Beatitudes 1 - Blessed are the Meek

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

In these times of such wanton aggression, we find these words of Jesus increasingly difficult. Had He said Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, we might have found it easier to grasp. And maybe we never shall understand this most challenging beatitude unless we realise that words change their meaning during the progress of time.
I remember when I was a boy the hymn we often sang “gentle Jesus” never appealed to me because I thought it was sloppy. But the hymn was framed in days when gentle meant  - high born - “meek” - one who knew the secret of self mastery, and ‘Mild’ was a princely virtue.
A prominent radio preacher I remember took this text some months ago and spent most of his time in a vigorous attack on “meekness” - evidently thought the word stood for something nasty, mean, and despicable – That isn’t the meaning of the word Jesus used here otherwise I can find no merit in His claim to be “Meek and lowly of heart”
It is I suppose to His character that we must turn for a definition of the word and docility and insipidity cannot be ascribed to Jesus, but what we can say of Him is that He had learnt that “Humble creaturely attitude towards God” He knew what the nature of God was and surrendered His life to Him and the result of that self discipline was meekness.
You remember that it was said of Moses the Old Testament pattern of meekness that “Now Moses was very meek above all men which were on the face of the earth” and when I hear men talk of meekness as a spineless, sparkless quality I think of Moses and he shatters the illusion. In this early manhood meets – Egyptian slave-driver – too much for him – soon sand crimson with Egyptian blood – Does it look as though Moses had a placid nature? What happened?
Moses learnt to control and curb his powerful passions and harness them to lofty service. And turning again to the N.T. model of meekness I find that Jesus, could bare personal insults, wounds and even death, and only turn the other cheek, but when these wrongs were done against the helpless and weak, or men trifled with holy things his indignation was roused – meekness is not passive none-resistance, not just backing down to evil.
The fact is that Moses learned the nature of God earlier that many of his day, and Jesus who knew the nature of God controlled the actions of His life to show us that nature.
It isn’t easy to grasp. The disciples found the ways of Jesus very difficult – Samaritan village – Peter and cross -
It was hard for men to seek that God did not sit on a throne of Might – Seer of Revelation saw not Lion but Lamb slain.
I think we make many miscalculations because we do not realise that crucified love and not might is on the throne of the universe.
Most men believe God is on the throne of the world but they do not realise the kind of ruler He is. Isn’t it because men have not surrendered to the meekness of God’s nature that they still persist to believe in aggression. To many the way to possession is the way of aggression. To push seems the common sense way to succeed – the strong get the spoils. But Jesus shows the most perfect expression of meekness is a life that can be strong enough to master itself and say, however contradictory the immediate evidence, “Thy will be done” “He doeth all things well”
“Blessed are the meek” I can understand that in the light of Christ’s character – He is a happy many who has learnt that relationship with GOD, but that “They shall inherit the earth” is not so easy.

It seems today that pushful men with a certain thickness of skin, Masterful, Ruthless, inherit the earth – Mussolini would say not meekness but guns and gas bombs etc conquered Abyssinia – If Hitler has taken peace treaty in meekness, what then? Or can it be said even that the life of Jesus was a successful career, It would seem that His own life was a disapproval to the theory of victorious meekness.
It seems true enough that meek are not always successful, but after all that is not quite what Jesus promised. Success is not a word to be found in our [Christian] Xian vocabulary. What we often forget is that what we hunger for in life is not just possession but the satisfaction which possession gives. Jesus could have conquered the world by military force – but that would have been the Devils way – Can any conquered possess the vanquished? The world might have thought Christ had failed, but He has proved that they were wrong. History reverses the verdict of His judges. Everyone now admits he was right and they were wrong. And in this sense not only in spite of His failures, but through them, He inherits the earth – I will draw all men -

So we begin to perceive (if dimly that Gentleness not violence is the true law of life and progress means the substitution of the one for the other – this is civilization – and in spite of failures and disappointment I cannot falter in the faith that nothing can stop this spirit winning its victory in the earth.

In these words lie my hope – they are prophetic of the story of human civilization.

Preached on the evening of 18th August 1940 at Sydney Street Methodist Church, Burton-on-Trent.