I appreciate what you write Simon. I think meekness has a lot to do with self-control and, in the end, who holds the reigns of our lives. Will we allow the Master to govern and guide our lives and hearts?
Meekness is an archaic word in our culture. It denotes weakness and vulnerability: the very attributes that are despised in a culture captivated by exceptionalism, wealth, meritocracy, and hyper-individualism. The mere idea of meekness is repulsive in a society where image is everything; we become addicted to groupthink! Pride and arrogance produce a great appetite for recognition: to live large in the eyes of others. This appetite is readily appeased by a steady diet of media hype telling us how to live life in the fast lane: a few seminars, a couple of self-help books, a life coach, and a personal trainer can send us on our way. However, Jesus gives fair warning that on the way to the top we run the risk of losing our souls (see Mark 8:36).
In His incarnation, the Divine Disruption, Holy Enfleshment, the Lord distilled all His majesty and glory to simple humility, becoming a servant, a brother, a friend (see John 15:13-16). His selfless, self-sacrificing humility eventually led Him to the Cross where He conquered death and forever changed the course of humankind. Through the power of the cross we die to self and our selfish ambitions. In meekness we reflect the glory of Christ and astound the world around us. As early as the fourth century this was noted by John Chrysostom: “For if you should work wonders, and raise the dead, and whatever other amazing work you do, unbelievers will never wonder at you so much as when they see you displaying a meek, gentle, mild disposition.”
Meekness is strength, a Holy Paradox, bestowed upon us by God. When we die to self and embrace meekness, great power arises to soften hearts, mediate conflict, restore relationships, and reflect the Light of Jesus to an unbelieving world. Yes, meekness is strength. This Jesus taught, proclaiming that the meek will inherit the Earth taking their rightful place in the Kingdom that has come: a Kingdom where all thirst and hunger for righteousness will be blessed and satisfied.
Thank you Mark. Indeed! Jesus' own meekness has the power to overcome our own self-centered existence. All the more, we must turn to him and ask him to make his home in us. The paradox is that the God-man can accomplish in us what we can't obtain ourselves. May he increase, and we decrease (John 3:30).
Great Thoughts.... Thank You. I appreciate the quotes from so many who have studied The Beatitudes previously.....I also particularly appreciate in this response the summary three words: servant, brother and friend.
And I agree....At the Cross is where we die to self, selfish ambitions and the sinful like. "Jesus keep me near the Cross."
I think you've tapped into one of many ways that following Jesus is not just counter cultural, but counter human, at least the fallen part of us. There is a magnificence in the ordinary that defies recognition. Perhaps you are saying that meekness represents the opposite not just of strength, but of outward showiness versus inward and other focused? Maybe that is why some are drawn toward narcissism, not being able to have a right relationship with their own self, they follow men willing to tell them who they are.
I always like the simile by Clarence Jordan comparing meekness to team spirit; meekness originally being an adjective often applied to chariot horses who worked well together. So being fiery and even tempestuous is not necessarily opposed to meekness at all.
Meekness is not the way to power in this culture, in this life "under the sun" and certainly not the way to "inherit the earth." Anyone who wants temporal, and especially political power, shuns meekness. To be meek like Jesus is, as Michael said, "counter human, at least the fallen part." An anonymous author of the third or fourth century said, "The meek one is more content to endure an offense than to commit one." He goes on to make this amazing statement: "Therefore that person is truly gentle [meek] who, when he or she has been offended, neither does evil nor even thinks of doing it." Only a person born again and led by the Holy Spirit can achieve that level of meekness.
Referring to Romans 12:21, Augustine said, "The meek are those who submit to wickedness and do not resist evil but overcome evil with good."
Concerning inheriting the earth, Gervase Babington, an Anglican bishop, circa 1549/1550-1610, said, "Blessed are these men and women [who are meek], says the Lord, and happy shall they be; the earth is theirs, and the commodities in it, and they shall inherit them. And why so may you either say or think? Surely because this is not flesh and blood in them, but a heavenly alteration of crooked nature by God's renewing spirit."
Tom, you're so right about meekness and how it is contrary to human nature. Jesus himself is contrary, and yet because he took on human flesh he, by grace, can make us into a new creation. So in Jesus, we always have hope. He can transform us from the inside-out.
