blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.—matt. 5:5
a fairly accurate description of the human race might be furnished one unacquainted with it by taking the beatitudes, turning them wrong side out and saying, "here is your human race." for the exact opposite of the virtues in the beatitudes are the very qualities which distinguish human life and conduct.
in the world of men we find nothing approaching the virtues of which jesus spoke in the opening words of the famous sermon on the mount. instead of poverty of spirit we find the rankest kind of pride; instead of mourners we find pleasure seekers; instead of meekness, arrogance; instead of hunger after righteousness we hear men saying, "i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing"; instead of mercy we find cruelty; instead of purity of heart, corrupt imagin[pg 110]ings; instead of peacemakers we find men quarrelsome and resentful; instead of rejoicing in mistreatment we find them fighting back with every weapon at their command.
of this kind of moral stuff civilized society is composed. the atmosphere is charged with it; we breathe it with every breath and drink it with our mother's milk. culture and education refine these things slightly but leave them basically untouched. a whole world of literature has been created to justify this kind of life as the only normal one. and this is the more to be wondered at seeing that these are the evils which make life the bitter struggle it is for all of us. all our heartaches and a great many of our physical ills spring directly out of our sins. pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed: these are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh.
into a world like this the sound of jesus' words comes wonderful and strange, a visitation from above. it is well that he spoke, for no one else could have done it as well; and it is good that we listen. his words are the essence of truth. he is not offering an opinion; jesus never uttered opinions. he never guessed; he knew, and he knows. his words are not as solomon's were, the sum of sound wisdom or the results of keen observation. he spoke out of the fulness of his godhead, and his words are very truth itself. he is the[pg 111] only one who could say "blessed" with complete authority, for he is the blessed one come from the world above to confer blessedness upon mankind. and his words were supported by deeds mightier than any performed on this earth by any other man. it is wisdom for us to listen.
as was often so with jesus, he used this word "meek" in a brief crisp sentence, and not till some time later did he go on to explain it. in the same book of matthew he tells us more about it and applies it to our lives. "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. for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." here we have two things standing in contrast to each other, a burden and a rest. the burden is not a local one, peculiar to those first hearers, but one which is borne by the whole human race. it consists not of political oppression or poverty or hard work. it is far deeper than that. it is felt by the rich as well as the poor for it is something from which wealth and idleness can never deliver us.
the burden borne by mankind is a heavy and a crushing thing. the word jesus used means a load carried or toil borne to the point of exhaustion. rest is simply release from that burden. it is not something[pg 112] we do, it is what comes to us when we cease to do. his own meekness, that is the rest.
let us examine our burden. it is altogether an interior one. it attacks the heart and the mind and reaches the body only from within. first, there is the burden of pride. the labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed. think for yourself whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of you. as long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol. how then can you hope to have inward peace? 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. continue this fight through the years and the burden will become intolerable. yet the sons of earth are carrying this burden continually, challenging every word spoken against them, cringing under every criticism, smarting under each fancied slight, tossing sleepless if another is preferred before them.
such a burden as this is not necessary to bear. jesus calls us to his rest, and meekness is his method. the meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. he develops toward himself a kindly sense of humor and learns to say, "oh, so you have been overlooked? they have placed someone[pg 113] else before you? they have whispered that you are pretty small stuff after all? and now you feel hurt because the world is saying about you the very things you have been saying about yourself? only yesterday you were telling god that you were nothing, a mere worm of the dust. where is your consistency? come on, humble yourself, and cease to care what men think."
the meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. he has accepted god's estimate of his own life. he knows he is as weak and helpless as god has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of god of more importance than angels. in himself, nothing; in god, everything. that is his motto. he knows well that the world will never see him as god sees him and he has stopped caring. he rests perfectly content to allow god to place his own values. he will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own. then the righteous shall shine forth in the kingdom of their father. he is willing to wait for that day.
in the meantime he will have attained a place of soul rest. as he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let god defend him. the old struggle to defend[pg 114] himself is over. he has found the peace which meekness brings.
then also he will get deliverance from the burden of pretense. by this i mean not hypocrisy, but the common human desire to put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward poverty. for sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been the infusing into us a false sense of shame. there is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he or she is without doctoring up the impression. the fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts. the man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day come upon a man more cultured than himself. the learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he. the rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes or his car or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison with those of another rich man. so-called "society" runs by a motivation not higher than this, and the poorer classes on their level are little better.
let no one smile this off. these burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims of this evil and unnatural way of life. and the psychology created by years of this kind of thing makes true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star. to all the victims of the gnawing disease jesus says, "ye must become as little children." for little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment from what they[pg 115] have without relating it to something else or someone else. only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts do jealousy and envy appear. then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else has something larger or better. at that early age does the galling burden come down upon their tender souls, and it never leaves them till jesus sets them free.
another source of burden is artificiality. i am sure that most people live in secret fear that some day they will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into their poor empty souls. so they are never relaxed. bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may be trapped into saying something common or stupid. traveled people are afraid that they may meet some marco polo who is able to describe some remote place where they have never been.
this unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin, but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life. advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense. "courses" are offered in this or that field of human learning frankly appealing to the victim's desire to shine at a party. books are sold, clothes and cosmetics are peddled, by playing continually upon this desire to appear what we are not. artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we kneel at jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to his meekness. then we will not care what people think of us so long as god is pleased. then what we are will be every[pg 116]thing; what we appear will take its place far down the scale of interest for us. apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed. only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear other than we are.
the heart of the world is breaking under this load of pride and pretense. there is no release from our burden apart from the meekness of christ. good keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is this vice that if we push it down one place it will come up somewhere else. to men and women everywhere jesus says, "come unto me, and i will give you rest." the rest he offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. it will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the strong son of god himself. he calls it "my yoke," and he walks at one end while we walk at the other.
lord, make me childlike. deliver me from the urge to compete with another for place or prestige or position. i would be simple and artless as a little child. deliver me from pose and pretense. forgive me for thinking of myself. help me to forget myself and find my true peace in beholding thee. that thou mayest answer this prayer i humble myself before thee. lay upon me thy easy yoke of self-forgetfulness that through it i may find rest. amen.
