Wilderness Wonderings

Wilderness Wonderings

Kingdom

The Oath of the Kingdom

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Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.

Matthew 5:33-37

I’ve heard it said through the years that if you have to preface a statement with “I promise…” or “To be honest…”, odds are you aren’t. We use phrases like “I swear on a stack of Bibles” or “On my ancestor’s grave…”. It used to be that a person’s word was their bond, that you could take a person at their word without hesitation, because a person’s reputation rests upon their ability to keep their word without the necessity of extra persuasiveness. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case so much in the world today.

In Old Testament times, a covenant was often sealed with an oath and a sacrifice. The oath or pledge was a declaration of the responsibilities of both parties in the covenant. The sacrificial element of the covenant was representative of the punishment that would befall whoever would break the covenant. In today’s vernacular, this is similar to legal covenants in which there is a financial penalty imparted to the person that breaks the covenant.

To break a vow was the equivalent to breaking the commandment to not lie or bear false witness. To swear an oath by Heaven or by Earth is to suppose that Heaven or Earth are yours to sacrifice in the event of the breaking of the oath. In reality, Heaven is the throne of God and Earth is His footstool. While these are metaphors, the meaning to the listeners of the Sermon on the Mount and to Matthew’s audience is clear – you cannot offer up sacrifice that is acceptable that doesn’t belong to you – that would have no impact upon you directly if you break the covenant. Put simply, Jesus is telling us when you say you are going to do something, do it without the necessity of extra reassurances. Let your actions fulfill your words.

We can take this a step further when you consider the full contextual meaning of Exodus 20:7: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” In light of this context as the third of the commandments of God, this statement is in fact a declaration of the seriousness of the covenant that God was making with His people. God had just declared in verses 5-6 that He will not only visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him, but He will show mercy and kindness to those who love Him and keep His commandments.

To seal this covenant as part of the tribe of Israel was to “take the name of the Lord your God.” To take His name in vain was an attempt to have all the benefits of the covenant (mercy) without the responsibilities of the covenant (obedience). The term “vain” is best described as “empty” or “meaningless”. This is the root word for “vanity” that is used throughout Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes to describe the emptiness and worthlessness of life under the sun, compared to the riches and glory of God Himself. The second part of Exodus 20:7 makes it clear that God will not withhold the covenant prescribed punishment from those who do not keep their word to the covenant – a covenant that demands repentance.

Now, let’s be very clear here. Eternal salvation is granted by the grace and favor of God Himself, not a result of our obedience itself. This is clearly explained by Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9 when he writes “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” But Paul doesn’t discount the value of obedience as he continues in verse 10 with “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Our works of obedience are still important and are a demonstration of our repentance that is inspired by God’s grace. When we come to Christ and become a “fisher of men”, we make a public declaration of this covenant through the sacrament of baptism. If you have not truly surrendered your heart to the covenant relationship with God through Jesus, then your baptism was nothing more than you getting wet. Baptism does nothing mystical, it is simply a symbolic gesture of taking of the oath to follow Christ in your daily life.

If you say that you are a Christ follower, then let your life show it. Live the dictates of God’s Word. Learn the responsibilities of the covenant that you have sworn to uphold. You can trust God at His word because He has proven Himself true time and again throughout history. If you truly examine yourself, can you honestly say that God can take you at your word?

The Law of the Kingdom

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“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:17-20

In order for a Kingdom to exist, there must be a King. In order for a King to have any authority, there must be laws that undergird that authority. Otherwise there is chaos and anarchy, with every man for themselves. And if every person is a law unto themselves, then what happens when you have mutually exclusive, opposing moral compasses? How then would we know who is “right” and who is “wrong”? By necessity, that would require a standard that is external to ourselves in order for it to be equally applied to everyone.

Unfortunately, there are many within the Kingdom that ascribe to the idea that because we are under grace, that somehow the Old Testament law has been done away with – that somehow, the Law of Moses is no longer valid. As Jesus said Himself, He did not come to abolish or do away with the law, but rather to fulfill the law. The word here for fulfill literally means to make it complete.

