Blessed are the Meek
For They Will Inherit the Earth
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” -Matthew 5:5, NIV
What Does it Mean to Be Meek?
To be meek (Greek: praus) is to exhibit a calm and soothing disposition. When we are faced with a crisis or a threat, our bodies react with the flight, fight, or freeze response. Our nervous system floods our bodies with chemicals that make us ready to attack the threat, run away, or freeze and hope the threat moves on.
Meekness represents an alternative to fighting or hiding. The Greek philosopher Aristotle defined it as “A mean [i.e. average] between bad temper and spineless incompetence, between extreme anger and indifference.” The Theological Lexicon of the New Testament says that a meek person “keeps his serenity in all the misfortunes that come his way, bearing them calmly and patiently.”
In more modern terms, President Roosevelt famously lived by the motto “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.” Meekness is not weakness, it is a quiet strength of character that exercises restraint. Another common translation for this Bible word is gentle, which is used twice to describe Jesus:
Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (NIV)
Matthew 21:5 (quoting Zechariah 9:9) ,“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (NIV)
There are several instances in Jesus’ life when he displayed this type of quiet strength of character. The story from John 8 with the woman caught in adultery (depicted in the painting at the top of this post) is a good example. Jesus stays calm in the midst of the chaos and anxiety of the crowd, he is clear on his principles, and he displays both gentleness (by withholding condemnation) and strength (by challenging the leaders and calling the woman to repentance).
Imitating the Gentleness of Jesus
In the New Testament, the Apostles urge us to live with this same gentle and humble attitude that Jesus had:
2 Timothy 2:25-26 “Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (NIV)
1 Peter 3:15-16 “ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (NIV)
Galatians 5:22-23, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (NIV)
In each of these verses, the Bible uses the same word (whether as a noun or an adjective) that Jesus uses when he blesses the meek. When you reflect on all of these verses, it’s as if God is reminding us that the reason we are called to be humble and gentle in our relationships with others is because meekness is a core part of who Jesus is (Matthew 11:29; 21:5) and it’s one of the things the Holy Spirit is trying to cultivate in our hearts as a “Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23). And we are called to embody this type of calm and soothing disposition even in situations where there are opponents we disagree with or people questioning the reason for our faith in Christ (2 Timothy 2:25-26; 1 Peter 3:15:16).
Does that type of humility, gentleness, patience and quiet strength describe your attitude toward others and your interactions with them? Or do you (like me) have room to grow?
The Promise of the Land
“The ‘meek' are those who suffer and who have been humbled, and yet they do not seek revenge but God’s glory and the welfare of others. In other words, they lovingly trust God and hope in God’s timing and God’s justice.” -Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount, p. 42.
Jesus promises that those who exhibit this kind of gentle strength and patient restraint are the ones who will inherit the land. This was a revolutionary statement that once again reverses Israel’s assumptions about the way life worked.
In Israel, the people who owned the land almost always took it by force. Richard Rohr explains it this way:
"There’s irony here. If there was one hated group in the Palestine of Jesus’ day, it was landlords—those who possess the land. Nobody possessed land except by violence, by oppression, by holding onto it and making all the powerless peasants pay a portion of their harvest.” - Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Alternative Plan, p. 162
The irony that Rohr refers to the difference between the kind of people that usually took possession of the land and the kind of people Jesus says will inherit it. The land belonged to the latest person (or nation) to take it by force—and the Jews knew that full well. They had to take their land by force (during the conquest of Canaan), and then they lost their land at various times to the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.
Jesus is contrasting the gentleness of God’s people with the vengeance and violence of the rest of the world, and promising that God will bring about an unexpected reversal of the way life typically worked. Instead of the land going to the rich and powerful, it would be given to those who are humble and gentle in heart — just like Jesus.
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:42-45 (NIV)
This beatitude seems to be a direct quote of Psalm 37:11, “But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.” Psalm 37 teaches us to stop worrying about what the rich and powerful are doing in the world, and humbly trust that God will bless his people — gentle and humble— in the end.
In world where people forcefully take hold of whatever they can get, Jesus is reminding us that it is the humble and gentle at heart who will receive the blessing that others are violently fighting for.
Concluding Thoughts
It’s important for us to remember that Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount with a series of life-giving, encouraging blessings for some of the least likely people imaginable. The beatitudes show us that Jesus stands in solidarity with the poor, the forgotten, and the oppressed. The rest of Israel might assume these people have been rejected by God, but Jesus reassures them that they are actually living under God’s blessing. And in a way, these blessings show us a few of the characteristics that the community of faith should strive to cultivate in their walk with God—not as a burdensome list, but as a life-giving goal.
The beatitudes offer us something now as well as something in the future. Right now, we are living under the unchanging blessing of God. God sees us, cares for us, notices us, and stands in solidarity with our suffering. There is comfort in knowing that we are blessed in God’s eyes, despite our present circumstances. But the beatitudes also offer us even greater promises for the future. We are blessed, and we will be blessed even more when Jesus brings his perfect plan to completion. The present reality of God’s blessing and the promise of greater blessings in the future form the basis of our Christian hope. Paul says it this way in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
God sees you, he loves you, he is blessing you, and he will full his good promises through Jesus Christ his son.