“Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.” – Jesus
“Meek:
1)enduring injury with patience and without resentment;
2) deficient in spirit and courage.” – Miriam-Webster
Militant themes dominate men’s ministry these days. Men’s ministry leaders love to describe Christian men as soldiers fighting the good fight. Generals, vets and seal team members fill speaker rosters at men’s conferences. Books with combative terms such as “knights” and “warriors” in their titles line the men’s section of Christian book stores. I even saw an Army recruiting booth at one men’s conference.
What you don’t see in current men’s ministry, however, is anything about the importance of meekness in a Christian man’s life. There aren’t any seminars on how to be a genuinely meek man. No one introduces a plenary speaker by pointing out how meek he is. No books have been written on great meek Christian men.
The reason for the complete lack of emphasis on meekness in men’s ministry, of course, is that we identify meekness with Miriam-Webster’s second definition of it: a meek man is someone who is “deficient in spirit and courage.” No man wants to be a passive doormat who let’s people walk all over him and doesn’t have the courage to stand up for himself.
But meekness has another, higher, meaning that has direct relevance to men’s ministry: a meek man can also be someone who endures “injury with patience and without resentment.” Such a man has a greater calling than mere revenge. He sees his suffering at the hands of another in the context of a transcendent moral goal: that of maintaining his integrity while achieving communal harmony.
With this second definition of meekness in mind, I’d like to highlight some of my favorite meek men in human history.
- Abraham – The story in Genesis 13 of Abraham giving Lot first choice of the land in order to maintain peace between his herdsmen and Lot’s is one of the greatest examples of meekness in the Bible. I believe Jesus’ statement that the meek shall inherit the earth is a commentary on Abraham’s selfless act because, at the end of the story, God shows Abraham all of the land he would “inherit.”
- David – David had so much respect for “the Lord’s anointed” that he became “conscious stricken” for cutting off a piece of Saul’s robe, even though Saul was seeking to kill him. David could have killed Saul at that moment, but his meekness led him to spare his life.1
- Jesus – The greatest example of meekness in all of human history is, of course, Jesus. Peter vividly describes his meekness in the face of suffering: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”2
- George Washington – Immediately following the War of Independence, Washington’s soldiers threatened to mutiny and make him king because the federal government was broke and couldn’t afford to pay them their wages. Instead, Washington persuaded his men to back down. He easily could have declared himself a monarch, but he didn’t.
- Martin Luther King Jr. – During a time of extreme racial unrest in America that many historians believe would have led to civil insurrection, Martin Luther King stressed non-violent civil disobedience. His meekness eventually led to his assassination.
Notice that all of these men were very meek men. But none of them were weak. After Abraham deferred to Lot, he lead a force of several hundred of his men to deliver Lot from abduction. David, after becoming king, achieved fame as a great warrior. Jesus, when he comes again, will come in glory, put down his enemies, and establish his kingdom. George Washington defeated the greatest army in the world. And Martin Luther King achieved some of the most far reaching social change in American history.
All of these men demonstrated bravery. But none of them could have achieved their goals had they not been meek.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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