Sermon on the Mount

Week 06 – Blessed are the Meek

Review
The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus’ yoke and if we want to be true Jesus followers, then we
need to understand how to live out his yoke. The main purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to show
how to live a life that God finds pious, that is, how to live out the righteousness of God here on Earth. To
do this, Jesus begins his sermon with the “Principles of the Yoke,” the Beatitudes. Last week we learned
that the while the word “Blessed” literally means “happy,” it is much more than that. It more closely
resembles something akin to “Held in honor by God” or “In a righteous relationship with God.”

Introduction
Today we are going to continue our journey into the Principles of the Yoke by looking at the third one,
“Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the earth.”
Ice Breaker Question: Talk about a time your felt disrespected. How did you feel? Why did
you feel that way?

Meekness
Discussion Question
1. What images does the word “meekness” convey in your mind?
2. How do you think that Jesus’ listeners felt about the concept of meekness?
The word meek is a misunderstood word. In today's culture a meek man would be viewed as someone
who lets people walk all over him; someone who doesn't have a lot of drive or vision; someone who just
rolls over and takes life's punches.

The Greek word literally means a person who accepts God's dealings with us as good, and therefore,
without disputing or resisting; someone who wholly relies upon God and not their own strength; it is the
opposite of self-assertiveness and self-interest. Notice, that meekness does not mean weakness! It does
not mean one must cower or retreat from his principles. It does not involve the surrender of one’s rights.
Meek men and women of the Bible showed firm resolve, courage, conviction and strength.

One must understand that the first century Jew lived in an “honor and shame” society. One of the
“tenets” of understanding this is that in their mindset, all of life is a “zero sum” encounter. In their
understanding of the world, there is a fixed amount of goods. The pie is only so large. There is a limited
amount of resources. (Our Western culture does not generally think this, though this is changing. We
tend to believe that more and more resources are being created, and discovered and that when one person
“gains” then the entire community gains with him. A rising tide lifts all ships.)

This worldview extended even to honor. If I gain some honor, then there is less honor out there for you.
As a matter of fact, all honor is already divided up and I can only gain honor by taking yours (and
bringing you shame). The natural desire is to gain in status.

Meekness, though, is a deep understanding of who God made me and where He has placed me and being
content with that. Meeknesss is another word for “self-effacement”.
Scripture teaches that Moses was the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3).
● When Aaron and Miriam speak against him, he knows his place and does not defend his rights.
God steps in and does that without any prompting from Moses.
● When Korah tries to seize leadership from Moses (Numbers 16:1-3), he is willing to give it up IF
God chooses Korah over Moses. However, he doesn’t just
● When he heard that others were prophesying in the camp, he said “Would that all the Lord’s
people were prophets.” (Numbers 11:29)

Some other examples of meekness:

Being humble does not require you to erroneously believe that you are without any talents. Not knowing
your own abilities and strengths is not humility, it is foolishness. True humility is recognizing that all the
qualities that you posses are only a gift from God, and everything that you accomplish is due to those God
given qualities. It is, therefore, foolish to consider yourself superior to someone who is less talented or
has accomplished less.

The meekness of Moses wasn’t a character of timidity or letting other people run over him. After all, this
is the man who in a fit of anger through down the tablets of stone and broke them. He then burned the
golden idol, ground it up, poured the powder into water and made the people drink it. He was not exactly
a mild-mannered, unassuming guy.

Moses’ meekness as a demonstration of strength beyond what most men show. He carried burdens that
would cause most of us to crumble and he never complained – not even to God! (Exodus 18)
Meekness is also the character quality that never takes credit for what only God can do. Moses got into
trouble when he violated this principle in his life by taking matters into his own hands in the desert and
trying to make water come out of the rock through his own doing. The mistake he made was setting aside
his meekness for a moment and trying to step into God's role of being the sole provider for his people.

There is a “flip side” to this as well. Meekness, in terms of humility, is not only not thinking more highly
of yourself than you ought, it is also not thinking more lowly of yourself than you ought. Moses knew
that he was the only one with the capability to lead the Jewish People; therefore he fiercely resisted
Korah's attempted coup. He could have just said, “You know what. Obviously I have failed as a leader
and maybe you are better, so here…you do it….” But Moses also realized that his talents came from God
and resisted that. Yet, he was humble because he believed that had God given the same talents to
someone else, perhaps they would have been more fully utilized.

Also, knowing our place means being willing to ask for help when we know we are not equipped by God
to handle the situation. We see asking for help as a weakness. Since our culture values “boot strapyness”
and independence, we see it as shameful to ask for help. Of course, the first century Jew would have as
well. To rely on somebody else is shameful.

However, to have a deep understanding of where God has placed me in my life and to seek help of those
He has surrounded me with is not weakness, but meekness. So often we pray, “God, deliver me from this
situation” and then ignore the help from the people around us. God said, “It is not good for man to be
alone.” We are incomplete by ourselves and we need each other. It is not brave to face the turmoils of
this life by yourself when you have a community surrounding you.
Discussion Question
 1. What doe Meekness look like?

This part of Jesus’ poem comes directly from Psalms 37:11. Remember when we said that a Rabbi
would quote a bit of scripture and would expect his audience to know what came before or after that text?
Psalm 37 gives a lot of insight into how his listeners would have heard this passage and describes what a
meek person is like.
● Doesn’t worry about those do wrong
● Trust in the Lord and his timing
● Refrain from anger
● Turn away anger
● Gives generously

Shall Inherit the Earth

In rabbinic teaching of first century Judaism, “earth” referred to the messianic age. To say that the meek
are going to inherit the earth is to say that Christ’s people are going to share in the messianic age in the
company of the messiah himself. They will be found in his company, rejoicing in him and in each other,
on that day when wrong is righted, injustice redressed, and tears wiped from eyes so as to leave dried eyes
never weeping again.

Conclusion
Honored by God are those who truly understand the circumstance He has placed them in and are content
with its trade-offs for they shall…