JUST EXACTLY WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE MEEK?
Matthew 5:5

We have now come, in our study of the Beatitudes, that most familiar part of the Sermon on the Mount, to the third great proclamation of blessing:  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

So, what does it mean to be meek?  Someone has defined it as the happy medium between too much anger and too little anger.  The great Greek philosopher Aristotle defined a meek man as "a man who is angry on the right occasion and with the right people and at the right moment and for the right length of time."  We could state it this way:  Blessed is the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time.

Now we have some questions to address.  First, what is the right occasion and the right moment for us to be angry?  To answer this question, there is a general rule of thumb:  It is seldom right to be angry for an injury done to ourselves, but it is often right to be angry at injuries done to others.  The second question is this:  What is the right length of time that I should be angry?  We can answer that by stating it is until the injuries have been resolved.  The final question asks who are the right people with whom we should be angry?  To that question we answer, those who are perpetrating the injuries.

Now, let us examine a moment in the life of Jesus as an example of this type of righteous anger.  John records, early in his gospel, the account of Jesus entering into the temple in Jerusalem, becoming very angry at the sight of the merchandizing taking place within this house of prayer.  Jesus took a scourge of cords and began to overturn the tables of those buying and selling and drove them out of the temple.  To use modern day terminology, Jesus created a riot.  His was an anger against those who were misusing this place where worship and prayer was to be made.  Jesus' anger was focused upon the proper objectives. 

The word for meekness was also used to describe domesticated animals that had been trained to obey a command and to accept control.  A man of meekness has his life under control.  It was because of His meekness that Jesus could pray there in Gethsemane's Garden, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42).  Jesus had His life under the total control of His Father in heaven.  His passions for love and anger were absolutely under control.  Jesus never lost His focus or His reasons for being here. 

Friends, meekness is a concept we don't hear much about these days.  And you might be asking, how can a person cultivate meekness?  That will be the focus for our next study. 

Father God, I thank You for the meekness of the Lord Jesus.  I thank You that He has set the model for complete surrender of His will to You.  Help us to daily experience that as well.  Help us to be angry at the right moment with the right people against the right circumstances which need to be changed.  Thank You for doing this.  We give You praise for it in Christ's name.  Amen.

 

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