“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5
We use the word meek so seldom in Modern English that few of us are certain about its meaning. And in fact the concept may be quite as alien to us as the word. To be meek means to be pliable or submissive. Now there are at least four crucial aspects to meekness. First, to be meek means to be teachable. And here we automatically assume benevolent parents and teachers.
Possibly because it sounds similar, many think of weakness in relation to meekness. But that is in error. A football coach loves a player who is meek. That is the player who will do whatever his coach tells him to do. I have a favorite story from the book Watership Down where the the warren is being attacked by other rabbits. Hazel gets an idea that will save the warren. But he has no time to explain. He tells Bigwig not to let anyone enter the main entrance until he returns. Bigwig blocks the tunnel with his own body. And the enemy rabbits attack him mercilessly. They torture him for hours without any results. They decide the only way they will ever get him out of the tunnel will be to talk him into giving up.
“Why don't you give up?” they ask. “Why are you are you staying here and enduring all this?”
Bigwig confounds them with his answer. “Because my chief rabbit told me to.” That was meekness, not toward his enemies but to his own leader. Meekness may in fact be the opposite of weakness. Meekness can be disciplined strength.
The second aspect of this Beatitude is more general and much more difficult. Later in the same sermon Jesus told us not to “resist the one who is evil.” If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other. If anyone sues you to take your shirt, let him have your cloak too. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. It is difficult to discern when you must submit, and when you cannot. There are times when you become evil by giving in to evil. But Jesus frames this as a general principle trusting God to take care of you when you are mistreated.
The third aspect of meekness is in the realm of success and failure. Jesus is not telling us we shouldn't do our best to succeed at what we are given to do. But when you're in the situation where everyone else is grasping for prominence, you can let them have this world's glory as you wait for honor in the eyes of God. And of course in this world the meek will not be given success without a fight. Those who grasp and fight will win in this world. Those who demand their own way will win the Earth. But the children of the resurrection will inherit the earth from God.
These first three aspects are encompassed by the overall aspect of meekness toward God. We are to spend all of our lives becoming more and more submissive to the will and purpose of God.
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