“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5
Think of the most gentle, quiet, unassuming, non-reactive person you can think of and you will have a good example of one who is meek. Sometimes these people appear to be weak. Certainly there are people who are ‘weak’ in confidence and conviction, but the meek person is not that at all. The confidence of the meek is not usually obvious but it is certainly there. Somehow they have an anchor deep within that keeps them from being tossed to and fro by their emotions. They do not have reactive responses to difficult things of life, especially offenses. They are well-tempered. Rather than being coercive they are persuasive.
One such meek man was Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. To move people in the direction he wanted he would use gentle persuasion as opposed to giving a strong, direct order. He was quoted as saying “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”.
Meekness is not weakness. It is gentleness. Reservedness. It patiently endures and lovingly restrains. It is a quality admired by all but found only in a few. Why is that? Why is this character quality highly valued but rarely found? Perhaps it has something to do with personality differences, with some quieter personalities being more apt toward gentleness. But it is not at all limited to one’s disposition or our Lord would not have said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).
So it is that we must ‘learn’ from Jesus how to be meek. Once we come into meekness we will find soul rest. We will find that taking on the character of Christ is not at all binding or heavy. It is light. It brings us to a place of peace and freedom like we’ve never known. There is joy in not being defensive but in having an unshakable confidence in what you know. Opposition does not threaten the meek. He or she only smiles and looks for the right opportunity to bring a gentle persuasion to another.
While meekness is admirable and desirable, it must be said that there are times when something else is needed, when a strong response is required. In certain situations poignant truth must be spoken even without concern for gentleness. You can easily spot it in the ministry of Jesus when he made a whip and literally turned over tables, driving out those “money-changers’ doing business in the his Father’s house. The “zeal” of the Lord had consumed him (John 2:17). At other times Jesus would strongly rebuke the Pharisees and Sadducees saying “Woe to you…”. All that to say there are times when we can and should be a bit forceful, or at least unabashedly truthful; times when the ‘zeal’ of the Lord may come upon us, or when we are dealing with religious hypocrites.
I dare say that the more difficult thing is to walk in meekness. It is one thing to be offended at unrighteousness and injustice which is really a good thing, but quite another to be offended at personal opposition of some kind. In our disagreements with one another let us put on the spirit of “grace and truth”, allowing meekness to rule the day. Those who learn to walk in such a way will inherit the earth. That is, those who rule their souls with “inherit the earth”. This seems to be a reference to Psalm 37:11 “But the meek will inherit the land…” where the context is referring to those who trust in the Lord to be their defense, who delight themselves in him, commit their way to him, and wait patiently for him to bring justice against evildoers.
