Christ’s Heart on Full Display

Jesus Walks His Talk

In Matthew 11:28–30, Christ says that his heart is gentle and lowly, but that, of course, is not something different than what we see on every page of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

What he says with his lips there in Matthew 11, he is all over the place as he is sweeping children up into his arms—those whom his disciples are saying should be kept away from him. He’s reaching out and touching lepers—the untouchable, socially ostracized, and physically sick.

Gentle and Lowly

Dane Ortlund

How does Jesus feel about his people amid all their sins and failures? This book takes readers into the depths of Christ’s very heart—a heart of tender love drawn to sinners and sufferers.

We see him re-dignifying prostitutes, sinners—those who are the moral outcasts of society. In a sense, just like with the little children, he sweeps them up into his arms, at least in the sense of dignifying them and giving them back their God-given glory of those made in the image of God.

What he says in Matthew 11:29, “I am gentle and lowly in heart,” he proves with his actions from Matthew 1 to John 21.

Dane Ortlund is the author of Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

Dane C. Ortlund (PhD, Wheaton College) serves as senior pastor of Naperville Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers and Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners. Dane and his wife, Stacey, have five children.