Posted on 12/01/2025 11:02:03 PM PST by metmom
“‘He will not quarrel, nor cry out; nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out’” (Matthew 12:19–20).
The Lord Jesus did not cajole or browbeat people with the gospel like some inflammatory demagogue who stirs up his listeners by pandering to their emotions and prejudices. Christ always spoke plainly, with dignity and control—His only persuasive technique was the truth. He never resorted to the lies and scheming of His enemies. As the Son of God and Messiah, He never attempted to gain a hearing or a following by appealing to political power or using physical force.
Christ’s approach was the way of meekness, gentleness, and lowliness, because many of His hearers were like the battered reed or smoldering wick. They were people whose lives were broken or worn out, and the world wanted to discard them. An unbelieving society nearly always wants to cast off such people as useless or worthless.
The nature of sinful humanity is to destroy—people commit murder, arson, vandalism, and viciously slander one another in business, politics, the family—but God’s nature is to restore. Jesus will not “break off” or “put out” the least of those who sincerely come to Him. He also issues a strong warning to any who would cause vulnerable people to fall: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6).
Our Lord will always restore the battered reed and rekindle the smoldering wick.
Ask Yourself
Is gentleness a trait that comes hard for you?
In what way have you been aware of a hardness or coldness in your approach to other people—an insensitivity that dearly needs the restorative touch of Christ’s nature in your heart and mind?
Studying God’s Word ping
As I understand meekness, it does not mean having a gentle spirt. Rather, it means calmness under pressure.
*Meek* is not a word much used in our vocabulary and I never really understood it correctly, I guess.
I always thought of it as someone who was a pushover and let themselves get walked all over. A Caspar Milquetoast kind of person. But that certainly does not describe Jesus.
I interpret it to mean having a high EQ that no matter what happens, you wont lose your mind.
It is the person who remains calm under fire and can move forward.
FReeper Jonty30 is right. Meekness is power held in check. Note that it doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to be rude by default.
Yet there are times Jesus called the Pharisees and Scribes “you fools” and “blind guides”. If we were to follow Jesus’ example in that regard we should probably save the snark for the leaders/teachers who claim a false authority while leading people astray.
Yes, the Bible says Moses was meek— but remember Moses beat some guy to death with his fists.
Moses was meek.
Then he wasn’t.
That all works for me.
So when I'm around someone teaching well, be it in church or otherwise, I do some attaboys to encourage him/her but I should probably do a better job at resisting the urge to say "by the way, I'm smart too" (about the Bible, or investing strategies, or IT, or whatever). The way I've used the respect I have among church family in a more positive way is to openly state my support for a preacher's teaching, especially if the preacher is new. All the more so when I volunteered in the youth group (with youth group leaders often not lasting long, my volunteer time was a kind of stability for the teenagers). Thus during the open discussion times (i.e. at one church this was weekly evening meal/fellowship evening), I'd sometimes talk about the new preacher's sermon (i.e. "If you think about what he said, he could have bored us with the many other places in the Bible that teaches the same thing, so what he taught us must be important"). Thus transferring the respect others have for me onto the new preacher. Then after the preacher's been there a while I usually tone it down, still encouraging respect for the preacher, but in a way that doesn't show how smart I am too with the Word (meekness).
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