Meek (adj)- showing patience and humility, gentle, submissive.
There are a lot of words people have used to describe me over the years, but I have to say that meek has never been one of them. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that I was raised and encouraged to be the opposite of meek. From an early age, my parents encouraged me to be assertive, to speak out and share my beliefs, and to never be submissive. In middle class America, everyone knows what it takes to be successful, to be happy, and to be blessed. And meek… is just not going to cut it.
That’s what makes the Sermon on the Mount, and the Beatitudes in particular, so radical and counter-cultural. Jesus takes conventional wisdom and turns it on its head. The world says that the rich are blessed? I say it’s the poor. The world says that the ones who have everything are blessed? I say it’s the ones who are mourning. The world says that the person with the loudest and most aggressive voice gets their way? I say, blessed are the meek. Jesus continues throughout the sermon to reveal the upside down nature of the Kingdom of God. He is inviting the disciples to a very different worldview, seen through the eyes of the creator instead of the created.
It’s still pretty unlikely that the adjective meek will be the first descriptor of my personality. However, this beatitude is a beautiful reminder never to place too much authority or credence into the things that the world values so deeply. They are rarely the things that matter most to God.
