A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 7

Chapter 7 – The Meek

 

“Meekness is teachability.” (42) I had never thought of it this way. Whenever I hear the word meek, I connect it with weak and quiet. In today’s society, where the weak are trampled and the strong are victorious, it’s hard to comprehend the beatitude, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matt 5:5) If one equates meekness to weakness, then how could such a person possibly inherit the earth?

 

However, if we consider Elisabeth Elliot’s words “meekness is teachability”, well now that’s a whole different ball game! If by declaring that the meek will inherit the earth, Jesus is talking about people who are willing to listen and learn from each other, and work together for the betterment of the community, well then of course the meek will inherit the earth!

 

Elliot goes on to say that meekness is “the readiness to be shown, which includes the readiness to lay down my fixed notions, my objections and my ‘what ifs’ or ‘but what abouts’, my certainties about the rightness of what I have always done or thought or said.” (42) Considering this statement, perhaps meekness is the willingness to accept new ways of thinking, or new ways of doing things. Which, if you think about it, makes meek equal to strength. Being open to change is not easy, as I’m sure we can all attest to. Having the strength, the courage, and the ability to consider that your way of thinking and your way of doing things isn’t necessarily the right way or the only way is an important life skill. If you insist on resisting change, then you will be left behind.

 

Admitting that you might be wrong, or that there is more than one way to do things, or that change is necessary to keep society moving is not weakness…it’s meekness. The very characteristic that Jesus calls us to exhibit.