A Meek Inheritance
Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
How do we get ahead in the world? I think for many of us we assume that we need to embrace a “dog-eat-dog” mentality. This is especially prevalent among men, but even more so—I would argue—amongst the young men of our generation. Many young men feel listless, purposeless, and aimless. In response to this they have turned their attention to social media influencers who talk about masculinity. Unfortunately, the masculinity being espoused there is a shallow counterfeit which focuses on things like working out, “grinding” at your job, making a name for yourself, and boasting in one’s achievements. Andrew Tate, a professional kickboxer, and social media influencer who produces content that pushes this version of masculinity has over 11.6 billion views on TikTok. I would never recommend you watch his videos, but even a cursory look shows that his vision of how one gets ahead in the world is to go out there and take it. To declare war on the world, and on everyone, until the universe is conquered by you.
However, this trend amongst young men it is not relegated to them alone. I think all of us have fallen into the trap of believing that the way we get ahead is by taking hold of the world and making it submit to our will. How do we get ahead in our job? We impress the boss, throw others under the bus, compete, and we win. How do we stay in the top of our class at university? We study hard, we try to outpace our peers, and we win. How do we achieve our goals? We work tirelessly, we break off any relationships that impede our success, we network and make connections with the right people, and we win. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, writing 60 years ago, articulated this idea very well: “The world thinks in terms of strength and power, of ability, self-assurance and aggressiveness. That is the world’s idea of conquest and possession. The more you assert yourself and express yourself, the more you organize and manifest your powers and ability, the more likely you are to succeed and get on.”[1] Simply put, we live in a culture that attributes success to work and self-actualization to strength. Yet is this the correct approach?
Looking at our beatitude today we realize fairly quickly that no, this is not the right approach. In fact, it’s not just the wrong approach, it’s the exact opposite of how Jesus describes the Christian. In our beatitude today Jesus describes the Christian using the word “meek”. The one who is truly blessed is the one who is meek. However, if we are to turn away from our worldly ways and toward the meekness that Jesus commends, we must understand what he means. Let’s look at this word “meek” and see what Jesus means here.
1) To Be Meek Is to Be Selfless
Sometimes bible translators choose to use wording that is historically significant even if it is not in common usage today. For example, we don’t very often go around calling people “meek”, yet the ESV retains this language. If we were to translate this verse into the language of the twenty-first century, we might choose to use the word “humble”. This makes even more sense given that the same word is used to describe Moses in Numbers 12:3, “Now moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” (NIV) Therefore, the quality that Jesus is describing here is humility. “Blessed are the humble” that is what Jesus is saying.
But what does it look like to be humble? Tim Keller, in his short but powerful book The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, writes “The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.”[2] The world tells us to think of ourselves a lot. To think about what you need to do to get ahead. False humility tells us to think less of ourselves. To debase ourselves in the eyes of others by pretending we are not that good when in our hearts we think we are. Real humility though looks like not caring so much about yourself. In practice it looks like the kind of life that Moses and Jesus lived. Both Moses and Jesus put the needs of others before their own needs. Moses was constantly interceding on behalf of the Israelites. Jesus cared for people during his earthly life and gave himself for people in his death and resurrection. That’s the kind of humility that is being talked about in our beatitude. Blessed is the one who thinks of themself less.
Let’s apply this to our daily lives. How might we implement this on a day-to-day basis. Maybe in our workplaces we focus less on promotions and more on loving our coworkers. Maybe we need to focus less on meeting our personal goals and more on helping our neighbor. Maybe instead of participating in a university culture that competes for the best scores and the best grades we give of our time to help tutor others even if it means that our own grades might dip a bit. The idea here is putting aside our own desires for the sake of loving others. The idea here is thinking of yourself less.
2) To Be Meek Is Not to Be a Doormat
A correction is in order here. Many people think that to put the needs of others before your own is to allow people to walk all over you. To say this another way, for many to be meek looks like being weak. However, this simply cannot be what meekness means. Moses and Jesus were both meek and neither of them could ever be called weak. They may not be strong in the eyes of the world, but they cannot be called weak.
Take Jesus as an example. Can we really say Jesus was weak when he willingly went to the cross and died? Weak men run from death; Jesus marched towards it. Weakness looks like cowardice; meekness looks like courage. To be meek, therefore, is not synonymous with being a doormat. I like the way Darrel Johnson puts this, “Does meek mean weak—no brain, no brawn, no backbone? No spirit, no energy, no drive? No way! It’s through the meek that the world gets turned right-side up!”[3] Meekness is not to let others take advantage of you without restriction. It is not to never talk back. It is not to never have conviction. It is to courageously walk the path that the Lord has put before us and to accept whatever may happen to us along that path.
3) To Be Meek Is to Trust in God
The above leads into this last quality of the meek; trust in God. If meekness is courageous humility, then we must ask how is this possible? The answer to that is rather simple. The meek have such a trust in God that they rest in his all-powerful sovereignty.
This is especially true of us now that Jesus has died, been raised, and sent his Spirit to empower us. We know the love of God in Christ. We know that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. We know that we don’t need to earn God’s love. Thanks to the work of Christ we can trust that God loves us unconditionally and that “all things work together for good” in our lives. (Rom. 8:28) It is because we know these things to be true that we can be meek.
We need to recognize that our failure to be meek stems from a lack of trust in God. The reason we jockey for positions in our jobs is because we don’t trust God’s plan for our vocation. The reason we compete with our peers for the top grades is because we don’t trust God to lead us where he will. The reason we strive to achieve personal ambitions and are even willing to hurt others in the process is because we don’t trust God with the outworking of our daily lives. Lack of trust in God lies behind our inability to be meek. The meek person is the person who trusts God so much, who believes his words to be so true, that he will follow him no matter where that leads.
Conclusion
Who is the meek person? The meek person is the one who is humble, who is courageous, and who has a deep trust in God. That is the meek person. It is to this person that Jesus says, “they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5) What does Jesus mean by this? He is not saying that by being meek we will get wealthy, or respected, or gain status in the world. What he is saying is that one day we will receive a kingdom. We know this because a day is coming when Jesus will judge the living and the dead. On that day he will say to his meek ones “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 25:34) The Christian—which is the person all of the beatitudes are describing—will one day inherit a kingdom. They will one day enjoy a new heaven and a new earth with their Lord and Savior. In this way the meek will inherit the earth.