The Old Testament law required payment or sacrifice for breaking the law. There was a prescribed punishment or offering required depending on what the law was that was broken. Typically the sacrifice was of apparent equal value to that which was lost as a result of the sin. If you stole from your neighbor, then restitution would be required. This would also mean that if you commit murder or a crime of violation against another of God’s image bearers, then often that would mean equal dismemberment or even death.

And Jesus said the standard of the law of Moses has not changed. His standard for our behavior is still the same. And the prescribed penalties are still in place, except with one difference. Jesus fulfilled this prescription. “For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.” (Romans 6:10) The writer of Hebrews made a clear case for Christ as the substitutionary payment for the our sin of breaking God’s law in chapter 10: “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…Then he adds: Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.” (Hebrews 10:8-10, 17-18)

Now grace and forgiveness do not mean we are given free reign to go back and continue to live a life characterized by sin and not in keeping with God’s law. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is evident even as far back as the time of the prophet Samuel:

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He has also rejected you [Saul] from being king.”

1 Samuel 15:22-23

Contextually speaking, Saul had disobeyed God by taking spoils from the victory over the Amalekites, specifically against God’s orders. Saul then decided to take those spoils and offer them in sacrifice to God as an act of worship. Let me rephrase it like this: Saul offered the very act of disobedience as an act of worship on the altar of God. How much more blasphemous can one be? And the worst part about it is even when he was confronted with his sin, he blamed the people instead of taking responsibility for his own disobedience.

Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.”

1 Samuel 15:24

Well, you might say, “I would never do such a thing.” But do we not? Do we harbor grudges against our brother/sister as we enter into worship? Have you ever wished harm to someone in the name of “justice” for the sake of our own self-righteousness? Do you judge the appearance of the person sitting in the pew next to you, or decide instead to sit on the other side of the sanctuary to avoid them? Do you sit in worship and ignore the sermon in favor of following your social media feed? Have I relegated my tithe to the end of my budget, giving God only a portion of what remains, instead of the first fruits of my harvest? Do you give your offerings expecting a blessing from Him in return, as opposed to expecting to be a blessing for the Kingdom? Have we ever done an actual honest assessment of our heart in the midst of our ritualism?

It’s not the sacrifice that God desires, even though the law prescribes it. It’s obedience. He desires our obedience to His word. But not obedience out of blind obligation. Not obedience out of ritualistic incantation. To do so reduces the name of Jesus to an act of witchcraft – which is blasphemy of the highest order.

Jesus wants our heart. He wants our devotion. We obey His word because we know that He loves us and He proved His love for us by taking the punishment that we deserve. That doesn’t mean that we escape consequences for our sin that we commit today, even though we are forgiven. Consequences are still inevitable.

The very idea that there is a moral concept of “right” and “wrong” is evidence of a natural, moral law that we are all bound to. If there is a natural or moral law, then by common reason there is a moral law giver. A law giver who has given us a guide by which we as His people are called to obey.

And Jesus challenges us in our obedience. Our righteousness must “exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.” These scribes and Pharisees were keepers of the law. They knew the letter of the law down to the smallest mark. And they followed it to the letter, but did not hide the spirit of the law within their hearts. They followed the law out of a spirit of ritualistic obligation rather than heartfelt devotion to the God who delivered Israel from the bondage of slavery to Egypt. But God desires our devotion – that we follow the law out of reverence and humility, as opposed to vanity and pride. Then and only then will our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees for it will be a righteousness that is imparted to us by Him through the Blood of Christ due to our faith in His word.

The Light of the Kingdom

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“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14-16

In 1990, I began my first stint with college life. As a freshman, and newly reborn believer, I invested a huge amount of time in the Baptist Student Union – now known as Baptist Collegiate Ministries. It was through this campus organization that I had numerous summer missionary opportunities in such places as Cochise County in Arizona, Hong Kong, Cuidad Acuna in Mexico, and Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana. It was also the place that I developed some of the longest lasting friendships that I still have today. One of those friendships was with a young student evangelist named Kenny Moore.

