Meekness Is Not Weakness. It's Needed Now More Than Ever.
Being meek is not considered a desirable trait these days - I suppose folks no longer want to “inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Instead, people opt for the opposite of meekness and respond to even the slightest provocation. Social media, of course, makes this easy, and when responding to strangers, painless, or so it seems. Is meekness then, an old-fashioned thought that our modern society no longer needs? Yet another character trait that our technologically advanced age can safely cast aside? I think the opposite is true. Our society, especially our political life, needs meekness now more than ever.
Matthew Henry, in his book “Meekness and Quietness of Spirit,” says that a meek person does not respond to every provocation but instead keeps a calm spirit at all times. Imagine someone in politics today refusing to respond to a provocation? It rarely, if ever, happens, and the result is ever-escalating tensions and one side becoming more extreme in response to the other side's extremism. Back and forth we go. It’s exhausting, destructive, and leaves us angrier than ever.
Meekness is not weakness, in spite of what the conventional wisdom is at the moment. Meekness is not cowardice, is not indifferent to evil or injustice, and never waters down the truth. Instead, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 5:22-23, meekness is one of the fruits of the spirit - evidence that we are a Christian. If I call myself a Christian, and people don’t see evidence of meekness in our lives, why would they believe I am who I claim to be?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.” - Galatians 5:22-23 KJV
“Don’t you know what time it is?” some may ask. Jesus knew what time it was, and he modeled what meekness truly is. He had sharp words for the hypocritical religious leaders of his day, but those barbs pointed people toward eternal truths and were not merely meant to score points for his political party. When we fire off an angry social media post at our political foes, are we doing what Jesus did? Are we calling people back to their true purpose and pointing people to the truth?
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29 KJV
Aren’t we “heavy laden” with all the vitriol in politics these days? Is it solving any of the problems our country faces, or is it just grinding against our souls? Perhaps we should learn from Jesus. If we did learn from him, we would find rest for our souls, put the anger and vitriol aside, and love our neighbors once again. Maybe even begin to work together for the good of our nation.
