Meek and Weak
Notes
Transcript
Clark Kent
Clark Kent
Clark Kent. Meek daily planet reporter.
Superman. Champion of the helpless and oppressed.
And, I’m sorry, spoilers… the same guy.
You see, Clark is the disguise. An impenetrable disguise. It isn’t just the glasses and the hair, though, it’s the only attitude.
There’s no way Clark could be Superman… because he’s so meek. Mild-mannered. Quiet and unassuming.
Superman is the opposite in every way. Powerful, bold, flashy, colorful, heroic even.
Carpe Diem
Carpe Diem
This is what our culture celebrates. Boldness. Aggressiveness. Assertiveness. Force. Power.
Seize the Day! We will never surrender, no… never!
We will stand! We will win! We will crush our enemy and win the victory!
Today is the day, don’t sit there, all quiet and listening. Let’s do it!
Find your own dream, your own passion, pursue it with everything you’ve got. Not a wallflower, a WARRIOR!
Get it! Do it!
Don’t let your dreams be dreams!
Don’t you EVER give up anything. Anywhere. At any time.
They may take our lives, but they’ll NEVER take our FREEDOM!
Summary
Summary
There is Jesus on the mount, and bringing the gospel of the Kingdom. Good news!
Congratulations to the spiritually broken and bankrupt. The Kingdom is here and newly available to you.
Congratulations to those in mourning: there is comfort in the Kingdom of God the world can never offer. Restoration and resurrection.
Then he turns to a group and says:
Blessed are the Clark Kents.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Meekness and Weakness
Meekness and Weakness
Who are these people? The meek?
The word usually means mild, gentle or soft.
The opposite of loud, aggressive, assertive… the opposite of POWER as we usually think of it.
And because loudness, aggressiveness, assertiveness are the usual keys to success in this world… the meek are looked down upon. Despised. Lowly.
That is true today.
That was true in Jesus’ time. The Romans, like the Greeks before them, idolized the great heroes who seized their fate, fought their destiny, even fought the gods. Boldness and arrogance, assertiveness, aggression.
And that works! It works even in religious contexts. It works in corporate America, it works in corporate Christianity. Aggression and assertiveness can be taken for boldness and confidence.
So what Jesus says is not the normal course of things. The meek get just what they ask for. Just what they demand. Nothing.
But… Jesus says:
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Not as a reward for being meek. Because the Kingdom of God is open to the meek. Power, aggression, assertiveness… those have nothing to do with standing in the Kingdom.
Despite their meekness, because the King has made the Kingdom available to them… and the earth is his… the citizens of the Kingdom will rule heaven and earth with Him forever.
But… there is more to this meekness
It’s a fruit of the Spirit
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Gentleness = meekness. Same word.
James, Titus, and others commend us, command us to be meek.
Moses was said to be meek.
Numbers 12:3
Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
I love this because, at least by tradition, who wrote Numbers? He’s the humblest, just ask him.
You know Superman is based on Moses?
More than that, Jesus calls himself meek:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
That word “gentle?” Same word. “Meek.” Meek and lowly.
Even Jesus equates meek with lowliness… but can Jesus be weak?
Power under control?
Power under control?
If you had a chance to listen to Pastor Rod’s sermon, or maybe you’ve heard this elsewhere before, the word “meek” also is connected to “making animals meek.” Or “gentling” them. Taming the animal.
And so we can have this picture of a POWERFUL stallion, a bronco, tamed by discipline, by a careful and wise hand, put under a bridle, saddled...
All that power, now in control.
And so we have a much friendlier definition of meekness: Strength under control.
Strength under control.
Let me tell you what sin in me does here. I hear this, and here’s where my wrong head goes.
I like this vision of meekness better because it implies that I am CRAZY STRONG… but I’m holding back. Jesus, hold me back! I’d wreck this guy.. but Jesus is holding me back.
I’m a POWERFUL STALLION, you better watch out. You’re lucky Jesus is just barely holding me back!
Where is my focus? It’s on the strength part. Not on the “under control” part.
What about a weak horse, a barely surviving horse… but well trained. Still meek, still gentled, all of that weakness under control.
