Matthew 11 · Passage · Meekness
The Gentleness of Christ
Matthew 11:28 to 30 records the invitation in which Jesus calls the weary and burdened to take His yoke and learn from Him.
The Greek adjective Jesus chose for His own heart stands in only four verses of the New Testament, and three of them are in Matthew.
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.
- The passage
- Matthew 11:28 to 30, Isaiah 42:1 to 4, Matthew 12:18 to 21
- Books
- Matthew, Isaiah
- Hold in memory
- Matthew 11:28 to 30, Isaiah 42:3
Summary
Meekness has its pattern in Christ. The rest He promises the weary depends on the teacher they come to, so the gentleness He names in Himself is the ground of the whole invitation. A learner who arrives worn out is borne with and taught, and a believer who is commanded to be gentle learns it first from a person before keeping it as a rule.
- Jesus names His heart with two adjectives in Matthew 11:29, praus, gentle, the word for the meek who inherit the earth in Matthew 5:5, and tapeinos, humble.
- Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:1 to 4 just after the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus, when He withdrew and healed the crowds that followed Him (Matthew 12:14 to 21).
- Matthew's form of the song ends with the Servant leading justice to victory, so His care for the weak goes together with justice carried through.
- Peter gives Christ's refusal to retaliate under abuse as the example believers are to follow (1 Peter 2:21 to 23).
- At His arrest Jesus said He could call on His Father for more than twelve legions of angels, so His gentleness was a choice made with power at hand.
Gentle and Humble in Heart
The saying follows Jesus' words about knowing the Father, and its two adjectives describe the heart of the teacher.
Jesus gave one reason the weary should come to Him, and the reason was His own heart. In the next chapter Matthew sets over His work a song of Isaiah about the Servant of the LORD, who spares the weakest. Meekness, the gentleness that bears wrong without retaliation and leaves vindication to God, has its ground in these texts, because Scripture shows it first in Christ and only then asks it of His people.
The question this study answers is what Jesus means by the two words He uses of His heart in Matthew 11:29, and how Matthew shows that character in the Servant of Isaiah 42. It gives the Greek of the saying and the two forms of the song side by side. It follows the setting in which Matthew quotes the song, the gentle King of Zechariah, and the restraint of Jesus at His arrest and trial. It closes with the teachers who have read the saying and the two readings of Paul's appeal in 2 Corinthians 10:1.
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Jesus opens the invitation to everyone who is worn out before He says anything of His own character.
The invitation follows at once on Jesus' words that no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him (Matthew 11:27). The teacher who calls the weary to learn from Him is the One who makes the Father known.
In the Greek the reason He gives is praus eimi kai tapeinos te kardia, with the verb eimi, I am, standing between the two adjectives. The second adjective, tapeinos, belongs to humility, the value that stands nearest to meekness. Jesus places both in the heart, so His manner toward the weary comes from what He is inwardly.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”The verse gives the reason a gentle teacher can promise rest to people who are already overloaded.
The yoke of this saying is the subject of The Yoke. The invitation as a whole, with its two Greek words for rest, anapauso in verse 28 and anapausin in verse 29, has a study of its own listed in Keep Studying.
Isaiah 42 and Matthew 12 Side by Side
Isaiah's song of the Servant moves in six lines from God's choice of Him to the hope of the nations in Him.
Matthew gives Isaiah's line of the bruised reed in the same words and the other five lines of the song in different words.
| The question the line answers | Isaiah 42:1 to 4 | Matthew 12:18 to 21 |
|---|---|---|
| Whom does God present? | Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. | Here is My Servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom My soul delights. |
| What will the Servant do for the nations? | I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations. | I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations. |
| How does He use His voice? | He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. | He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear His voice in the streets. |
| What does He do with the weak? | A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish | A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish |
| Where does His justice end? | He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established justice on the earth. | till He leads justice to victory. |
| Who puts their hope in Him? | In His law the islands will put their hope. | In His name the nations will put their hope. |
In the Hebrew of Isaiah 42:3 the reed is ratsuts, which means crushed, and the wick is khehah, dim. The verse ends le'emet yotzi mishpat, to faithfulness he will bring forth justice, where the Greek of Matthew 12:20 ends eis nikos ten krisin, to victory the justice.
Where Matthew Sets the Song
Matthew 12 opens with two disputes over the Sabbath, and the second ends in a plan against Jesus' life.
In the grainfields the Pharisees accused the disciples of doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:2). In the synagogue they asked whether it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath in order to accuse Jesus, and He restored a man's withered hand (Matthew 12:10 to 13).
But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.The Pharisees answer the healing with a plan to kill Jesus, and Matthew quotes the song in the shadow of that plan.
Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them all, warning them not to make Him known.Jesus withdraws, heals all who follow and asks for silence, and Matthew reads these three acts as the Servant's way of working.
Matthew introduces the quotation as the fulfilment of what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah (Matthew 12:17).
Charles Spurgeon opened Sermon No. 1831, Smoking Flax (1885), with this chapter, in which the scribes and Pharisees attacked Jesus and He did not enter into controversy with them. He said, "Considering what hypocrites they were and what boundless mischief they were doing, He treated them very gently, indeed."
The Gentle King of Zechariah
Zechariah 9:9 foretold a humble King riding on a donkey, and Matthew quotes it of Jesus at His entry into Jerusalem.
