Be Happy - By Submitting - Matthew 5:5

What do you think of when I mention the word meek?  Most of you probably get a picture in your mind of the guy on the beach who gets sand kicked in his face.  In Matthew 5:5 when Jesus said that: Blessed (happy) are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”.  I do not believe that when Jesus said these words He had in mind a guy or gal who lets other people walk all over them.

 No Biblical principle is more offensive to our modern way of thinking.  Why? -Because we live in a world system that is based on self-assertion.   Modern society is pushy and aggressive and the number one goal is to get as much as you can whether or not it is yours or not.  If you look at any of the media, our music, our television, and our news it is full of images of buff men and women doing whatever to whomever just to get ahead.  Meekness is not to be desired but scorned.

 Meekness is so despised because if you look the dictionary defines being meek as a disposition to be patient and long suffering which is the exact opposite of our impatient and short-tempered society. Take a look at passages in the Bible such as the one in (James 3:13) which states that a meek person is of a calm temper of mind, not easily provoked and you will see why the world views Christianity as something to be avoided. 

So this Beatitude of Jesus seems contradictory in the light of our present age. How can we imagine that the right strategy for inheriting the earth is to be meek?  Jesus was fond of contradiction though, Mark 10:44 whosoever of you will be great, shall be the servant of all, Matthew 10:39, “ he that finds his life shall lose it and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it”.  In other words we should not view this verse in light of mans view of meekness but in light of God’s view of meekness.

I think the dictionary definition of being patient and long suffering is in line with what Jesus meant in this verse, but I also think the word meek used here goes much deeper than that.  A meek person is also one who submits to others because of fear or intimidation.  The problem with this line of thinking is that it does not fit with how Jesus lived His life.

Jesus did not live in fear of others or was never intimidated by others yet in Matthew 11:29 Jesus says of Himself “take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart.”  How could Jesus be meek?  We are talking about a guy who overturned the tables of the moneychangers and stood up to religious leaders. Jesus was far from meek by our understanding of meek but He was also our greatest example of meekness and one we should seek to emulate.

 Be Happy - By Submitting To God

So if meekness is not to be seen as submitting to others what else could Jesus have been referring to when He stated, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”?   The Greek word translated here as meek is one that means an animal such as a sheep that listens to and submits to its master.  Now when you think of it that way Jesus is telling us that we are not to submit to the world because the world does not truly know what it means to be a meek person.

 A meek person is one who submits to God.  In the Old Testament it is said of Moses that he “was very meek-more than all the men that were on the face of the earth” Numbers 12:3.  Why was Moses called meek?  Most likely because he followed and submitted to the will of God and lived his life for God, with God and by God. 

This is meekness realizing with humility we must mourn our poor condition and seek to live our lives with divine guidance.  Meek men therefore are to be like Jesus.  We must stand in the face of opposition but never retaliate in blind anger.  We must be humble before God but use the boldness of the Holy Spirit when declaring God’s Word.  We must live what we say in order to show what we say is true.

So to be truly happy you must be meek and submit our lives to God for we will truly inherit the earth.  Not the earth as we know it but a new heavens and a new earth that we will have the privilege to walk in with Jesus.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth