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. Matt 11:29
Introduction
While exploring resources that delve into the heart and character of Jesus, we came across an insightful piece by Dane Ortlund titled “Jesus Proves His Heart.” This article profoundly illustrates how Jesus’ actions throughout the Gospels embody the very words He spoke in Matthew 11:29: “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.”
As you read, you’ll see how Christ’s deepest desires and impulses are revealed in His merciful responses to those in need, proving that His heart is one of boundless compassion and grace.
Jesus Proves His Heart
What we see Jesus claim with His words in Matthew 11:29, we see Him prove with His actions time and again. What He is, He does. His life proves his heart.
Consider these Gospel accounts, taken as a whole:
- When the leper says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,” Jesus immediately stretches out His hand and touches him, with the words, “I will; be clean” (Matt. 8:2–3). The word will in both the leper’s request and in Jesus’s answer is the Greek word for “wish” or “desire.” The leper was asking about Jesus’s deepest desire. And Jesus revealed His deepest desire by healing him.
- When a group of men brings their paralyzed friend to Jesus, Jesus is so eager to help He doesn’t even wait for them to speak first: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven’” (Matt. 9:2). Before they could open their mouths to ask for help, Jesus couldn’t stop himself—words of reassurance tumbled out.
- Traveling from town to town, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless” (Matt. 9:36). So, He teaches them, and He heals their diseases (9:35). Simply seeing the helplessness of the crowds, pity ignites.
- Compassion comes in waves over and over again in Christ’s ministry. His compassion drives Him to heal the sick: “And he had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matt. 14:14). It drives him to feed the hungry: “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat” (15:32). It causes Him to teach the crowds: “And he had compassion on them. And he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). And it brings him to wipe away the tears of those who are sad: “He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep’” (Luke 7:13). The Greek word for “compassion” in all these texts refers to the guts of a person. It’s an ancient way of referring to what rises up from deep within. This compassion reflects the deepest heart of Christ.
- Twice in the Gospels we are told that Jesus broke down and wept. And in neither case is it sorrow for himself or his own pain. In both cases it is sorrow over another—in one case, Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), and in the other, his friend Lazarus, who has just died (John 11:35). What was his deepest anguish? The anguish of others. What drew his heart out to the point of tears? The tears of others.
- Time and time again it is the morally repulsive, the socially hated, the disobedient, and the undeserving, who do not simply receive Christ’s mercy but to whom Christ most naturally draws near. He is the “friend of . . . sinners” (Luke 7:34).
Compassion reflects the deepest heart of Christ.
Actions Show Our Insides
When we take the Gospels as a whole and consider the total picture given to us of who Jesus is, what stands out most strongly?
Just as dolphins can’t help jumping and apple trees can’t help bearing apples, what’s happening inside us always shows itself through what we do. The heart reveals itself in our actions. And if the actions of Jesus reflect who he most deeply is, we cannot avoid the conclusion that it is the very fallenness, which he came to undo, that is most irresistibly attractive to him.
This is deeper than saying Jesus is loving or merciful or gracious. The testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward sin and suffering, not away from it.
Time and again in Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, his heart refused to let him sleep in. Sadness confronted him in every town. And wherever he went, whenever he was confronted with pain and longing, he embraced others with cleansing mercy.
The English preacher Thomas Goodwin said, “Christ is love covered over in flesh.” Picture it. If compassion clothed itself in a human body and went walking around this earth, what would it look like?
Conclusion
In every encounter Jesus had during His earthly ministry, He consistently demonstrated that His heart is one of boundless compassion and relentless mercy. The very essence of Christ is revealed in His actions—actions that prove His words in Matthew 11:29 to be undeniably true. He doesn’t merely sympathize with our sufferings; He is irresistibly drawn to them.
Through healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the sorrowful, and extending grace to the undeserving, Jesus shows that His deepest impulse is to move toward us in our brokenness. His heart is one that cannot help but respond to our pain with profound love and empathy. In Christ, we see not just a Savior who performs miracles, but a friend who walks with us in our struggles, offering rest and renewal for our souls.
The heart of Jesus is the same today as it was then—gentle, lowly, and full of compassion. And in Him, we find the true rest our souls long for. Stay Blessed!
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