The Lowly King
Matthew 11:28-30
Main Idea: Jesus’ heart is gentle and his yoke is light for all who come to him.
I. His Heart
This passage is the unique self-disclosure of Jesus’ heart and his innermost being. His heart is:
Gentle: cf. Matt. 5:5; 21:5; 1 Pet. 3:4; can also communicate ‘meekness’ or ‘humility’
Zechariah 9:9: 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.
Lowly: the idea of being ‘low to the ground’ in humility (cf. Jas. 4:6); Christ’s very heart is accessible and approachable.
Isaiah 57:15: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Gentleness, meekness, and lowliness often had negative cultural connotations in this time period, which is why many people overlooked and missed Jesus as the long-promised Messiah and the incarnate Son of God (cf. Isa. 42:1-4; Phil. 2:5-7).
“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… This, according to his own testimony, is Christ’s very heart. This is who he is. Lowly gentleness is not one way Jesus occasionally acts toward others. Gentleness is who he is. It is his heart. He can’t un-gentle himself toward his own any more than you or I can change the color of our eyes.”
~ Dane Ortlund, Gentle & Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers
Christ’s gentle and lowly heart does not make him a “pushover” or timid in the face of injustice and wrongdoing (cf. 11:20-24); rather, his “heart” tells us that his righteous anger is an expression of his love, not in competition or contradiction with his mercy (cf. Ex. 34:6ff; Isa. 55:6-9).
“The OT speaks of God being ‘provoked to anger’ by his people dozens of times. But not once are we told that God is ‘provoked to love’ or ‘provoked to mercy.’ His anger requires provocation; his mercy is pent up, ready to gush forth. We tend to think his divine anger is pent up, spring-loaded and that divine mercy is slow to build. It’s just the opposite. Divine mercy is ready to burst forth at the slightest prick.”
~ Dane Ortlund, Gentle & Lowly
II. His Yoke
“A “yoke” was a wooden crossbeam placed on animals to harness their strength in agriculture and farming. The Bible often talks about a “yoke” metaphorically to represent bondage (Jer. 27:2-7; Isa. 14:25) or submission to a master (Gal. 5:1; 1 Tim. 6:1)
The scribes and Pharisees spoke positively of the Law as a “yoke,” but Jesus indicts them for creating a “burdensome” and heavy yoke around the neck of the people (cf. Matt. 23:4; Acts 15:10). In contrast, Jesus offers a yoke that is “easy” and a burden that is “light.” Rather than throwing off restraints altogether, Jesus invites us to exchange yokes.
Matthew 5:17: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
This yoke of Jesus is an invitation to “learn from him” as his disciple, and to embrace his loving constraints that free us for faithful living (cf. Rom. 6:15-18). 1 John 5:3: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
III. His Rest
Jesus is offering here what every single person longs for: “you will find rest for your souls.” However, Jesus extends this invitation not to the “wise and understanding" (11:25) but to “little children” who “labor and are heavy laden.”
Labor: those who are weary from their own work, toil, and struggle
Heavy laden: those who are burdened by things outside of their control
The invitation of Jesus is this: whatever has us weary and burdened, let them drive you to the heart of Christ, not away from him. Holy Week reminds us Christ bore the burdens and weight of our sin, shame, and guilt upon himself (cf. Isa. 53:4; 1 Pet. 2:24), so we might have eternal “rest for our souls.”
“Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher [tomb]. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He has given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.”
~ John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
