Blessed are the Meek

Sermon on Matthew 5:5

Preached February 24, 2002

By Donald M. Tuttle

First Christian Church, Corpus Christi, Texas

Years ago, Phillip Yancey was preparing for a class by watching a video on Jesus. But before he turned it on, he was caught by the morning news. It was the day that Allied forces invaded Iraq, and Norman Schwarzkopf was offering the briefing. Yancey said that he soon lost all interest in the video. Instead he watched intently as Stormin’ Norman told of the troops’ end run around the Republican Guard, of a decoy invasion by sea, of the allied capability of marching all the way to Baghdad without resistance. He marveled at the way Schwarzkopf gave the Kuwaitis, the British, the Saudis and others credit, and how he seemed a general completely in charge, proud of the mission and his troops. As Yancey watched, he thought: "That’s exactly the person you want to lead a war."

It was about then that the press conference ended and Yancey turned on the tape in his VCR. There before him was Max von Sydow, a blond, pasty Jesus, slowly intoning the Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are the poor in spirit.... Blessed are those who mourn.... Blessed are the meek."

It took a few moments, but Yancey said it suddenly struck him. He had just witnessed on CNN the Beatitudes in reverse! "Blessed are the strong," was the general’s message. "Blessed are the triumphant. Blessed are the powerful."

Certainly Yancey’s observation was true. But what he witnessed was more than the beatitudes in reverse. What he saw were the beatitudes as we would prefer them to be. What we like to think is that it is the strong, the triumphant, the powerful who are blessed. We like to think that the confident, the assertive, the self-assured rise to the top and rule the world. And, quite frankly, the evidence supports that view. Look at Schwarzkopf. He’s the embodiment of what we are talking about. He is a commanding presence, a man who gets the job done, someone who never lacks for confidence. His reward? Leadership in his field and a place in history.

The same is true for many others--George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods all embody the virtues that our culture values. They exude confidence and strength. They are powerful figures who play second fiddle to no one. And they certainly seem blessed. Each rules his or her world--whether it is politics, business, entertainment or sports. Each ends up on lists of America’s most admired because they are, in our eyes, fortunate.

It is just that understanding that makes Jesus’ third beatitude hard for us to imagine. "Blessed are the meek," he said, "for they will inherit the earth." The meek? They are the exact opposite of all that we consider blessed. If you are like me, when you hear the word "meek" you think of timid, shy, milquetoast. You think of someone like Ricky. Ricky was a nerdy little guy in my high school. He was so shy he would almost disappear in the classroom. He hated gym class; didn’t want to change clothes in front of anyone else. No one would ever go around saying, "I want to be like Ricky." No one would point to him and say, "Boy, he sure is blessed." To be meek is, for us and for our culture, unthinkable.

Yet, maybe the problem is not Jesus’ call to meekness, but our understanding of it. The word that Jesus uses is an interesting one. It was regularly used to describe a "wild stallion that had been tamed, a colt that had been transformed from uselessness to usefulness." It was a word that conveyed the harnessing of one’s power, the surrendering of one’s control so that it could be used by another. "Meekness," as Jesus used it, didn’t conveyed timidity or shyness. It didn’t convey cowering before others. "Meekness" meant placing one’s power under God’s control, harnessing one’s power under the guidance of God.

That is why when we look to the Scriptures we find that Moses was called meek. In fact, it says he was "very meek, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth."

This is Moses we’re talking about--the same man who in a fit of anger killed an Egyptian and had to flee Egypt. This is the same man that God later called to confront the king of Egypt and demand that the Israelite slaves be set free. This is the same Moses that leads a rebellious, stiff-necked people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and across the wilderness to the threshold of the promised land.

This was no milquetoast Moses. There was no timidity in his leadership. He was meek in the sense that he had surrendered his will to the will of God. Like a wild stallion, he was tamed, his power placed under God’s control.

The same would later be said of David. David was certainly no choir boy meek and mild. Much of his life was lived on the run as he played Robin Hood to Saul’s sheriff of Nottingham. Yet when David had the chance to slit Saul’s throat he refused. He would not harm God’s anointed king. His was power under God’s control. Later, when he himself became king, his reign would be marred by adultery, murder and family conflict. Yet the Scriptures tell us that he was a mighty warrior and a great ruler, a man after God’s own heart. And the Psalmist would later plead for God to remember David in his meekness, how he endured in the face of great affliction. He was a man whose power was placed under God’s control.

And then there was Jesus. Any fair reading of the Gospels makes it clear that Jesus was not the wimpish teacher of too many a movie. He was a man who possessed the power of God, a man who challenged the religious and political powers of his day, a man who cast money changers out of the temple and silenced every critic.

Yet on the cross, when he could have called down ten thousand angels to exact revenge on those who had nailed him there, he chose instead to forgive. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Why? Because, as he said elsewhere, "I am meek and humble of heart." He was a man whose power was placed under God’s control. Doing God’s will was his purpose in life.

And we could go on. Peter the impetuous fisherman and Paul the persecutor of Christians were brought under the reign of God, their power given over to God’s control. The same could be said of Augustine. Though he had lived a completely wicked, self-centered life, God tamed him and claimed his tremendous mind for God’s work. Then there was Martin Luther--a reluctant priest whose struggle to be righteous was well noted. Finally, by grace, he was tamed and his many talents put to use by God. Though the word was not used of them, all were meek, all were blessed because of it.

When Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth," he is not calling us to be cowardly Christians who serve as doormats for the world. His call is to surrender ourselves to God’s control, to place ourselves faithfully and constantly under the guidance of his Spirit so that our power, our minds, our resources, all that we are can be used for the good God intends.

She was a businesswoman of some note. Through brains and brass, she had challenged the so-called big boys in her industry and won. She was confident, bold, successful--and hollow. For all that she had accomplished, she felt empty inside. Then one day, as she sat in church listening to the umpteenth thousandth sermon, something clicked. She recognized that her success had no purpose. It really accomplished nothing in the grand scheme of things. So that day, and every day thereafter, she began to pray that God would use her and all that she had and was to his glory. It was a prayer for meekness, a prayer that God might take her useless life and make it useful. And God did. She began to use her profits to help others. She began to look at not just who could do a job but who needed the job more. She began to see her life through the lens of ministry rather than money-making. Of course, her competitors thought she had lost her edge. Her co-workers wondered if she had lost her mind. But in reality, she had gained everything--she had inherited the earth--because she had given control of all she was to God.

My prayer is that we too can pray for meekness, pray for lives given over to the guidance of the Spirit and the glory of God. Amen.