Happy, Happy, Happy: Happy & Gentle
Matthew 5: 1-2, 5
See if any of these phrases sound familiar:
• It’s a dog-eat-dog world.
• Assert yourself.
• Stand your ground.
• Kill the competition
• Make your presence known.
These are all phrases that communicate our culture’s attitude when it comes to getting ahead, achieving our goals or being successful in life. These attitudes are often ingrained in us from our earliest days, and they become our philosophy of life because we know, like Leo Durocher, that “nice guys finish last.”
But Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” We’re all for Jesus, right? I mean, really, we’re in church this morning, aren’t we? As with the “poor in spirit, and “those who mourn,” we can’t seem to figure out how meek and happy can go in the same sentence. That’s countercultural. I would say, “You’re correct.” That’s why it would do us well to reflect and discover our source for the life that is “happy, happy, happy” in this third beatitude.
How many of you remember the Charles Atlas advertisement from comic books growing up? Yeah, the skinny guy walking with the pretty girl on the beach, and the buff guy insults him by saying, “Hey, Skinny, your ribs are showing.” The scene escalates from that point. The buff guy hits the skinny guy. Skinny guy gets mad, orders the Atlas course, goes back and evens the score with the bully. You remember? Sure. Our problem with meekness is that we associate meekness with the skinny guy in the beginning of the ad. And, that’s confirmed by Webster’s dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus. Webster’s defines meekness as “patient & mild; too submissive; spiritless.” And, listen to a few of Roget’s synonyms for meek: bashfulness, doubt, fear, hesitation, insecurity, mousiness, reluctance, sheepishness, shyness, timidity, timidness, unassertiveness. It all boils down to “spineless.” Unfortunately, that’s not the type of person Jesus is describing.
What did Jesus mean? Let’s go back to Greek culture a moment. When Aristotle used the same word Jesus used, he called it “the golden mean.” It was the mid-point between extreme anger and extreme angerlessness; the perfect middle. It was the person who was completely self-controlled, who got mad at the right times and for the right reasons, and who did not lose his/her temper. That was the meek person.
It was a word the Greeks also used in relationship to animals which had been tamed, which had been taught to follow the commands of its master. It denoted one who was a perfect follower. They were called “meek” animals.
I think of the beautiful horses in the film War Horse. War Horse was a movie about a horse named Joey. Joey found a home with a young man named Albert in pre-World War I England. The story follows Joey and Albert through the war, and gives vivid images of the strength and power of the animals, but how submissive they could be to their riders or handlers. They had been trained to be obedient to the rider. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a2gTkw7ujU) They were, indeed, meek animals—full of power, but completely under control. Power under control. That is meekness as Jesus uses the term. I don’t see anything in either of those uses that denotes weakness, or spinelessness. The closest English word that describes what Jesus is talking about is gentleness.
I think the bible offers us some examples of this idea of meekness. First is Moses. In Numbers 12:3, he is called the “meekest man in all the earth.” I’m not sure Pharoah would agree with that assessment, and perhaps early in his life that certainly would not have been the case. As we survey the life of Moses, we see a man of great strength and courage, a man willing to stand up to the most powerful man on earth. He could do it because he had God’s power behind him, and it was power under control.
Two other times in his gospel, Matthew has this same word on the lips of Jesus. On both occasions, Jesus refers to himself. Matthew 11:29—“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” And, in Matthew 21:5—“Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” I’m not sure any of us would be prepared to call Jesus spineless. Ask the moneychangers that he ran out of the Temple when he entered Jerusalem. Those are the actions of a spineless man. Or ask, Pontius Pilate, to whom Jesus stood up and challenged after his arrest. Talk about power under control! Here was the master of the universe, one who could usher ten thousand angels to his aid, but he chose to submit himself to the Father’s will. Power under control. Submitted to an authority outside oneself. Moses and Jesus both exhibited great strength and courage throughout their lives, yet they chose submission to God. Both changed the world. Not really an image of spinelessness, huh?
Gentleness, meekness is a conscious choice. It is the choice to use any strength or courage we have for just and right ends. It is a choice to submit our lives to the One who has the power to change the world, but more than having the power to change the world, has the power to change us.
