Passions

 We don’t celebrate meekness in our culture these days. We celebrate assertiveness, except on occasion in children and always in women. Even in these cases, we don’t seek meekness as much as blind obedience. We prefer our men on the prideful side. Why then, did the Galilean place the following early in the Sermon on the Mount?

 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

 Was he advocating legions of zombie-like followers, bland and obedient, willing, and malleable? Perhaps, instead, he realized that true meekness more closely resembled the reining in of a wild horse, a situation in which power, true power, was harnessed and passions lay under control, to be guided to some good end. Didn’t the law that he claimed to have come to fulfill already offer a guide? Proverbs 16:32 states "Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city."

 Well there we go. To be meek is not to be weak. Leave assertive bravado to those who would pattern their lives, and leadership, after a professional wrestling star on a television show. Leave obsession with greatness to actors, athletes, and politicians. The Galilean would tell his followers later, in Matthew 11:29. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (NIV) If that is not a call to meekness, what is?

Perhaps the Galilean realized that the power of restraining passions in favor of meekness lay in the effect that power might have when released while under control. Hence the lasting power of his own sermon on that lonely hill. Abraham Lincoln knew that. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that. The late John Lewis knew that. Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks knew it.,

 Their world struggled, still does, against the believers of pure power. At stake is not only the fate of our country, but likely the fate of the entire planet. The Galilean says that the meek shall inherit the earth. But will that earth be a charred, smoking ruble, or a new Garden of Eden? I think the Galilean left it up to his followers to decide. I think he left the gift of the Sermon on the Mount as a guide, hoping that some leader would, at some distant time, would hold it high while leading the world out of darkness.