Blessed are the meek

Matthew 5:1-5

            There was a city bus driver who was given a new itinerary.  This fellow was on the scrawny side, not exactly your body builder type.  He started on his way and everything was fine until a big hulk of a guy got on.  Six feet eight, built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground.  He glared at the driver and said, “Big John doesn’t pay!”  and sat down. 

            The scrawny driver didn’t argue with Big John, but he wasn’t happy about it, either.  The next day, the scene repeated itself.  Bit John got on again, stated emphatically that he didn’t pay, and sat down.  And on it went, day after day. 

            The driver was irked, but he didn’t have a whole lot of self confidence, so he started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him.  Finally, he decided to do something about it.  He signed up for body building courses:  karate, judo, all kinds of self-defense classes.  By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong and was feeling confident.  So, on the next Monday, when Big John got on the bus and said, “Big John doesn’t pay!”  the driver stood up, glared back at the passenger and screamed, “And why not?” 

            With a surprised look on his face, Big John said, “Big John has a bus pass.” 

            Sometimes life throws us a bit of a curve, doesn’t it?  

            The third Beatitude is one of those curve balls. 

            When the experiences of life threaten us like so many “Big Johns,” we mount our defenses, sharpen our weapons, and get ready for a fight.  Then seemingly out of nowhere, the third Beatitude hits us in the face.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  Life just hasn’t prepared us for this one. 

            Of course, when we signed up to follow Jesus, he said things would be different.   Here, as in other places, Jesus proves his point by turning our expectations inside out.

            In our world, what do the meek inherit?  A black eye?  The back seat of the bus?  Leftovers at the school cafeteria?  Are any of you thinking that the meek will inherit a Super Bowl ring?  No, the meek are barely a blip on the screen; hardly noticeable to the movers and shakers.   Just get out of my way. 

What does it mean to be meek?  How did you answer the quiz?  Weak?  Insipid?  Ineffectual?  Unassertive?  Shy and withdrawn?   Powerless?  All of those are words that fit the popular understanding of the English word meek. 

            How many of you would like to be labeled as meek?  Yet, we have to deal with the fact that Jesus listed meekness among the character qualities he wants his disciples to build into their lives.     

             What we need to understand is that, like Big John, there’s more to meekness than meets the eye.  And that’s what I’m here to tell you about today. 

What I’m going to do is take you behind the English word meek to the Greek word praus, which has much more depth and meaning.   And is much more positive than the word meek.  It’s unfortunate, but true that when we translate the New Testament from Greek to English, there isn’t always an identical word in English to match the Greek, so the scholars do the best they can.  Then, again, the English language is always changing.  And the word meek has become more and more insipid as time has gone on. 

Praus is anything but insipid. 

Someone who has the character quality that the Greeks called praus, is someone who:

1.  Has taken charge of her life.  She understands that there are choices to be made, and makes those choices with integrity.   Self-control might be another way to describe this quality. 

There was a young woman who was seeing a psychologist.  Her life was a wreck:  her nerves were shot from too many all-night parties and discos.   Too many drugs and wild sex.  One day her therapist asked her, “Why don’t you stop?”  Her startled reply was, “You mean I really don’t have to do what I want to do?”  (story file, 17.3.5) 

It’s amazing, isn’t it?  We don’t always have to do what we want to do.  We can choose to delay gratification.  You want to smack somebody in the face?  Shove them around?  You can make another choice. 

2.  This character quality is also about managing your anger.  Aristotle said that praus  is halfway between two extremes:  on the one end is someone who is too angry and on the other is someone who is not angry enough.   Praus is in the middle.   Last week we talked about how important it is to be in touch with your feelings.   Once you get in touch with your feelings, you need to decide how to handle them. If you are praus, you can manage your anger.  You’re assertive enough to express anger appropriately, but you don’t fly into a wild rage.  Your anger is managed. 

Those who are praus, Jesus said, will inherit the earth.  You don’t have to fight for your turf.  You can have a nonviolent approach to life and still get what you need.  Here’s a quote from Gandhi, describing how people responded to his way of life:  “First they ignore you.  Then they laugh at you.  Then they fight you.  Then you win.”  (story file, 17.3.4)

3.  The third dimension of this word praus, is humility.   And here, I don’t mean putting yourself down.   Someone who is humble knows who she is.  She has done a serious inner assessment of his character, abilities and behavior.   The one who is humble knows that he needs forgiveness (nobody’s perfect) and also knows he needs to learn (nobody knows everything).  

A teenager knelt in the confessional and said, “Bless me father, for I have sinned.” 

“What is it, my child?”  the priest asked.

“Father, I have committed the sin of vanity.  Twice a day I gaze at myself in the mirror and tell myself how beautiful I am.”

The priest took a good look at the girl, and said, “My dear, I have good news.  That isn’t a sin—it’s just a mistake.”  (parables, 20.11.1)

The humble have no need of being defensive or prideful.  They are who they are and that’s ok.  

This, then, is what it truly means to be meek:  to take charge of your own life and decisions; to manage your emotional life; to have an honest assessment of yourself. 

And the meek are among those whom Jesus calls blessed—happy—content. 

Again, we need to realize that Jesus leads us by paths different from what the world teaches.  The world tells us that we will get happy by accumulating things; or by finding instant gratification for our desires.  We get happy by being in control.   That’s what that silly skit was about.  Even in churches, there is often this sense that if I can just get in control of what’s going on here, everything will be fine.   One thing leads to another as people become more and more competitive for power, and work to get “one-up” from the others.    The fantasy is, that once we get there, we’ll be happy.  

A couple of weeks ago I quoted Neil Warren as saying that the secret to finding true contentment lies in discovering who in the world you are, and then having the courage to be that person.  Another word for that is authenticity.  Integrity.  Being who you are, and finding strength in that. 

If all you want out of life is happiness, that’s easy.   You can get a happiness fix at the corner bar, or on the ski slopes or at the movies.   It won’t last, but you can keep stuffing yourself full of it at every opportunity.  It’s not hard to do.  But it takes courage and strength to be authentic.  And it takes meekness. 

What it all comes down to is a sort of surrender.   And here’s where I want to tie back to our original thoughts about what it means to be meek.  There is a tendency to think of meekness as powerlessness, and there’s something to that idea.   But it’s not a hopeless powerlessness, it’s a powerlessness that leads to strength.  It’s kind of like what happens when someone joins a twelve-step group and acknowledges that they are powerless over their addiction.  

We are powerless to find contentment on our own.   But when we surrender our need to control, to God, then God builds into our hearts a kind of quiet confidence that enables us to discover who we are and then to have the courage to be that person.  We can make good decisions, manage our anger, face both our failures and our successes.  Find our place in life.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

There was a little boy who loved to listen to music, but he was bitterly disappointed because he did not have the talent to either play music or sing it.  But a kindly old man encouraged him with these words:  “There are many ways of making music.  What matters is the song in your heart.”  That little boy, Antonio Stradivarius, took the man at his word. . .and became the world’s greatest violin maker.  (story file, 16.11.6)

What will it mean for you to make this kind of surrender?  To lay aside your need to battle, to be right, to be better, or stronger than someone else?  What will it mean for you to face clearly who you are—the bad and the good?  Where will it lead you?