What about a goat? Goats are weird.
Can you tame a goat? You absolutely can. All of that weirdness… under control.
The point, the focus, the purpose of all that meekness is not that we are so strong… it is that we are under control.
The best example is one I hate, my pride rebels in me. It’s my dog Vin. Sit.... Stay… Heel…
Every morning and evening before I feed her, I have her sit somewhere random. Sit… Stay… And she will sit, not always patiently. Sometimes shifting so she can see me in the other room. Eager, hungry for what’s coming… but waiting.
It isn’t flattering. But that’s what it means when we call Jesus “Lord.” Master. It means we submit our will to his will, our desires to his desires, our strength and our weakness under His control.
Meekness is absolute submission to God.
Everything we are, for His will. For His glory.
Waiting on the Lord
Waiting on the Lord
And the words may well be familiar to some in the crowd.
Hear the words of David, 1000 years earlier:
Count how many times David, the powerful warrior, the poet King, the most successful military leader Israel ever had...
He doesn’t take the reigns into his own hands, but again and again, gives them over to God. Hear this:
1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
Trust in Him… Delight yourself in Him, he will give...
Trust in him, he will act...
He will bring forth...
Be still and wait patiently.
There is passiveness there, hear that? This is meekness.
Refrain from anger (more of that coming in the Sermon on the Mount).
Those who wait for the Lord… shall what? Inherit the land.
The land here is the land of Israel, but it’s quite clear that Jesus is picking up on this and enlarging the vision. The whole earth, Israel was just a taste, heaven and earth are the new inheritance of the Kingdom.
Those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.
And then it goes on:
The meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Shalom.
Hear the parallel there?
The meek shall inherit the land. Those who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the land.
Meekness - Waiting on the Lord
Meekness - Waiting on the Lord
Everything we are submitted and surrendered.
Yes, your strength.
Yes, your weirdness.
Yes, your weakness.
Yes, all of it!
Meekness is absolute submission to God.
Everything we are, for His will. For His glory.
The victory is His, the Kingdom is His… and your greatest victory is always going to be found in line with His will, in submission to His purpose. That’s what we were created for. That is the right-side up order of the Universe.
It isn’t your power barely controlled by Him… it is His power in you, through you, using you exactly as He created you to be…
Is it weakness?
It’s going to look like weakness most of the time to the world.
Which means it’s going to feel like weakness most of the time to your sinful self. To the part of you that is shaped by the world.
They called it weakness in Jesus. When he didn’t rise up and lead a revolution. When he came in humility. When he “made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant.” When he refused to give a sign. When he rode in on a donkey.
When he willingly submitted to arrest, torture, and crucifixion unto death.
Yeah… it’s going to look like weakness.
But it is all of Jesus submitted at every moment to the power and will of the Father. Which meant that the Father could accomplish absolutely everything through Him.
And Jesus said, you will do greater things than these miracles and signs. But never through your own strength… always through total submission to God.
Your strengths, your talents, given to you by God… submitted to God and His will. He does amazing things through your strengths!
Your weirdness. Your weaknesses submitted to Him and His will. He does amazing things through your weaknesses!
It isn’t a prerequisite for Kingdom Living. If the King says you are in, you are in the Kingdom. Even the meek are invited. If you can confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, you will live.
… and then He is going to teach you what Lordship really looks like. The Holy Spirit in you, reshaping you, bringing out fruit of all the kinds: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness… meekness. He’ll teach it to you.
It’s a beautiful alchemy. Transforming every piece of us into victory. What freedom there is in that. What peace.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
What’s coming? Incredible peace.
In the future inheritance, yes. But also now.
You don’t have to strive, you don’t have to get it right. You don’t have to climb the ladder, gather and exercise power, be better, stronger, more often.
Seek first the Kingdom. His will. His purpose. His leading. And watch what He does through you. All these things will be added unto you.
This is Jesus. Himself fully submitted to God, only doing what He sees the Father doing. Meek: wholly submitted to the Father.
Inviting us to come alongside him and find rest for our souls. Shalom. The place we were always meant to be.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.