Super Power

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ~Matthew 11:28-30

Perhaps you’ve been asked this question before: If you could have any super power, what would it be and why? Maybe you picked flight. Imagine soaring over the earth above the clouds! Maybe you would pick super strength, picturing what it would be like to lift a dump truck with one hand. Maybe invisibility — just to retreat from the world and find some peace and quiet. Let me pose a different question: If you could be more like Jesus in one way, what way would it be?

To be sure, being more like Jesus in any way would be wonderful. I would love to have more of the wisdom of Christ — to know just how to respond to any situation with crystal clarity. I would love to have a prayer life like Jesus’ — to spend hours in close communion with the Father. Frankly, I would love to be able to walk on water.

But perhaps more than anything, I would want to be more gentle and lowly in heart. To be empty of pride and all its ugliness — self-exaltation, self-promotion, spiritual elitism — and to be concerned only with the needs of others. To welcome warmly those who had sinned against me. To open wide my arms to people of all kinds. To not stand in self-righteous judgment as I look into the eyes of a fellow struggler. To be like Christ in this way would change everything.

But we must remember that being more like Jesus is not simply about imitation. Notice Jesus does not say, "Try to be like Me." He first says to us, "Come to Me." The meekness and lowliness of Jesus are not presented to us as a standard to achieve; they are offered to us as a reason to trust His invitation to draw near for rest. The very gentleness we long to exhibit is the character of the One who receives us with His gentleness. He is not an acting coach trying to get us to say our lines well; He is a Savior who gives to us His Spirit that, by the work of sanctification, we might be conformed more and more into His image. 

This changes how we pursue meekness entirely. We do not strain toward it as a moral achievement. We receive it as the fruit of a life lived in Christ. The more we behold Him — in His Word, in prayer, in the fellowship of His people — the more the Spirit conforms us to what we see. And here we find the very rest promised in Jesus’ invitation: rest from striving. Instead, we are able to rest in who He is and what He has done. 

So what would it mean to be gentle and lowly? It would mean responding to those who sin against us without malice or vindictiveness, but with the forgiveness we ourselves have received. It would mean that when someone hurts or offends us, we wouldn’t run away in conflict avoidance, but would rather pursue peace, even as Christ Himself has given us peace with God.

Friends, come to Him, and He will give you rest. Take His yoke upon you, and experience His gentleness.

Rev. Kyle W. A. Lockhart, Pastor