I still have one of Kenny’s business cards from those days. It had the usual contact information while in the background it had the picture of a lighthouse. When Kenny gave me his card, he asked if I knew what the lighthouse meant. Well, I was familiar with the old gospel song “The Lighthouse” and I assumed that it meant that the lighthouse was a representation of Jesus – a light shining in the darkness to guide us to the safety of shore. However, Kenny gently corrected my misconception when he said, “No, the lighthouse is me. It is us as believers who are called to shine the light of Jesus in the world.”

Thus began my fascination with the imagery of lighthouses. I’ve always been drawn to paintings and photographs and posters of lighthouses. I’ve always loved ceramic and porcelain mantlepieces of lighthouses, even though I have none of my own to this day. And there are some things about lighthouses that I learned over the years that has stuck with me, thanks to Kenny’s enlightenment.

First of all, lighthouses are not built on beaches, but rather on rocky cliffs overlooking the sea. This provides for more stability when the storms of the sea come crashing in. Secondly, a working lighthouse must never be abandoned – someone must always be there to tend to the light and ensure that it is always shining. Finally, the beacon is actually a large mirror that reflects the light within it and projecting it through a rotating lens so that it can be seen from all around.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was the great Lighthouse of Alexandria, built during the reign of Ptolemy II, and was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world in its day. It was severely damaged by earthquakes and then abandoned to ruin. The last portions of it were used to build what is now the Citadel of Qaitbay, built in the 15th century.

In the Christian life, we are called to be a lighthouse to the world. We are called to build our lives on the solid rock of the proclamation of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This firm foundation is one that is unshakable, even as the storms of life come crashing in around us. The truth of Jesus as the Messiah in unchanging and eternal and is our anchor in the storm. We must anchor deep within Him and abide in Him in order to withstand the trials and tribulations of this life.

Secondly, we must always be tending to the light and keeping it shining. That is our number one responsibility as ambassadors of Christ – to shine the light of the King upon this dark world so that others can see the safety of shore and be warned of the dangers below. And we must always be attentive to the light, ensuring that it is shining as bright as possible so that the whole world can see Jesus for who He really is – our safe harbor in the midst of the storm.

Finally, the light that we shine is not our own light, but it is a reflection of His light that is focused outwards towards all around us. This is evidenced by our works of service that are done with a pure heart that seeks not its own gain or reward through pats on the back. It is so that those we minister to will come to know Jesus as the provider of eternal safety in this life and beyond. As we saw in Matthew 4:23-25, Jesus met the physical needs of those who came to Him first and then He addressed their spiritual need for the Kingdom beginning with the Sermon on the Mount.

In a typical home in Jesus’ time, when it reached sundown, it was the duty of a member of the household to light an oil lamp and place it in a position so that all in the home could see in the dark. Darkness in and of itself has no substance. It’s empty. When we are in the dark, it is not so much that we are “in darkness”, but rather we are absent from the light. That’s all darkness is – the absence of light. If you go into a dark closet and close the door, typically you can not see anything once you are in there. All it takes is the tiniest of lights – like the one on your watch – to pierce that darkness and allow a small amount of sight. The brighter the light, the greater the vision.

In Tuscany, Italy – perhaps one of my favorite places in the world – cities are built in one of two locations. They are either built near a river so that the inhabitants have access to fresh water and commerce. Examples of this include Florence and Pisa, as they were built on the banks of the River Arno. The downside to building cities on a riverbank is the potential for flooding, which can cause tremendous damage – as evidenced in the Florence Flood of 1966, which killed 101 people and destroyed millions of artistic masterpieces. There is are still marks of this destruction around parts of Florence to this day.

Elsewhere in Tuscany, cities are built on the top of hills, typically in order to be fortified against attacks by other warring city-states. Examples of this include Arezzo and San Gimignano (the Town of Fine Towers). One unique town is Monteriggioni, which is built on a hill, but also surrounded by a high wall and watchtowers, with only a single gate, the Porta Franca, in and out of the city. This city was the inspiration for the ring of giants that encircled the abyss of Inferno in Dante Alighieri‘s masterful work, The Divine Comedy.

