The Mighty Meek Series

A dejected coach entered a telephone booth after losing out in the

high school basketball tournament. When he discovered he didn't

have a dime he called a passing student: "Hey! Lend me a dime so I

can call a friend." The student reached into his pocket and pulled out

two dimes. He handed them to the coach and said, "Here's two dimes

coach, call all your friends." It is hard to be a loser and still win

friends and influence people. Human nature resents defeat. Yet,

defeat is necessary to test a person's strength of character. Most

everyone can win gracefully, but it takes something extra to be

graceful in defeat. It is one of the paradoxes of life that some positive

values can only be developed under negative circumstances. The poet

gives an example.

Good sportsmanship we hail, we sing,

It's always pleasant when you spot it.

There's only one unhappy thing;

You have to lose to prove you've got it.

Richard Armour

What is true for sports, is true for the game of life in general.

Only those who know how to respond properly to defeat, anger,

insult, and persecution, can be truly happy and good sportsman in

the game of life. The natural tendency is to meet every challenge to the

ego with aggression. Any insult to the I on the throne must be met

with revengeful retaliation.

This attitude was at one time built right into the framework of

society. The code of honor required men to duel to the death of one

of them over an insult. The man who could avenge himself by

eliminating anyone who dared to offend him was a hero. Although

this tragic code has longed been outlawed, the attitude it represented

still reigns in the hearts of men.

So much so that the words of Jesus, "Blessed are the meek," are

themselves an offense to men. It is an insult to their dignity, and

contrary to what they feel are the facts of life. It is the aggressor who

gets what he is after. The meek are crushed and trampled under the

feet of the strong, and rather than inheriting the earth, they are

fortunate if they can hold on to what little they have. The only

happiness you can get out of this beatitude, say the critics, is the

happiness of a good laugh. Kim Hubbard considers it a joke and

writes, "It's going to be fun to watch and see how long the meek can

keep the earth after they inherit it."

Meekness has come to be so closely associated with weakness that

it loses all attraction. Even children want no part of it. A little boy

said to his mother, "Don't call me your little lamb, call me your little

tiger." Power is what appeals, and words that speak of strength.

Meekness may be a good word for the female of the species, but it is

as out of place in the masculine camp as lace. Aristotle was afraid of

meekness, even though he considered it a good thing. He wrote, "The

meek man is not apt to avenge himself, but rather to forgive." He

feared the very thing that Jesus holds up as the key to happiness,

which is the ability to forgive one who has insulted or injured you.

This beatitude brings us into conflict with the value systems of the

world, and the sinful pride of our own nature. Only if we are poor in

spirit, and recognize our own deficiency and dependence upon God,

and only if we mourned over our sin, and submit ourselves to God,

can we find the happiness that comes through meekness.

Jesus is always our greatest example of every virtue, and when we

see what meekness is in Him, we discover it is not weakness, but

power and strength. Jesus was the mighty meek, and His meekness of

being the Lamb of God was not incompatible with His mightiness of

being the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. His lowliness of being the Lily

of the Valley is not incompatible with His loftiness of being the Bright

and Morning Star. Meekness, when rightly understood, is not only

compatible with strength, it is the way to strength, and, as Jesus says,

it is the means whereby Christians will accomplish what all the power

of aggression has failed to do, and they will inherit the earth. We

want to look at three attitudes which characterize the meek.

I. THE ATTITUDE OF REASONABLENESS.

Meekness is a matter of the mind. Matthew Henry, the well known

Bible commentator writes, "The office of meekness is to keep reason

upon the throne in the soul as it ought to be; to preserve the

understanding clear and unclouded, the judgment untainted and

unbiased in the midst of the greatest provocation." The opposite of