The Meek

"Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth."
                                    --Matthew 5:5

Being meek is not particularly a prized quality for us nowdays.  When a person is asked in a job interview waht their best qualities are, I doubt very many people say "Well, I'm meek."  But the think is, I really don't think things have changed much.  After all, Jesus is speaking out against the status quo all throughout the sermon on the mount.  I'm fairly certain that the meek were looked upon at that time much as they are today:  as weak, doormats, patsies, or as Paul Newman's character in the Coen brothers' most overlooked film, The Hudsucker Proxy, says, "some jerk we can really push around."

Here is how Webster's defines meek.

1: enduring injury with patience and without resentment : mild

 

2: deficient in spirit and courage : submissive

 

3: not violent or strong : moderate

 

The first and third definitions practically cry out for pictures of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Mother Theresa next to them.  So, here they are.  But the middle definition is hardly fitting for these people.  Looking to these men and women as examples, we can scarcely say that they lacked courage.  I would also argue that submission does not mean weakness.  As we can see even with the people above, they were willing to submit to just authority, but through nonviolence and long suffering protests against unjust authority.  It's funny, all of these people have much louder voices today than the "strong" who acted violently to achieve their means.  It could be well argued that the early Chistian Church toppled the Roman Empire through their meek acts of loving their enemies and praying for those that persecuted them.

 

So there is great power in being meek.  Not being a pushover, but taking the meek road to justice by loving one another, the poor and needy, and yes, even the enemy within and without our gates.  Jesus himself was meek and humble and submitted to authority becoming obedient to death on a cross.  As we can see in Phillipians 2:

 

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who:

Being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

But made Himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant

Becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above every other name

That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

 

Amen and amen.