If you are like me, at some point, you have imagined what it would be like to acquire some wonderful thing: What if I had a million bucks? What if I had superhuman strength? What if I could read people’s minds? What if I were fluent in all languages? It can be fun to entertain thoughts like these, to imagine being better, somehow, than what we are. But what about being better in our character; what if we could immediately gain a virtue that we lack? If someone were handing out virtues, what would we hope for? Grace Hamman, in her recent book Ask of Old Paths: Medieval Virtues and Vices for a Whole and Holy Life, pictures this scenario and asks, “Would there be a more disappointing virtue to get than meekness?” I chuckled when I read this, but the question hits the mark. I’m sure that most of us would be hoping for more courage or fortitude, more love or patience. Something more robust or useful than meekness.
In Matthew 11:29, when Jesus asks us to take His yoke and learn from Him, thereby finding rest for our souls, He describes Himself as “meek and lowly in heart.” Earlier, while teaching kingdom principles to His new disciples and followers in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared the meek to be blessed – to be fortunate and in line for inheritance of the earth (Matt. 5:5). Why then do many of us instinctively consider the virtue of meekness to be the proverbial lump of coal in our stocking?
Truly, the third beatitude is shocking to hear or to read, especially for the first time. To the modern listener, it is startling in part because of our wrong thinking about meekness. We’ve defined it poorly, which explains our lack of esteem for it. “Meekness is weakness,” declares the world. To the listener on the Galilean hillside, it would have been shocking, as well. The Roman occupation of Judea had many Jews, not just the Zealots, longing for a mighty messiah. Even those knowledgeable of the scriptures (“The meek shall eat and be satisfied” Psalm 22:26; “The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord” Isaiah 29:19), those with a proper estimation of meekness, would have been shocked to hear that meekness would have anything to do with taking back the land, with re-inheriting the earth.
Of course, meekness is not a quality of weakness but rather of strength. Throughout the New Testament, meekness is put forth in contrast with quarrelsomeness, jealousy, and self-ambition – traits that require strength to resist in mind and in deed. The Greeks considered all virtues to be the mean between two extremes – power under control, it has been called. Thus, Aristotle described meekness as the happy medium between excessive and insufficient anger – self-control, essentially. The Hebrew interpretation, according to Kenneth Bailey, points to “obedience in accepting God’s guidance.” Barclay believed meekness to be, instead of self-control, God-control. If we “receive with meekness the implanted word” (James 1:21), we are likely to be under God’s control instead of our own.
The third beatitude of Jesus recorded by Matthew seems to be perfectly logically placed in relation to the others. The late John MacArthur said of the meek in the kingdom, “They’re not defending themselves. They’re not trying to get their due. They know they have nothing. They’re already broken in spirit over sin. They’re already in mourning and weeping over the consequences of it. And in humility, they stand before a holy God, and they have nothing to commend themselves.” This proper understanding of self in relation to God is essential. But then there are other people. John R.W. Stott put it humorously but truthfully: I myself am quite happy to recite the general confession in church and call myself a miserable sinner. It causes me no great problem; I can take it in my stride. But let somebody else come up to me after church and call me a miserable sinner, and I want to punch him on the nose! In other words, I am not prepared to allow other people to think or speak of me what I have just acknowledged before God that I am. There is a basic hypocrisy here; there always is when meekness is absent. Clearly, we need to receive instruction or correction meekly, as Stott points out. But we must also give instruction and correction (or our opinions) with meekness. “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness” (2 Tim. 2:24-25).
One of the fruits of the Spirit Paul lists in Galatians is gentleness, sometimes translated as humbleness or meekness. This fruit is described poetically in a sermon by John MacArthur, when he uses these unattributed words: “Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit, which is found on the soil of spiritual poverty, contrition, and mourning. It is a noble flower which grows out of the ashes of self-love, on the grave of pride.” I am challenging myself to bury my pride as I strive side by side with others in the great church of Christ, as I live and learn with fellow members of the beautiful body of Christ. How about you?
