Word of the Week: Meek

What words, thoughts or mental pictures come to your mind when you hear the word “meek”?

Weak?  Wimpy?  Wishy-washy?

In the minds of most people a meek man is a “Mr. Milquetoast” kind of character scared of his own shadow.   A “yes man” always giving in to others.  Or a fellow like Uriah Heep out of a Charles Dickens novel, wringing his hands and whimpering, “I’m so humble, you know, so very humble.”  Actually, he was more creepy than meek! 

Our word of the week is “meek.”

Jesus pronounced a blessing on the meek in His famous Mountain Message,  “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5)

Greek scholar, Henry Thayer, says that meekness is a “gentleness of spirit.” It is a “disposition of spirit in which we accept God’s dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting.”   The word is often translated “gentle.”  “Gentleness or meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. It stems from trust in God’s goodness and control over the situation.”

Jesus is described as “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt 11:28).  When Jesus came into  Jerusalem the last week of his life, he fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy, “See, your king comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'” (Matt 21:5).  When Paul had to rebuke the Corinthian church he said that he wrote to them “in the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor 10:1).

We can better understand the concept of meekness by seeing how the ancient Greek philosophers used the word.

Xenophenon used  “meek” to describe a  wild horse that  had been tamed, but whose spirit had never been broken.  The horse was still lively, vigorous and energetic, but under control and useful.

Plato, in writing of a victorious general who spared a conquered people, spoke of him as “meek.”  Yes, he had won victory, but allowed them to live and thrive, when he could have annihilated them.

Socrates said that a meek person is one who can argue his case without losing his temper.

The ancient philosopher Aristotle used this same word to depict someone who’s upset at social injustice.  However, their anger does not degenerate into revenge, vindictiveness or retaliation.

Meekness, then, is strength under control.  It’s the wild horse, tamed, harnessed and still strong.  The powerful, victorious General, who spares a conquered people.  It’s the passionate person, unwavering in his conviction, yet gentle, kind and magnanimous.

Jesus was meek in his dealing with the woman taken in adultery. In forgiving the sinful woman in Simon’s house.  In talking with the Samaritan woman at the well.

Jesus was meek in his compassion for the multitudes who were weary and scattered.  In his patience with Peter.  In his forbearance with the “Sons of Thunder.”

Jesus was meek, not weak, when Judas came to betray him. When the soldiers arrested him.  When Peter denied him.  When the  Sanhedrin spit on him.  When the Romans crucified him.

As Christ followers, we are called to a spirit of meekness and gentleness.  In our attitude.  In our actions.  In our relationships.

When we seek to restore the erring, we should not approach them with an attitude of contempt, but with meekness (Gal. 6:1-2).  When we testify of our faith in Jesus, it is not to be presented with arrogance,  but with meekness (1 Pet. 3:15). And as we learn God’s Word and grow in wisdom, let it not be received with a spirit of superiority, but one of meekness (Jas 1:21, 3:13)

Meekness is not weakness.  It is strength under control.  “Blessed are the meek.”

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman