The Pilgrim’s Path Part-3, Mathew 5:1-12
The Meek
Introduction
The famed American inventor, statesmen, and founding father, Benjamin Franklin once said, “The sentence which has most influenced my life is, ‘Some persons grumble because God placed thorns among roses. Why not thank God because He placed roses among thorns?’ I first read it when but a mere lad. Since that day it has occupied a front room in my life and has given it an optimistic trend.”
To be meek is to have a disposition to see the roses among the thorns, rather than to complain about the thorns among the roses. Which do you see? Our answer will help us to judge whether we possess that meekness of which our Savior spoke. That is chiefly because, contrary to the common modern conception, meekness has precious little to do with weakness and everything to do with “yielded-ness.” The person who is meek is the person who, when looking around their lives, sees not the thorns among the roses but is in the constant pursuit of seeing the roses of God’s grace and tender mercies in our lives. In this life there will always be thorns.
This world is filled with sorrow, heartache, and disappointment that man brings upon himself and his fellow man. The perfect beauty of the message of Christ is that in spite of the thorns God is still in control of our lives. If we yield our lives to His control, if we trade genuine humility, penitence, and meekness for pride, our eyes will open to His perfect love in our lives.
Transition
The Webster’s Dictionary of 1828 defines the work meek this way: Mild of temper; soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated; yielding; given to forbearance under injuries. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men. Numbers 12.
Appropriately, humble, in an evangelical sense; submissive to the divine will; not proud, self-sufficient or refractory; not peevish and apt to complain of divine dispensations. Christ says, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls.” Matthew 11. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5.” This morning, we will explore what it means to be meek in the biblical sense of the word.
Meekness, as we will see, is not the path of the week or the small, though it may sometimes take this form, meekness is primarily about yielding ones own preferences to the providence of God in our lives.
Exposition
It occurs to me that we are living in an age – in a church culture – in which most Christian churches fall basically into two categories. On the one end of this spectrum there are those churches that, in an effort to be relevant to the culture, have made so much peace with the trends and siftings of society that they have shaped themselves into its image.
On this end of the spectrum there is precious little difference between the gospel that is preached and the motivation speech which is pumped out of auditoriums during sales rallies, cooperate training seminars, or get rich quick conferences.
For the folks on this end of the spectrum, the Gospel has become little more than a vehicle of good will and though well intentioned, this is, I am afraid, little more than a parody of the true Gospel message of repentance unto salvation which leads us into a lifestyle of discipleship; becoming like Christ.
Christianity is about oh so much more than easy believism and feeling better about us, though to be sure there is a peace in knowing Christ and in being known by God. There is great joy that comes through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer but the true and lasting joy of the believer is vastly different from what is being pumped out of so many churches today.
Peace comes from finding peace with God through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus! Hope comes from finding the assurance of Christ residing in ones very being! Happiness, lasting and complete happiness, comes from discovering the truth that no matter what we may find in this life, we are found in Christ!
To be sure, the Gospel message of repentance and salvation according to the grace of God and the gift of faith is a positive message, but it is not because at its heart it is about us, it because at its heart it is about the glorification of God in us and that, my dear friends, has the ability to change our heart.
The uplifting thing about the Christian message is that when Christ was lifted up on Calvary a means for the forgiveness of sins was secured. The encouraging thing about the Christian message is that in Christ we have been granted access to an encouragement far greater than that offered by any motivational speaker; our hearts are encouraged by the very presence of Christ within us.
The positivity of the Christian message is namely that our redeemer lives and because He lives you and I live in Him now and for all eternity.
On the other end of the spectrum many believers are so adamant about keeping the Gospel message pure that they see themselves as somehow at war with the world. These folks, while preaching the message of salvation by grace according to faith, have made the Kingdom of God in the image of the kingdoms of the world.
Both of these perspectives, while perhaps equally well intentioned, have missed the mark of espousing the pure gospel message as it is found plainly in the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. All of the words of the beatitudes flow together. Each of the principals leads to the next principal in an orderly fashion.
The general theme in the beatitudes is the way of the spiritual pilgrim sojourning through this life. Humility places us in the position to exalt God in our lives. Penitence is the way of mourning over one’s sins as we see God for who is in our lives; blessed redeemer; mighty savior; Sovereign King.
