Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Gentleness or, that modern swear word, “submission” isn’t normally what you would put with the hashtag blessed. People are usually boasting and making a lot of noise. And because meekness has a lot to do with keeping your mouth shut, it isn’t very popular.
But we saw in this previous post that Jesus wasn’t interested in popularity. He spells it out again plainly in the next verse of our study:
Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
But what about my rights?
We hear things like this all the time: Stand up for your rights!; Assert yourself!; I’m no one’s doormat!
Hearing such sentiments constantly affirms the notion that “the world is yours if you can get it!” But Jesus says the opposite ‘The world is yours if you renounce it. Meekness is we will inherit the earth.’ (Matthew 16:26, Colossians 2:20, Matthew 5:5).
Jesus said this because He knows that (A) the world that they are offering is not really the one you want and (B) that having an attitude of not always insisting on your "rights", leads to meekness. And meekness is the key to the world you really want.
Oswald Sanders put it like this “The meek person will yield to no one where a point of principle is involved (right or wrong according to God), but he will be strong enough to give way when a matter of purely personal advantage is at stake”.
The elegance of meekness is on display when we don’t take revenge, even when it is justified; when we do not defend or attack when we feel threatened; when we do not believe in “an eye for an eye” even when we are insulted; when we do not fight back when treated unfairly.
Do you have a right to? Probably. But trusting our all-seeing, all-knowing, good, just, fair God when He says in Ecclesiastes 3:17, Hebrews 10:13, and Romans 12:19 that ‘He’s got this’ takes the opposite of weakness.
Strength to be meek
Actually, it is quite impossible if you don’t already have the first two #blessed.
Being “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3) and “mourning” (Matthew 5:4) (https://www.faith.org.za/post/shed-tears-blessed) are essential ingredients for meekness. Meekness can only flow from a spirit that acknowledges its own lack, realises its own need for God, as well as a spirit that is sorry and remorseful about sin and its ugly, damaging consequences.
These first two verses put us in the right state of mind, or heart, for meekness.
Meekness is being strong enough to control yourself; able to hold your character in check. Think of taming a wild horse. Our viewpoint is "always right" and we would defend ourselves to the death even if it wasn’t.
Strength and resolve are necessary for us not to be at the whim of our innate arrogance. It takes power to have control over ourselves. Stopping when we need to stop, yielding just enough when we need to yield, and speaking up or taking action when we need to. This is meekness!
Not in and of ourselves, but with the help of the Holy Spirit only. “But the fruit of the Spirit…is meekness…” (Galatians 5:22-23)
Jesus was meek
Thinking of our Example might bring to mind His humble demeanour and meekness during His unfair, illegal trial. And this would be right, but what about when He chased out the money changers?
Revelation 15:3 likens Jesus to “the humblest man on earth”. Moses was also humble (Numbers 12:3). Both of these men had moments of beautiful restraint of self BUT ALSO moments of beautifully expressed righteous anger.
No one can say that Jesus was a pushover when he came across the money changers in His Father’s house of prayer. He was the essence of meekness WHILE He “made a whip of chords…drove them all out of the temple…poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables”.
Wasn't He having an anger outburst? No, because He was perfectly in control of himself while "the zeal for God’s house consumed Him" (John 2:13-17). The emphasis is on knowing when to speak up and when to be still, how to stay meek despite having strong, perhaps even righteous emotions. Jesus anger was righteous and He was meek while making it fully known.
Jesus shows us that meekness does not mean placid or complacent; it’s self-controlled, applied wisdom that flows from a spirit that knows exactly its position in relation to God.
Inheritors of the earth
These words from Jesus in Matthew is quoted, almost word for word, from Psalm 37:11. “…the meek will inherit the earth, and will delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”
We so desperately want to “inherit the earth”. Even non-believers yearn for a just, peaceful world. But, spoiler alert, we are not going to get it by insisting on our rights, or our own version of what is fair. Demanding it, fighting for it, is not how we obtain it.
The Bible teaches it can only come from the Owner Himself. We can only inherit it, receive it as a gift, if we repent of our arrogance and acknowledge that EVERYTHING belongs to our Father, including justice and vengeance.
Instead of trying to gain it our way, let us submit, be mild, be humble and “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and (then) all these things shall be given to you.” (Matthew 6:33) Hashtag blessed!