Article June 16, 1986 Issue

The meek shall inherit?

BRYAN G. POPE

Some might well think Christ Jesus made a big mistake when he said, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."^{Matt. 5:5.} Surely the strong always have pushed and always will push the meek to the wall. Did he mean the humble would take over when all the villains have somehow disappeared? From the everyday standpoint it would seem the meek have a hard job making Jesus' words come true. To be frank, many would say there is not very much evidence that the process has even begun.

The standpoint of the Bible is not in the least "everyday." It is for every day, but it very often needs to be looked at from anything but an everyday angle.

Christ Jesus was not a man to make mistakes, or one who made astounding prophecies just because they sounded good. He was speaking of the possible. Nevertheless he spoke of himself as meek—and yet, paradoxically, he was the mightiest individual who ever lived on earth. Disease of all kinds disappeared before his understanding of God; he passed unscathed through a crowd of people determined to kill him; walked on water; fed multitudes without a supermarket or even a local bakery to draw on; resurrected his human body after letting those who hated him and his teaching crucify it. What, then, is the link between his kind of meekness and the kind of might necessary for inheriting the earth?

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