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.The prophecy joins the King's victory to a humble manner of coming, the pairing Matthew finds in Jesus.
“Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your King comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”Matthew's form of the prophecy calls the King gentle, the word Jesus used of His own heart in Matthew 11.
The Hebrew word in Zechariah 9:9 is ani, which means afflicted, and the Greek translation of the prophets known as the Septuagint renders it praus. The Greek of Matthew 21:5 follows the Septuagint and reads praus kai epibebekos epi onon, gentle and riding on a donkey.
Gentleness with Power to Act
The weak whom the Servant spares and the force Jesus refused at His arrest show what His gentleness is.
The reed and the wick of the song stand for people who are already weak, and the Servant keeps them while He brings justice to the nations.
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?Jesus stops the sword and names the help He will not call, so His restraint at the arrest is chosen.
But Jesus gave no answer, not even to a single charge, much to the governor’s amazement.The silence before the governor is the conduct Isaiah gave the Servant who would not raise His voice.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.A later song of Isaiah gives the Servant silence under oppression, so the trial in Matthew answers both songs.
When a Samaritan village refused to welcome Him and James and John asked whether to call down fire from heaven, Jesus turned and rebuked them (Luke 9:53 to 55). In each of these scenes He had the means to answer with force and answered with restraint.
How Teachers Have Read the Gentle Heart
Teachers from the fourth century to the eighteenth read the saying of the gentle heart and the song of the Servant.
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 40
The quotation1 quotation
“Then proclaiming His meekness, he saith, ‘He shall not strive nor cry.’ For His desire indeed was to heal in their presence; but since they thrust Him away, not even against this did He contend.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 40 · on Matthew 12:19Patristic
died 430 · Augustine of Hippo
Catena Aurea by Aquinas
The quotation1 quotation
“Not to create a world, or to do miracles in that world; but that I am meek and lowly in heart. Wouldest thou be great? Begin with the least. Wouldest thou build up a mighty fabric of greatness? First think of the foundation of humility; for the mightier building any seeks to raise, the deeper let him dig for his foundation. Whither is the summit of our building to rise? To the sight of God.”
Augustine of Hippo · Catena Aurea by Aquinas · on Matthew 11:29Patristic
Matthew Henry's commentary on Isaiah 42:2 to 3 says of the Servant, "He shall have no trumpet sounded before him, nor any noisy retinue to follow him."
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755) divide the two words of the saying between two directions: "Meek toward all men, lowly toward God".
Whose Gentleness Paul Names
Readers of 2 Corinthians 10:1 have asked whether the mildness and gentleness belong to Christ or to Paul.
Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.Paul grounds his appeal to the church in the character of Christ, in a chapter where some at Corinth called his presence unimpressive (2 Corinthians 10:10).
The Greek reads dia tes prautetos kai epieikeias tou Christou. The first noun is praotes, the noun of praus, and the second is epieikeia, which the STEP Bible lexicon defines as suitableness, equity and mildness. Epieikeia stands in only one other verse of the New Testament, Acts 24:4, where the lawyer Tertullus asks it of the governor Felix.
The gentleness as Paul's, received from ChristBengel, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report him
The commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown (1871) reports that Bengel read the phrase as "By the meekness and gentleness derived by me from Christ".
The objection: the same commentary holds that "though the exact Greek word is not applied to Him, the idea expressed by it is", and Matthew 11:29 calls Jesus praus.
The gentleness Christ showed in His lifeJohn Calvin; Matthew Henry
John Calvin's commentary on the verse joins it to Matthew 11:29 and Isaiah 42:2 to 3 and concludes, "That gentleness, therefore, which Christ showed, he requires also from his servants."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710) draws a practice from the verse. When we are "tempted or inclined to be rough and severe towards any body", he writes, "we should think of the meekness and gentleness of Christ".
The objection: the noun epieikeia is used of Christ in this verse alone, which is the ground Bengel gave for his reading.
The Example Left for Believers
Peter wrote to servants who suffered for doing good under unreasonable masters (1 Peter 2:18 to 20), and he pointed them to the sufferings of Christ for the way to bear it.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps: “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.” When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.The gentleness the Gospels record becomes the pattern for believers who are wronged, with the judgment left to God.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.Paul turns the same gentleness into the church's practice when one of its members is caught in a trespass.
Charles Spurgeon, preaching on Matthew 11:29 in 1859 in Sermon No. 265, The Meek and Lowly One, said that "One great lesson of the gospel is to teach us to be meek". The gentleness Christ showed the weary and the weak is the gentleness His people are called to show one another.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The tagged Greek and Hebrew text of the Bible, with Strong's numbers, morphology and glosses.
- STEP Bible TBESG and TBESH, the brief lexicons (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0), entries g4235, g4236, g1932 and h6041.
- The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Zechariah 9:9, in the text given at ellopos.net.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 40, on Matthew 12:19.
- Augustine of Hippo on Matthew 11:29, as given in Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea, Commentary on Matthew, chapter 11.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Isaiah 42:2 to 3 and on 2 Corinthians 10:1.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Matthew 11:29.
- C. H. Spurgeon, Smoking Flax, Sermon No. 1831, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (1885)
- C. H. Spurgeon, The Meek and Lowly One, Sermon No. 265, New Park Street Pulpit (1859)
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on 2 Corinthians 10:1.
- John Calvin, Commentaries, on 2 Corinthians 10:1.
Keep Studying
In this value4
People and groups6
Words1