THE GENTLENESS OF THE LORD.

A seed lies at the centre of a piece of fruit. Is it because gentleness is the central seed of the Holy Spirit - or do the other graces produce gentleness?

Mothers, bringing their children to Jesus, knew He would be gracious to them. They were happy to be with Him as He lovingly took them on His knee, gently speaking to them. Did He talk of the flowers and birds, green grass and trees? We know little of that scene, except the disciples slinking away following the rebuke of their Lord, as they tried to stop the mothers bringing their little ones to the Lord Jesus.

He used the faith of a little child to show adults their need.

Imagine the noisy crowd at Jericho attempting to attract Jesus’ attention. Preventing Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus, they kept him out of the way. Longing and possibly frustrated, Zacchaeus climbed the tree, where our Lord, standing under the branches, saw Him. Despite the crowd’s urging Jesus not to eat with such a sinner, He gently called Zacchaeus down from the tree.

‘May I come home to tea?’ And the gentle Man walked home with Zacchaeus. Neither the meal nor conversation was recorded, but the result was. The conversion of a household; restitution made; the poor assisted.

The noisy crowd did not influence Zacchaeus, for he knew where he stood with them. Rather the gentleness of the Lord, and His willingness to enter that home.

I well remember visiting a little Indonesian home, where a young woman was in difficult labour. Her friends had called the mid-wife, Bu Pri, who had invited us to accompany her to the home, where 50 people filled the little room. The labouring mother lay in the centre of a rough bed. Gently the mid-wife shooed the crowd out of the room. Her voice was not strident, nor did she show irritation, Gently she explained why she dispersed them, promising regular news to them outside. After all, a woman in difficult labour was a village concern.

The crowd backed out of the darkened room, leaving only the husband and father, while selected women carried in hot water, and supported the midwife. She asked the men to move a tile of the roof, allowing light to stream in. They quickly obeyed her, boiling every available cloth, and sweeping goat droppings around the home, for they loved this gentle woman, who had attended many in their difficult labours.

Gently she encouraged the young mother until the exciting moment of the birth of a beautiful child. This gentle mid-wife assisted me at the birth of our 6^th child. When we asked the secret of her strength, and her gentleness, she replied, ’I have all I need in my Lord Jesus Christ.’

On many occasions, the disciples were impatient and irritating. But never our Lord.

Peter is an example. After he had denied his Lord, Jesus looked at Peter with compassion, gentleness and love. And then on the shores of Galilee, after their tasty breakfast of broiled fish, how gently the Lord asked Peter, ‘ Do you love Me?’

Would I have said to Peter, ‘ Now, look. I’ve asked you that before. Why don’t you answer me truly? Not Jesus. Three times that gentle question came across, till He was satisfied with Peter’s assurance, ‘I love You, Lord.’

Gentleness included the qualities of forbearing, yielding, flexibility, mildness and humility. They are not natural virtues; yet they were innate to the Lord. To exercise the grace of gentleness, Paul said we need ‘Christ in us the hope of glory.’ He also gave us the cluster of fruit as an example of the Christian filled with the Holy Spirit Who will show at the centre of their being the grace of gentleness.

Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle…..’.

The bunch of fruit is : ‘Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-discipline.’