I appreciate what you write Simon. I think meekness has a lot to do with self-control and, in the end, who holds the reigns of our lives. Will we allow the Master to govern and guide our lives and hearts?
Meekness is an archaic word in our culture. It denotes weakness and vulnerability: the very attributes that are despised in a culture captivated by exceptionalism, wealth, meritocracy, and hyper-individualism. The mere idea of meekness is repulsive in a society where image is everything; we become addicted to groupthink! Pride and arrogance produce a great appetite for recognition: to live large in the eyes of others. This appetite is readily appeased by a steady diet of media hype telling us how to live life in the fast lane: a few seminars, a couple of self-help books, a life coach, and a personal trainer can send us on our way. However, Jesus gives fair warning that on the way to the top we run the risk of losing our souls (see Mark 8:36).
In His incarnation, the Divine Disruption, Holy Enfleshment, the Lord distilled all His majesty and glory to simple humility, becoming a servant, a brother, a friend (see John 15:13-16). His selfless, self-sacrificing humility eventually led Him to the Cross where He conquered death and forever changed the course of humankind. Through the power of the cross we die to self and our selfish ambitions. In meekness we reflect the glory of Christ and astound the world around us. As early as the fourth century this was noted by John Chrysostom: “For if you should work wonders, and raise the dead, and whatever other amazing work you do, unbelievers will never wonder at you so much as when they see you displaying a meek, gentle, mild disposition.”
Meekness is strength, a Holy Paradox, bestowed upon us by God. When we die to self and embrace meekness, great power arises to soften hearts, mediate conflict, restore relationships, and reflect the Light of Jesus to an unbelieving world. Yes, meekness is strength. This Jesus taught, proclaiming that the meek will inherit the Earth taking their rightful place in the Kingdom that has come: a Kingdom where all thirst and hunger for righteousness will be blessed and satisfied.
Thank you Mark. Indeed! Jesus' own meekness has the power to overcome our own self-centered existence. All the more, we must turn to him and ask him to make his home in us. The paradox is that the God-man can accomplish in us what we can't obtain ourselves. May he increase, and we decrease (John 3:30).
Great Thoughts.... Thank You. I appreciate the quotes from so many who have studied The Beatitudes previously.....I also particularly appreciate in this response the summary three words: servant, brother and friend.
And I agree....At the Cross is where we die to self, selfish ambitions and the sinful like. "Jesus keep me near the Cross."
Thanks, Martin. I pray the same words with you, "Jesus keep me near the Cross." Amen!
I think you've tapped into one of many ways that following Jesus is not just counter cultural, but counter human, at least the fallen part of us. There is a magnificence in the ordinary that defies recognition. Perhaps you are saying that meekness represents the opposite not just of strength, but of outward showiness versus inward and other focused? Maybe that is why some are drawn toward narcissism, not being able to have a right relationship with their own self, they follow men willing to tell them who they are.
I always like the simile by Clarence Jordan comparing meekness to team spirit; meekness originally being an adjective often applied to chariot horses who worked well together. So being fiery and even tempestuous is not necessarily opposed to meekness at all.
Meekness is not the way to power in this culture, in this life "under the sun" and certainly not the way to "inherit the earth." Anyone who wants temporal, and especially political power, shuns meekness. To be meek like Jesus is, as Michael said, "counter human, at least the fallen part." An anonymous author of the third or fourth century said, "The meek one is more content to endure an offense than to commit one." He goes on to make this amazing statement: "Therefore that person is truly gentle [meek] who, when he or she has been offended, neither does evil nor even thinks of doing it." Only a person born again and led by the Holy Spirit can achieve that level of meekness.
Referring to Romans 12:21, Augustine said, "The meek are those who submit to wickedness and do not resist evil but overcome evil with good."
Concerning inheriting the earth, Gervase Babington, an Anglican bishop, circa 1549/1550-1610, said, "Blessed are these men and women [who are meek], says the Lord, and happy shall they be; the earth is theirs, and the commodities in it, and they shall inherit them. And why so may you either say or think? Surely because this is not flesh and blood in them, but a heavenly alteration of crooked nature by God's renewing spirit."
Tom, you're so right about meekness and how it is contrary to human nature. Jesus himself is contrary, and yet because he took on human flesh he, by grace, can make us into a new creation. So in Jesus, we always have hope. He can transform us from the inside-out.