Monteriggioni, Italy

As a city on a hill, the Church has only one entrance and that is through submission to Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. We are built upon a rock that is steady and sure so that the world can see that the work that we do in for the His glory, not ours. For that to be true, we must always be attentive to the light and continually submit to Him daily, taking up our cross – not a cross of obligatory burden, but a cross of victory over sin, death, and the grave. Above all, we must remember that He is the light that lives within us and we must live in a way that is reflecting His light to all around us, so that they will see the dangers below and be guided safely home to shore.

The Salt of the Kingdom

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“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Matthew 5:13

Salt is undoubtedly one the most common chemical compounds on the earth. It comes in many forms and in multiple chemical combinations. The most common of which is NaCl – one positively charged atomic ion of sodium and one negatively charged atomic ion of chlorine. Seawater contains an average of 2.6% salt by weight, which amounts to an estimated 78 million metric tons per cubic kilometer of water in the oceans and seas of the world.

Throughout the history of the world, salt has had a wide variety of applications. The most obvious use of salt is to add flavor, or rather to enhance the natural flavor of food. Prior to refrigeration it was the most common preservative of meats. In fact, the word “sausage” is derived from a word that literally means “salted meat”. Our word “salad” originates from Romans using salt on leafy greens and vegetables prior to eating. It also where we get the term “salivate.” If we “oversalt” our food, we ruin it. If we don’t use enough salt in cooking, the food is bland and tasteless. It’s all about the right amount of seasoning to perfect the dish.

It has also been used for medicinal purposes as an antiseptic. It has been used in hygiene and cosmetics as an exfoliant in soaps to scrub off dead skin cells. It is used as a bonding agent in pottery and as a chemical agent in textiles, leather tanning, fabric dyes, and bleaches. Salt is often used in dry, arid places in the world to stimulate water retention.

Salt has often been used in various religious rituals as a symbol of purity. There are numerous references to covenants in the Old Testament that were sealed with salt. The word “salvation” also comes from this element of spiritual purification.

There are also military uses for salt. The term “salting the earth” is a reference to a practice of spreading large amounts of salt on the grounds of conquered lands in order to curse the ground and prevent the growing of healthy crops. Salt is used in the production of gunpowder and dynamite.

Salt is also important to our health and diets, but in proper amounts. Too little salt in our diets can lead to blockages in the small intestines, underactive thyroid, heart failure, higher propensity for sunburn, and diarrhea. It can lead to lethargic brain activity resulting in muscle twitches, seizures, cramps, loss of consciousness, coma, and even death in extreme situations. In fact, it is reported that more of Napoleon’s troops died during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 than the invasion of Moscow itself because their wounds were not properly healing due to a lack of salt in their diets.

Too much salt in our diets has been link to osteoporosis, kidney disease, and hypertension – leading to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Excessive salt in the bloods causes the body to pull more water into the bloodstream, thus increasing the volume of blood within the cardiovascular system. This puts more strain on the heart to pump the greater volume of blood, stretching the walls of blood vessels, leading to aneurysms and easy bruising.

For thousands of years, and still to this day in certain parts of the world, salt has strong economic uses beyond mere commodity as a form of currency. In fact, salt was at one time more valuable than gold due to the difficult process of extracting salt from seawater or mining from rock. The word “salary” and the phrase “worth your salt” comes from this use of salt as money.

And salt that has become damaged by misuse or neglect to the point that it has lost its usefulness cannot be made salty again. It is reduced to nothing more than a useless, grainy rock. Its purpose is then lost, which is why it is so important that salt is kept in place that it easily accessible, but secured from corruption by pests and excess water.

Salt extraction from seawater

Most importantly, in order for salt to be usable, one of two processes has to happen – and in some cases – both. First, there is the process of extracting salt out of sea water. It’s a difficult and time-consuming process, but it is a process that yields tremendous results. Sometimes it happens naturally as is apparent around the edges of the Dead Sea.

