The Meek and Lowly One

Spurgeon takes Christ's self-description — "I am meek and lowly in heart" — as a deliberate invitation designed to remove every fear that might keep a sinner away, spending the first half of the sermon illustrating Christ's meekness through a series of contrasts: unlike Mahomet who spread his religion by the sword, unlike the disciples who wanted fire called down on opponents, unlike Elijah whose mission was stern rebuke, unlike Moses whose majesty held people at a distance, and unlike self-regarding Jonah, Christ wept over those who rejected him, forgave his killers from the cross, dismissed the adulteress without condemnation, rode into Jerusalem surrounded by poor disciples and singing children, and rejoices rather than resents when prodigals come home. He then turns to Christ's lowliness, showing that it drives him to receive the poor over the rich, the ignorant over the learned, the openly vile over the respectable, and even the believer whose native dullness and hard-heartedness make them despair of ever being worth saving — sitting down with the slowest learner to teach the very alphabet of repentance and faith, patient enough to begin again as many times as needed. He closes by pressing sinners with the practical conclusion: if Christ is truly this meek and lowly, then every excuse for staying away — timidity, despair, the ugliness of one's sins, fear of being upbraided — dissolves, and the only thing needed is to come to him as confessor, physician, and debt-forgiver, since he has never yet used one harsh word against any soul that brought its case to him.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on July 31st, 1859.