Beatitudes, part 3: Blessed are the Meek

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5, ESV)

If you haven’t noticed by now, when Jesus teaches the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, He unveils them in such a way that they build upon one another.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. That applies to any believer in God, where at the point of salvation, they realize they are so spiritually bankrupt that they could never save themselves. Thus, they are in need of Jesus to save them and pay that debt.

Blessed are those who mourn. In other words, blessed are those who see their sin and realize how that sin has grieved God, and grieve over it themselves. They deeply understand just how badly their sin has separated them from the presence of God and find themselves in sorrow over how they’ve wronged God, and yet they find comfort from the Lord in that those sins are forgiven.

And blessed are the meek? 

All too commonly, we mistake meekness for weakness. Why? Because this world and our culture doesn’t value being gentle or submissive. They see it as a character trait that can be taken advantage of, chewed up, and spit out. So let’s take our world-glasses off and think spiritually. Why would Jesus value meekness and bless it?

Well, let’s look at it from the perspective that each Beatitude builds off of the ones before. If we’ve been comforted from mourning our sins and have realized the sweet inheritance we’ve gained just by knowing Christ, knowing we are in no way deserving or worthy of that inheritance, then we might feel vastly humbled by that salvation. After all, it takes a great deal of humility to admit that we cannot save ourselves and that we need a Savior to come and help us or be without hope forever.

So from that place of meekness, having realized that we have been given gifts and a relationship that we in no way can justify or merit ourselves, we submit our lives in honor of that Savior. And that’s not a weakness, that is yielding ourselves to the strength of a God that is much more capable and strong. 

Before we can become confident in Christ, standing on the Rock of Ages, we must be brought low in the realization of our sin. We must be made to see the error of our own ways and living within our own power. When we realize we all fall short of the glory of God, we are in just the right posture to submit ourselves to God and His will. The fact is, we can’t live a life that honors Christ without living in submission to Him. To do so would be to live outside of God’s design and intention for intimacy with Him. It would also be turning around and puffing ourselves back up with the false pride we puffed ourselves up with before we encountered Jesus.

To be meek is to rely on God to be our strength. After all, doesn’t Proverbs say, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It would be impossible to trust God to the point of leaning on Him and not in our own understanding. Why? Because God’s way often leads us outside of our comfort zone and circumvents the way that we would choose to accomplish something. If He didn’t, we would have no reason to lean on Him, trust Him, or submit ourselves to Him. We wouldn’t have to live by faith and put our confidence in Him.

Do children not put their faith in their father? Do they not trust that he won’t lead them into destruction? Do they not trust that his intention isn’t to harm them, and so they follow him whole-heartedly? The answer is they do. And just the way children trust a good father, we should trust our Heavenly one. 

The reason the meek are blessed is because they trust God enough to submit to Him and they are not disappointed. There is no situation where you could give God your heart and come up short. There is no way you could lean on Him and regret it. Because God is a Father that will never let you down. He is a Father that cares for those that are His sons and daughters. 

Once we’re grafted in as children of God and made sons and daughters, we are heirs to His kingdom, which is how we would inherit the earth. But really think about it: the real blessing is not that the meek inherit the earth. As cool as that is, it’s not eternal. This world will pass away. But what is eternal, is that the meek inherit the earth because they are proven as His children. They share His heart. They have seen their sin and mourned it. They have acknowledged their imperfect, impure life and they’ve turned for it– all in the name of wanting to be in His presence, finally closing the gap between us and Him. 

Becoming meek is a blessing because it is one of the first steps we take in becoming more like Jesus, the ultimate goal overall. We see that it is not enough to simply acknowledge our sin, and that causes us to yield to God and His will for His children.