Salt along the shores of the Dead Sea

The other process is by mining – which requires extracting salt out of the earth and the large rocks of salt have to be broken until it is small enough to be usable by the consumer. In rare cases, even in the case of extraction of salt from seawater, this breaking process is still required to pulverize the salt into small enough grains to be of value.

Salt mines

But just like gold, salt at its core is nothing more than a rock. It has no inherent value of its own beyond that which we place upon it. Today, salt is so common that it is rarely used as currency in industrialized countries. In fact, while gold does have value as a commodity for jewelry, it holds very little value as a liquid currency as even our own American dollars are no longer backed by the gold standard – but simply by supply and demand of government issued legal tender.

When Jesus speaks of us being the “salt of the earth”, He is speaking to our value. If we place our value and worth in the marketplace of the world, while over time we may see some profit, eventually we become so common that we are worthless. We lose our flavor and thus our value to society. The people of Israel know this imagery all too well as they were now an occupied people by the Roman Empire, cast aside as a backwater land with weird customs, but just valuable enough due to its location at the junction of three continents – Europe, Africa, and Asia – to retain worth to the Empire.

But in God’s economy you are His most precious commodity. You are His most precious jewel. He wants to use you to bring value and flavor to the world. He wants to use you to bring healing to a hurting world and scrape out that which is dead and lifeless. He wants to use you to destroy the enemy of this world. And He wants to use you to be an agent of purification in the world.

At the same time, we must be careful not to be “too salty” to the point that we drive people away. Or not salty enough so that people are uninspired to eat more at the table of grace. We must exercise discernment to the point that we provide just enough salt for the given situation so that we sate the appetite and leave them hungering for more.

But most importantly, we must be extracted from the world, set apart, and broken so that we can be usable for the Kingdom. Our hearts must be broken for the things that break the heart of God. Otherwise, our hearts are nothing but a useless, hardened stone that beats only for ourselves.

The Purity of the Kingdom

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“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Matthew 5:8

Purity sounds like such a insult in today’s vernacular. It conjures up images of weakness, insecurity, or naivete. The Greek word katheros used in this sense means to be “clean or free of stains or corruption.” That seems innocent enough on the surface, but what does it take to make something pure that has impurities within it.

Let’s take a rock, but not just any rock. This rock has been underground for centuries. It has been buried under dirt, shaped by pressure and fire, molded by the shifting tectonic plates until it is metallic, with a dull sheen. Over time water erodes the stones by way of a spring that feeds into a stream or creek and pieces of these metallic stones chip away and wash downstream. Along the way, it picks up pieces of grime, dirt, other metals and types of stone. Eventually it is deposited in a stream bed along the northwestern coast of what is now known as Coloma, California.

In 1848, a man by the name of James W. Marshall, a lumber mill foreman, comes along and discovers this shiny piece of metallic rock and brings it to his boss, John Sutter. They put the rock through a series of rudimentary tests to confirm that it was indeed gold. Sutter is excited about the find, but wants to keep the discovery to himself, fearing that a rush of prospectors in the newly won California territory would upset his apple cart dreams of an agricultural empire known as New Helvetia, in what is now downtown Sacramento.

But the rumors spread and a newspaper publisher named Samuel Brannan decided to get the jump on a Gold Rush and set up a store selling prospecting supplies. After the store was set up, he then announced the discovery through the streets of San Francisco. Word reached the New York Herald in August that year and was confirmed by President James Polk. And then the race was on as prospectors from far and wide were descending upon the area hoping to make their fortunes.

But gold itself has no intrinsic value. It’s nothing more than a rock. But humanity places value on gold due to what it can become. It can be shaped into fine jewelry and used to valuate currency. Its value as a commodity is dictated by the scarcity of its supply weighed against the demand for its possession. And the more pure the gold is, the more valuable it is.

In order for gold to reach its highest purity, it must go through a refining process. The stones are placed under intense heat in a crucible to the point that the metallic stones melt. Once melted, the impurities and dirt and other metals rise to the top and are skimmed off and thrown away as worthless. The process is done over and over again until all of the impurities are removed from the gold and it is deemed worthy of the market price.

