More on Meekness

 

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word:

 

I want to continue talking about the “meek” today. It’s a word associated with those who Jesus said will inherit the earth, but I think the word gets a bad rap. We have come to define it as “pushover.” No! The “pushovers will not inherit the earth, the “meek” the “surrendered” will inherit it!

 

As I was looking for Greek paraphrases for meekness, I stumbled across an article on the internet by a man named Grady Scott. Using the Greek word for meek (praus) he came up with a couple of good usages. The word “praus” was used by sailors to describe a gentle breeze. The same word was used by farmers to describe a broken colt.

 

These are calm and gentle,  but they don't necessarily have to be. Using these definitions, Scott makes a good case for meekness being “power under control.”

 

Think about it. Think about the damage caused by uncontrollable wind. Is not a gentle breeze  nothing but a hurricane under control. Or think of the power of a stallion, or a Clydesdale. The strength is still there, it's just under control. I suppose we could say the same for nuclear energy. When it's out of control, we're in trouble, but when it's harnessed, it serves us, rather than the other way around.

 

This explains so much of the self-described meekness of Jesus, who said in Mt 11:29, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek (power under control) and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.”

 

 Wow, does that take put some extra pzazzz into that passage!  A yoke connects you to the strength of what is also under the same yoke, Jesus in effect is saying tap into My power and you won't have to exert yourself!  “I'll do all the work and you will find rest.

 

One of the problems we have with the meekness of Jesus is we think of the table overturning incident in the Temple, and the various run-ins with the Pharisees and we wonder aloud, “Where's the meekness in that? But when you realize that meekness is power under control, you can see that His actions were only a small tempest of what He could've done.

 

This overturning of the tables was a carefully measured response from Jesus to the abuses of the temple. He had checked out the twisted business of the moneychangers the day before, Mr 11:11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

 

On the next day,  Jesus meted out His measured response (power under control) Mr 11:15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

 

The meek are not pushovers, they are followers of Jesus who have yielded their power to the control of the Holy Spirit.

 

More on meekness next time.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.