“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
There are two basic categories for “hard teachings of Jesus.” There are the teachings that are hard to understand, and then there are the teachings that are easy to understand and hard to do. The first Beatitude – blessed are the poor in spirit – is one of the latter. Be humble. Got it Jesus – I’ll get right on that. The next two are little harder to make out at first glance.
We are still talking about blessings, right? What could it possibly mean to be blessed by mourning? And meek people are the quiet, shy, types, right? It seems unlikely that loud, powerful types will hand over the earth to them, doesn’t it?
Let’s start with “blessed are those who mourn.” What this does NOT mean is that spiritual people must be depressed and depressing people. The life of Jesus demonstrates this. His detractors accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton. But I think the life of Jesus also demonstrates what this means – to be present in the midst of and to be aware of the suffering around us. Mourning means not pretending that everything is ok when we know it isn’t, and not ignoring the suffering around us just because it doesn’t directly affect us.
I think this guy expresses well what that would could look like:
The terms of the promise here are important – they will be comforted. The consolation looked for is from God. And I don’t think it is a coincidence that one of the names for the Holy Spirit is “the Comforter.” The Power of God is active in the world to redeem and transform those things that cause us to mourn. Mourning doesn’t mean that we have to bear the burdens of the entire world ourselves. It means that we look to the One who gives true comfort, and work alongside Him, empowered by His Spirit, to do His will.
And what about the meek? This is one of those times that the English language and the Greek don’t match up so well. The meaning of the Greek word translated “meek” means “one who has power under control.” Meek does not mean weak. Meek means discerning the difference between having the ability to do something, and knowing whether it is right or wrong to do it. As Jeff Goldblum says in that great philosophical work of our times, Jurassic Park “You were so worried about whether you could do something that you never stopped to ask whether you should do it.”
So, read it again this way: “Blessed are those with their power under control, for they shall inherit the earth.” The patient, the faithful, the self-controlled, those who consider their actions based on the will of God and on the effect on others – they will inherit the earth. And I think Jesus has in mind here the redeemed earth of God’s new creation. The transformed earth that is - in fact as well as promise – the kingdom of God.
Another way to approach the idea of meekness, and one that has particular application for our society, is to submit ourselves to letting our actions speak for us, and letting God speak on our behalf. Here the power in question is the power of our speech, and that matches up pretty well with the traditional "quiet person" definition of meekness. Just because we can spend all our time justifying ourselves to others doesn't necessarily mean that we should. Who are we trying to impress? Richard Foster says in his great book on spiritual discipline: "We are so accustomed to relying on words to manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control? God will take control, but we will never let him take control until we trust him."
A.W. Tozer puts it this way: "The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. Think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightly of you. The heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest. Such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. Jesus calls us to His rest, and meekness is His method. The meek has accepted God's estimate of his own life. In himself nothing, in God everything; that is his motto. As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him."
