Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Meek

Someone wrote “if the meek are going to inherit the earth they must get much more aggressive. Usually, when we are studying this beatitude, we spend most of our time trying to define what Jesus meant by the word meek. Most of our definitions try to figure out how to be meek without being meek. The Greek word means humble but even that does not clear up the whole issue because the meaning of words changes over time. When Sir Christopher Wren dedicated a Cathedral many years ago he was told his work was Awful and Artificial and he took that as a complement. In those days Awful meant awe inspiring and Artificial meant artistic, so who knows what humble meant in that time. However, it is safe to believe that being meek is much closer to being an active lover than it is to being some weak and whiny person.

I asked a friend what she thought of when she heard the word meek. She immediately said, “Mr. Rogers.” to her he was the epitome of a meek person. I agreed but said his meekness was not only his personality but his belief and commitment to the power of acceptance and love. He gave his life to teaching that to children. To him love would change the world.

Unfortunately, our world sees meek as weak and love as a dreamy but a totally impractical force in our world. We worship power and position and money and greed and see lovers as weak losers, while we totally underestimate the power of love.

I read an illustration that pictured our world by saying there are twenty men in a cellar. Four of the men have most of the food and goods in the cellar. They have far more than they can use while some of the other have a meager supply and some are starving from lack of food.

The four have hand grenades. Two of them have super powerful ones and the others who have them are trying to make theirs more and more powerful. Even the poorest of the poor are trying to get weapons of power. The author’s question was, “How long before the cellar blows up.?” My question is, “What will it take to keep the cellar from blowing up?” Maybe someone should take all of the weapons away, but the ones who have them will never give them up and if they did they would figure out some way to dominate or kill. But what if love could enter the cellar?  What if the whole group decided to live by the golden rule, and there is some version of that in every religion in the cellar. I know that sounds preposterous but what if it did happen? That thought shows the potential power of love. Matter of fact it reveals that love is the only hope for the world. The Bible is clear on that point, “Not by might nor by power but by my spirit sayeth the Lord.” Maybe that is what the meek inheriting the earth really means. We will not change the world by force or fear, trust the power of love.

In the mid 1980’s I was in Tacoma Washington to speak to a convention the next day and the person in charge of the convention and his wife picked me up from my hotel for dinner. As we left the hotel it was very evident that a very large meeting was taking place there that night. I asked if my host knew what was going on and he told me it was a rally for The Moral Majority and that he was not only active in that movement, he had been in charge of the promotion of the event and was thrilled at the size of the crowd. It was standing room only and I am sure he had rather been there than going to dinner with me.

The couple spent most of our time together talking about the hopes, dreams and inevitable great results that would come from the church taking a strong place of influence in the political world. A thought hit me with such intensity that I can remember my response almost word for word. I said.

“I do not want to pour cold water on your enthusiasm but I wonder if this does not mean we have stopped believing in the power of our own message and the impact of our influence and are now going to try to change the world with political power instead of the application and living out of the gospel of love? If so, that scares me. If we have proven anything in life it is that we cannot legislate morality. We cannot force people to be good. And it scares me because power is addictive. Once it gets its hold on us we will want more and more until we will do almost anything to keep the power we have or get more. It also scares me because power corrupts. It forces us to connect with whatever group is willing to give us the power or promise us actions we want done. We then must be for whatever they are for, and cannot be against whatever they do no matter what that means to our own morality, and we sacrifice our credibility for power”

I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I think this one time I hit the nail on the head and it breaks my heart.

Right after the Beatitudes Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” Maybe the Beatitudes should be called The Eight Attitudes of some Salty Christians.

Attitude one: They keep an open mind
Attitude two: They are open to the comfort of others
Attitude three: They believe in the power of love