“The beatitudes:
Revealing Christian character and development”
Part 3: The Meek
(Matthew 5:1-12)
So far, we explored what it means to be ‘poor in spirit’ and mournful. We learned that being ‘poor in the spirit’ is a humility that makes us aware of our sinful nature and inability to save ourselves.
We are powerless over the habits, hang-ups and hurts that dominate and ultimately destroy our lives. This naturally leads us to mourn for ourselves and the world. We discovered, however, that God comforts the mournful. God wants to deliver us from our sins. Once we understand that God loves and cares for us, we begin to realize we need to surrender to the love and authority of Jesus. Only then can we be free from our sins. This is where meekness comes in. In the third beatitude, Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
The world views meekness as weakness. In the Kingdom of Heaven, however, meekness is the way of strength. The very essence of meekness is self-surrender. The ‘meek’ will surrender the ‘self’ to the love and power of Jesus and depend on that power rather than his/her own power. Now that is real strength!! Through dependence on the love and power of God, the ‘meek’ will conquer their sinful habits, hang-ups and hurts. So, what does it look like to be meek and surrender to the power and love of God? To answer this question all we have to do is look at Jesus.
Philippians 2:1-11 describes the meekness of Jesus. The first two verses state, “…who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Jesus was equal with God. The only way to be equal with God is to be God. Jesus, however, decided not to grasp or hold on to equality with God. Instead, He entered humanity through child birth. God became human.
Jesus can be described as ‘God in the flesh’, ‘fully God and fully human’ and ‘God showing us how to be a perfect human’. In order to do this, Jesus had to ‘empty himself’. He willingly let go of some of His Godly characteristics so he could become a genuine human completely dependent on God the Father for support, guidance and power. He maintained this love relationship with His Father through total cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The relationship Jesus had with His Father is the type of relationship we should strive to have with God. Voluntarily giving up social status and power for the sake of others is meekness. Jesus is our perfect example of meekness.
Not only did Jesus enter our world as a human, He also lived a life of obedience to the Father. He surrendered himself to the Father. His sole concern was doing His Father’s will. Philippians 2:8 continues on with, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!” Jesus, the Son of God, allowed himself to be falsely arrested, unfairly tried, beaten, whipped, spat upon, ridiculed, tortured and finally, murdered on a cross. He did this to become the one and only sacrifice necessary to pay the penalty for our sins. In this way we can freely accept God’s forgiveness and enjoy an eternal love relationship with God. Voluntarily receiving ridicule and torture for the sake of doing God’s will is meekness. Jesus is our perfect example of meekness.
The evil that sought to destroy Jesus on the cross didn’t have the last word. On the third day Jesus rose from the dead and proved himself to be The Son of God who came to save the world from sin. At that moment, the decisive battle was won. Sin, death and evil began to fight a losing war. Jesus was glorified and declared to be Lord by God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 ends the creed with, “Therefore God exalted him [Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should 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.”
Jesus promises that the meek will inherit the earth. If we follow Jesus’ example and surrender the ‘self’ to God’s loving authority, we will also achieve victory over sin, death and evil. We will achieve it in this lifetime as the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome the habits, hang-ups and hurts that decimate our lives. We’ll also achieve the victory in the life to come as we are glorified in heaven. At the right moment, we’ll find ourselves living in the ‘new heaven and new earth’ as described in Revelation 21.
We must understand, however, that meekness is not just a one time thing that occurs at the moment we first repent and trust Jesus as Savior and Lord. It’s a continuous decision that we must make from year to year, month to month, week to week, day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute and even second to second. Meekness must become a Holy Spirit empowered lifestyle. As we pray, worship, study the Bible, participate in small groups and serve others, the Holy Spirit will develop an attitude of meekness within our hearts.
I’m pretty good at starting my day off with meekness. I wake up and immediately start off the day in prayer, asking God to enable me to live the day in accordance with His will. Then I spend about an hour in prayer/Bible study. I generally go through the day doing almost ok. (Some days are better than others.) At night, however, when I get home from work, I tend to slip back into a selfish, I’m tired, woe is me attitude. That’s when I fill my head with an assortment of sinful thoughts. This is especially true if I watch certain programs on television. I counter this tendency by surrendering my nights to God. I pray when I get home and right after I put my son, Joshua, to bed. It is also extremely helpful if I study Scripture or read a God centered book after putting Joshua to bed. Of course, spending quality time with my wife, Donna, also helps in maintaining an attitude of meekness. The point of all this is to demonstrate that meekness is a constant activity that needs to occur throughout the day.
As stated earlier, the very essence of meekness is self-surrender. As we surrender the ‘self’ to God, we progress into the next beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” This is akin to developing an intense, overwhelming desire to become more like Christ. That is the topic of the next article in this series. |