Now, as we come to the principal of meekness we find that Jesus is not telling us to be weak but rather but to be strong in Him. Jesus is not saying that we ought to timid and fearful. In II Timothy 1:7 the Bible says, “For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (NET)
Meekness has nothing to do with being small and insignificant; it is has everything to do with being yielded to His power, His will, His control in our lives, and to His strength. When we are yielded to His power then we are able to stand strong in the power of His might. When we are yielded only to our own preferences and control in our lives, then we are truly weak.
In these first three beatitudes, these steps along the pilgrim’s path, we see that each of them in their own way is pointing away from self and unto God even as they are pointing away from pride and unto humility, penitence, and meekness.
Helen Keller wrote, “If we trust, if we relinquish our will and yield to the Divine will, then we find that we are afloat on a buoyant sea of peace and under us are the everlasting arms.” To be yielded to the will of God means that we seek after His glory rather than our own glory.
It means that rather than resting in our strength in a situation we will reside in His strength. Ultimately, being yielded to the will of God means that we will choose to operate within whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, in a way that reflects the glory of the Kingdom of God. It means that we will seek to look like Christ inasmuch as we are enabled to do so by God empowering us.
Galatians 5:22-26 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” (KJV)
It is incredibly difficult, is it not, for us to understand what it means when Jesus says that the meek will inherit the earth? I read the account of one night during an evangelistic meeting when a paralytic was wheeled down the aisle and placed near the platform. In the opening part of the service, the song leader caught sight of him and asked, “What is your favorite hymn?” He immediately answered, “Count Your Blessings!” There was no wail of complaint from the handicapped man, just a vivid sense of the goodness of God. Our submissiveness, our yeildedness – be it to God or to ourselves – spells for us the level of satisfaction for our lot on earth. This is the lesson of this Beatitude, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” This paralytic man is surely heir to a greater part of earth than many a millionaire. Meekness, in this sense, is a power – the power to be truly satisfied with what God gives, the power not to merely endure it but to enjoy it to the fullest and to use it for His purpose.
Blessed are the meek for in the trials of this life they understand that it not their will that is to be done but God’s and that it is not their glory which is to be sought, but God’s glory alone which is to be sought after! What greater joy can any man or woman have than that of being a humble vessel of God’s grace? What greater treasure may be sought in the entire world than that of the meek, who shall inherit not merely a crown of gold or a cup of silver, but the earth?
Conclusion
So you say, how? How do I become a person more completely yielded to the will of God in my life? The answer is that we must learn to trust Christ and to follow His example. I understand that this may seem easier said than done at times, even unachievable and complicated when it is applied to the mêlée of difficult circumstances of our lives but if we are to grow in ability to yield ourselves to God’s plan, God’s will, and God’s purpose in our lives then we absolutely, must learn to trust in Christ and follow His example of meekness.
He who said at the time of His crucifixion that He could have called upon legions of angels to rescue Him, He who had all of the power of God at His disposal, He who yet exercised great meekness and submission to the will of the Father is our chief example even as He is the foundation of our faith.
In the garden on the eve if the crucifixion Jesus prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42 KJV) No matter what life brings our way our ultimate joy is found in yielding ourselves to God’s perfect will in our lives.
Even when things are hard and we do not understand the reason for the suffering, the temptation, or the heartache that we face; it is in yielding our will in favor of His that the peace of God is to be found and the strength of God that we need for the trials of this life is made available.
Not my will but His. Not my glory but His. Not my stubborn pride but His perfect will through humble obedience and meek devotion to His voice in my life.
This way of thinking does not come naturally to us but we who have been made alive in Christ have not been made alive in order that we might continue to walk according to the flesh, that is, we ought to be ever increasing in faith. As John the Baptist said in reference to Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30 KJV) Or as the New Living Translation says it, “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”
This is true in our lives as well. Every Christian wants more of God in their lives and this is the way to achieving that goal. In a very real sense, to achieve the goal of knowing God we must abandon that goal altogether inasmuch as it is about us reaching out for Him; instead yielding ourselves fully to Him.
In reaching up we can never reach high enough, but in letting go in a spirit of meekness we place ourselves in a position for God to reach down into our lives. We will experience God’s abundant provision in our lives directly in proportion to the extent that we are yielded to His will in our lives.
Today, I invite and encourage you to increasingly embrace a spirit of meekness so that in letting go of our strength we might be embraced by His.
Amen.
