January 20, 2014

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

We started looking at the Sermon on the Mount at my church this past Sunday and this is one of those “Beatitudes” that Jesus throws out as he teaches. The word “meek” has never had a good connotation in my world. I have always associated it with weak and cowardly. William Barkley in his Daily Bible Study series on Matthew says that in Jesus’ world it indicated something different. One of the ways it was used was to describe an animal that was responsive to its master, like a horse who responds to the tug of its rider on the bit or the pressure of knees against its flanks. The idea is not one of weakness but of being controlled by one who is guiding the way. Jesus is saying that those who are responsive to God, who are sensitive and obedient to God’s nudges rather than their own desires and drives, are the ones who get to the end of the journey and find a home in their promised land (“earth” might better be translated “land” as the folks in the first century didn’t use the word for a planet circling the sun the way we do). Jesus draws us back yet again to our inner world and asks us to confront what motivates and moves us. Is it the need to achieve or be secure or get what we want? Can we be open to God’s guidance and believe he will take us where we need to go, to our proper inheritance? How might you be meek this week?