Does meekness describe us? I’m not sure it quite describes me as much as I would like. I can tell you, though, Perceptions sure helps. Seriously, I have to be nice now. It’s amazing how appearing on TV three times a week and on the radio five days a week can change your public behavior. I’m not nearly as likely to blow my horn at people who cut me off in traffic anymore. They might know who I am! I’m much nicer to the slow cashier at Wal-Mart these days, too. Let me tell you. I was in Gulf Shores last week. One evening, Vanessa and I went over to the Ribs and Reds restaurant. I ordered a nice big plate of ribs for dinner. My mouth was watering. It was going to be great. The waiter brought our food over, sat Vanessa’s plate down, and just as he went to sit mine down, the whole slab of ribs slid right off the plate into my lap. My first inclination was to jump up and shout, call the guy a few choice names and storm out. I didn’t, though, and I didn’t even have on one of my shirts with the fumc logo on it. You know what came to my mind? Perceptions. Somebody might know who I am. Somebody might see me. You know what I did? I picked those ribs up off my lap, put them back on the plate, wiped the BBQ sauce off, told the waiter not to worry about it, and ate my ribs. Vanessa couldn’t believe it. Neither could I! Maybe God is doing something in my life.
Our problem, too often, is we think the axis of the universe runs right through the tops of our heads. The only thing is, there are a billion other people who think the same thing, and when we see ourselves at the center of the universe, it’s hard to find this gentle nature. We will get mad when people criticize us. We will become arrogant and aggressive. Putting people down will become a way of life for us. Putting up a front will become a mask for the unhappiness that resides within us.
I think gentleness is an outgrowth of the first two beatitudes. Humility is admitting our need for God, and mourning our sins with that godly sorrow which leads us to godly actions. Only when we can we confess our utter helplessness before God can we begin to live in the gentle spirit to which Jesus call us. We’ll begin to live with a gentle spirit only when we realize that if those same people who criticize us could hear our confessions—if they knew what God knows about us—they would have all the evidence they need for their criticism.
Living before God and seeing ourselves as He sees us, confessing our hidden sins, changes our attitudes. Confession keeps us from being angry when people attack us. Out of this changed attitude comes a spirit of gentleness, comes meekness, and we submit ourselves wholly to God. Submission to God through the Holy Spirit. We are a beast who has been tamed, trained by our master. It is something outside ourselves, and it’s only controlled outside ourselves in a relationship with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. It changes us. It changes the world.
Jesus says those are the people who will inherit the earth. That’s pretty much a direct quote of Psalm 37, and there inheritance is pretty much the theme of the Psalm. The promise is that the gentle, the meek will inherit the earth. History makes it pretty obvious, too. History is full of power-grabbing people. I think of all the great civilizations that were going to dominate the world. Assyria, Babylon, Rome, Napoleon in France, Hitler in Germany. Sure, they held sway for a while, but eventually, arrogance and assertiveness led to their decline.
I think, too, about sparrows and lambs. We’ve never seen those on endangered species lists. Tigers, lions and eagles—those majestic beasts we usually equate with strength and power—they’ve all spent time on the endangered species list, though.
Power hungry people will never inherit the earth. They may kill a lot of people trying to, but they’ll never be successful. They can’t even win on the personal level. We know what power wielded improperly in a relationship can do, right? That’s because our culture teaches us that if you just can get some power, and be in charge, we’ll find happiness. This attitude causes some real problems—in marriages, in politics, in business (ever heard of backstabbing on the climb up the corporate ladder?), and in families. Enough is never enough for these people. They’re never happy. They’re usually the ones who end up with ulcers.
Here are five ways we can demonstrate gentleness in our lives:
1. Actively seek to make other feel at ease. Be sensitive to other’s opinions and ideas.
2. Show respect for the personal dignity of the other person. Use persuasion and kindness rather than intimidation and domination.
3. Avoid blunt speech and abrupt manner.
4. Don’t be threatened by opposition.
5. Don’t belittle or degrade or gossip about someone who has fallen—instead, grieve and pray for them.
The gentle, the meek, they are the ones who live happy, happy, happy lives. Power under control submitted to the Master’s will. Jesus says the earth and all its fullness is theirs.
