“I am gentle and humble in heart…”

                 I remembered the session clearly.  During a fairly routine conference at a local Christian college I was introduced to the principles (and difficulties) of translation.  The speaker came from West Africa and described to students and missionaries the problems of translating the Bible into a local dialect.  One example he gave us is forever etched in my mind.  He told of a belt the locals used to climb up a tree to pull down coconuts.  It had a precise name in the dialect, as did everything else.  There is no such word in any other language, since this simple device isn’t used anywhere else.  So how do you translate this word, say, into English?  That was the problem he gave us.  Those of us in the session made suggestions, and with his knowledge of the dialect, told us why this word or that suggestion wouldn’t work.  We ended up with an 11-word translation for this device that used only one word in the African dialect!

Sometimes it works like that.  When we get to the word “gentle” in English that the Lord used to describe himself, it is the same.  There is no precise, English word that corresponds.  Gentle doesn’t really capture the idea.  Was Jesus saying he was a gentleman?  Is that all there is to it?  Hardly.  How about the word “meek”?  That’s closer, but too many people associate meekness with weakness, and Jesus certainly was not saying, “Be weak like me and you will find rest for your souls”!

While being a Bible translator is a worthwhile, admirable and needed ministry, sometimes the work can be frustrating, as the above situation demonstrates.  However, since I am not a translator, but a teacher, I am not limited to the guiding rules of translation to communicate what “gentle” really means.  No, instead I will use an example of what this word means.  And we find it at the end of John chapter 3.

The situation begins in verse 22 when Jesus and his disciples were baptizing followers.  John the Baptist has likewise been baptizing and the Jews.  Naturally some Jews didn’t know which baptism was the ‘correct’ one for “ceremonial washing” (v. 25), so an argument developed.  They went to John to ask him his opinion, since he had been baptizing first.  After all, it looked like a massive defection—everyone leaving John to follow Jesus.  Wasn’t he upset, or even jealous?  John’s response is instructive.

First, he properly identifies what is going on:  “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.”  In other words, John was only doing what God told him to do.  Second, he reminded them that he had prophesied about the coming of Christ.  Now that Messiah was here, John’s time would be ending; mission accomplished.  Upset?  No way.  Jealous?  Hardly.  On the contrary, he rightly identifies himself as the “friend [of] the bridegroom” who is “full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice” (v. 29).  This was not his wedding.  There is only one groom, Christ.  John is happy, honored and privileged simply to have been used by the Lord in such a capacity.  Then he sums it up perfectly in the next verse:  “He must become greater, I must become less.”  Wow!  What balance!  What insight!  In this statement you find harmony between the tension of being too full of oneself in two ways.  On the one hand he was not seeking attention for himself by being proud, boastful or arrogant.  On the other hand you do not find him focusing on his shortcomings, failures or weaknesses.  You just don’t see John swinging to either side of the pendulum; he is dead center.  This balance is what our Greek word, “gentle,” means—proper balance between knowing our rightful position with the Father above.  Jesus knew his position as both the suffering Servant and Savior of the world as well as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Yet he was always in submission to his Father.

John didn’t even care to think of the followers he “lost” to Jesus as “defectors” because he was not the issue—Jesus was.  And that perspective is what Jesus used to describe himself as “gentle.”  He said, “Learn from me…and you will find rest for your souls.”  Are you finding his rest, or are you still making yourself the issue?  Does your life look like the pendulum swinging back and forth, too much self here, or there?  Can you learn to say with John, “He must become greater, I must become less”?