The same process is true of the believer. We must go through a “refining fire” to have the impurities of our heart stripped away. The blood of Christ cleanses us of those impurities, but we still have to go through a growth period where we learn how to deal with this new heart condition that we now have. A heart that is made more tender to pains of the world around us. A heart that breaks for things that break the heart of God. A heart that is sensitive to the needs of our neighbors. A heart that mourns our own sin in light of the righteousness of our Heavenly Father. Paul describes this refining like this:

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

When we turn our hearts towards our Abba, He will test us in the crucible of this life. But this testing is not to tear us down, but rather to purify our hearts and to remove the impurities and get rid of the things that stand in the way of the building of the kingdom in our hearts. His goal is to make you stronger in your faith and your dependence upon Him. It is often a painful process, but it’s always a glorious and worthy process. Because in the end, our Father who earnestly demands the purest of hearts will see to it that we are purified to the highest quality.

In so doing, He declares our value. Not the world. Not your friends. Not your family. They do not do the work of refining that produces the purity in you. They do not skim off the impurities that weigh you down as much as His Spirit does. He’s the Master Jeweler. He’s the one who knows His craft as the Creator. He’s the one who knows what and who you are intended to be. And He will shape you and mold you until you are a perfect jewel, fit for the value He holds and the price He paid to make you His.

The Meekness of the Kingdom

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“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Matthew 5:5
Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz
copyright held by Warner Brothers Studios (c) 1939, 2011

The first time I ever heard the word “meek” was in that classic childhood film “The Wizard of Oz.” Dorothy stood before the fearsome visage of the Wizard who thunders: “I am Oz – the Great and Powerful. Who are you? Who are you?!” Dorothy’s timid response was “If you please, I am Dorothy – the small and meek. We’ve come to ask — ” And then she is rudely cut off by the potentate of the Emerald City with a loud “SILENCE!”

The image of meekness portrayed here is comparative weakness. Dorothy’s small frame and stature compared to the authoritative and strong Wizard. But when Jesus says “Blessed are the meek”, what sounds like a paradox is in fact not so much. The Greek word that is translated as “meek” is “praus”, which is rooted in the “prautes”. Contextually, it expresses a grace of the soul that is more akin to gentleness. Furthermore in Scripture the word is used to demonstrate an attitude of acceptance of God’s dealings with us good and indisputable.

According to Aristotle, “prautes”, is that state between two extremes: getting angry without reason and not getting angry at all. In other words, it is getting angry at the right time, to the right degree, and for the right reasons. Because the term “prautes” does not have an easy English equivalent, translators have used “meekness” and “gentleness” to translate this word. In reality, the proper translation is more akin to demonstrating gentleness in power, a virtue born of strength of character.

So what does that mean in the context of the Beatitudes and Jesus’ allusion to inheritance? Remember, the Biblical term for “blessed” is representative of God’s approval and the impartation of His authority upon His children. As we grow in our faith, we learn that one of the fruit of the Spirit is “gentleness” (Galatians 5:22-23). As the fruit of the Spirit are developed elements of individual character within each believer, we demonstrate these virtues in our actions and attitudes with the world around us. In so doing, we are fulfilling our fiduciary responsibilities as “ambassadors of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20) and His Kingdom. As adopted children of our Abba Father, redeemed by the blood of His Son, and sealed by His Holy Spirit, we are entitled to the inheritance of His Kingdom as sons and daughters of the Most High God.

So ultimately, what Jesus is saying here is this: Because we are His ambassadors, we are imparted a sense of authority during our time on Earth. But we are expected to exercise that authority with gentleness. We are not called to brow beat the gospel into people. We are not called to wield our Bibles as royal scepters. We have been sent out “like sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents, but gentle as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

Therefore, meekness is a character trait of genuine, spiritual authority. It is a humble recognition of our position before the Almighty God, but a confident acknowledgement that we are children of our Creator. It is a gentleness that is exercised with authority, even when judgement is warranted. Therefore as His ambassadors, we are called to have attitudes and actions that are worthy of that calling. In so doing, we realize the benefits of our inheritance in Him, in this life and in the life to come.

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