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Like Mr. Rogers in a toga.
No guys - I'm sorry - that's NOT the Jesus of the bible!! Jesus
was a real man. He was passionate - full of life, forceful and strong.
He was anything but weak.
The prophet Zechariah said of the coming Messiah,
"See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey." - Zechariah 9:9
Matthew records the fulfillment of this prophesy when Jesus rode
triumphantly into Jerusalem on the back of a colt while the people
waved palm branches and shouted "Hosanna". That seems gentle enough…
However, shortly after this "gentle" entrance, the Gospel of John
says that with His own hands, Jesus made a whip out of some braided
leather cords. He took it into the temple, turned over the tables
and drove out the moneychangers along with the sheep and the cattle.
That's Clint-Eastwood-cowboy kind of stuff!! Hardly something a
"weak" person could have done.
Jesus certainly didn't back down from confrontations. He consistently
addressed the Scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites, snakes, foxes,
whitewashed tombs, sons of Hell and the children of Satan. Try that
at your next church committee meeting and see if they ever ask you
to speak at the covered dish supper again. You will not be popular.
But then Jesus refers to HIMSELF as being gentle when he says in
Matthew 11:29,
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls." -
Matthew 11:29
SO again, when the bible calls Jesus "gentle" it CANNOT mean "weak"
- physically or otherwise. The reality is that Jesus is God. He
is Sovereign and Omnipotent (having all power).
So again I was stuck.
Then I remembered this story: Jesus was praying in the Garden of
Gethsemane when Judas arrived with some temple officials and a detachment
of soldiers. The word "detachment" could mean anywhere from 60 to
600 men and we don't know the exact number but we do know that it
would have been of force of sufficient size to overwhelm and arrest
any potential mob Jesus may have had surrounding and protecting
Him.
Judas comes to Jesus and kisses him as a sign to the guard that
this is the man they are to arrest. Jesus asks them, "Who
is it you want?" The Captain of the guard, being full of
adrenaline and arrogance, replies with confidence, "We are looking
for Jesus of Nazareth". Jesus takes a breath and says, "I AM [HE]".
He speaks the name of Yahweh, God, "I AM" and John tells us that
everyone there was knocked to the ground by the power of his words.
Just imagine it: The soldiers are stunned and they slowly begin
to get up - looking at one another. The Captain, with his helmet
askew, scrambles to his feet as Jesus asks Him a second time, "Who
is it you want?" This time with a little hesitation in his
voice, he says, "Jesus?… of Nazareth?" And everyone braces themselves
so as not to be knocked down again.
And this time Jesus says - GENTLY - "I
told you that I am He."
And then Peter, in what is possibly the single greatest recorded
act of bad timing, let's out a yell, whips out his sword and in
an upward sweeping motion, tries to behead Malchus (the assistant
to the High Priest). Malchus ducks at the last minute and Peter
(being a fisherman, and not a swordsman) winds up merely lopping
off the man's ear instead.
(Note - I have to cut Peter some slack here because he had to know
that to pull a sword in the middle of a detachment of soldiers meant
certain death. Peter knew he would most likely die and he was willing
to go down fighting for Jesus, so you have to give him credit for
that. But then again, Malchus (being the assistant to the priest)
was probably the only unarmed man in the group. So you make the
call!)
Now at this point, the guards are possibly just as stunned by Peter's
actions as they are at Jesus knocking them over with a single word.
And in response to Peter they do... nothing! They don't attack.
They don't draw their swords and wipe out the whole bunch. They
are stunned. Everyone stands in awkward silence - staring in disbelief
at the bloody ear on the ground.
Then Jesus calmly bends over, picks up the ear and reattaches it
to the man's wounded head and then he says something to Peter that
is profoundly relevant to this discussion. He says:
"Put your sword back in its place,"
Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the
sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at
once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But
how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen
in this way?" - Matthew 26 :52-54
I did some math and here is what Jesus was saying:
• A legion consists of 6000 men.
• 12 legions of angels would be 72,000 angels
• In 2 Kings 19:35 it says that one angel put to death 185,000
soldiers in one night.
• This means that 12 legions of angels could potentially
wipe out over 13 billion people.
Now that's what I call power!! There are a little more than 6.3
billion people in the world today. There were less back then. So
Jesus could have, with a single word, wiped out the entire world!!
Jesus had incredible power at his command. But rather than use that
power and call down a holocaust upon the earth, Jesus chose to hold
out his hands, allow himself to be arrested and he was led away
to his gruesome death on the cross in order to save the very world
that He had the power to destroy.
THIS IS GENTLENESS.
It begins with the power to destroy, to hurt, to degrade, to demean,
to demoralize, to crush the body and/or the spirit of another person.
But then that power is placed under control. Gentleness is not weakness;
it is "restrained strength". A little lamb can not really be called
gentle, because it does not have the ability to do any real damage,
it is truly weak.
By contrast, a Clydesdale, over 6 feet tall, 2000 pounds, with
massive hooves that could crush a human, will stand motionless as
small child reaches up to pet its soft underbelly. It is known as
a "gentle giant" due to its friendly nature.
A gentle breeze blows by on a summer afternoon and brings relief
from the heat of the day, but let that breeze rise to speeds of
80, 90, or 100 miles an hour and it will lay waste to everything
in its path.
I often wrestle on the floor with my 9 year old son and I have
to use a lot of "gentleness" and restraint so as not to
really hurt him. I don't need to do that any more with my 17 year
old son. He can whip my butt. He is the one who has to "be gentle"
with me.
Jesus teaches us that gentleness is best illustrated by a person
in a powerful position choosing NOT to use their power against a
person in a weaker position - for the benefit OF the weaker person.
It's all about putting your own agenda on hold and considering
the comfort, the safety, and the well-being of the other person.
It's not easy to do… only through the Holy Spirit can we accomplish
this. But we all possess incredibly destructive power. With almost
no effort at all we can completely destroy our friends, our wives,
our children, and our neighbors with careless words and thoughtless
actions. We ALL hold in our hands the sword of Peter - waiting to
lop off the ears of the people closest to us.
But Jesus says, "Put it away!...Be gentle like me."
God shows gentleness to sinful people who deserve wrath and judgment
by instead offering them forgiveness. God was gentle with King David
and brought him to repentance. God was gentle with Paul and made
him a servant to the very ones he sought to persecute. God has been
gentle with me - saving me from my own selfishness and stupidity
- allowing me to become a part of His family.
And I suspect, as evidenced by your presence here, he has been
gentle with you as well. May we be gentle like Him.
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