Meekness, Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness and Showing Mercy
We continue our journey through the Sermon on the Mount, basing our series on John Wesley’s 13 sermons on the subject and our text today is Matthew 5: 5, 6 & 7
Meekness
The Good News translation translates the second part of verse 5, “they will receive what God has promised”, and the second part of verse 6, “God will satisfy them fully.” As an introduction I would like to ask, who would like to receive, in this life, everything that God has promised? And who would like to be satisfied, filled, in this life? And, who would like to be shown mercy in this life, and of course, in the next? I can’t imagine saying no to any of these. So if we want these blessings, Jesus says the way to them is to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to show mercy. In these three beatitudes we are going to see why Jesus behaved the way he did, in this life.
As we seek to become like Jesus, and behave like Him, we will see the attitude, the heart condition that we need to have: We need to be meek. Now, because meekness is a primary condition for being in this kingdom, Satan has turned it into something that the world regards as foolish. It might well be that we believe, and perhaps even teach our children to stand up for themselves, don’t let anyone push you around,….if you get hit ….. you hit back! Did Jesus ever teach this? No, but people building their houses, their lives on sand, believe this with all their heart. So meekness [which in some translations is translated as gentleness], meekness, in the foolish eyes of foolish wisdom, is seen as weakness or spinelessness. But those who are spiritually poor and those who mourn, not only their own sin but the sin of the world, ………born-again Christians in other words,….. people Jesus calls wise, are people who want to be meek. It’s the desire of their hearts and as the Holy Spirit works with that desire in those who want to become like Jesus, they become meek.
In this kingdom we become everything that God wants us to become – if we really want to. Are you meek? Do you want to be meek? Meekness does not mean that we have no emotions. It is not resignation or apathy and it certainly does not mean that we become a doormat. Meekness does not destroy our emotions, our feelings, but rather it balances them. Because our emotions need balancing …..otherwise they lead us into dreadful sin.
When the word meekness is applied to animals, it means that they have become tame. A meek horse is a tamed horse with all the strength it ever had, but it is now controlled. Your and my emotions need to be controlled, not destroyed, but controlled, so that they can be used the way Jesus wants them to be used. So meekness balances our emotions.
Meekness is not weakness, but rather it is tremendous strength. But it is controlled or tamed strength. Meekness makes us master over our emotions, our passions, our feelings and it leads to contentment and patience with ourselves and mildness with others. Meekness helps us to direct our God-given emotions like anger, hatred and fear. Meekness helps us direct those in the right direction. For example, meekness directs our anger towards sin or towards injustice and then might hopefully lead us into social action. You see, anger, for example, is allowed but it needs to be directed. Meekness helps direct it. Without meekness we get angry for the wrong reasons.
We need especially to be meek towards bad and horrible people and towards our enemies. We need to be meek, Jesus tells us, towards people who hit us. Jesus teaches us this and he shows us how it works in his own life. He knows that if we are not meek we will try and overcome evil with evil, whereas the gospels and the New Testament teach that in this new dispensation, the kingdom of God on earth in you – we over come evil with good. The world, what Jesus calls the foolish, says this is madness. But when we are born again, when Jesus lives in you by his Spirit, then we begin to see that this is real wisdom.
Up until verse 5, Jesus has been talking about hindrances to true Christianity. Among these is pride, the greatest stumbling block in our spiritual growth. Pride is taken away by spiritual poverty. Likewise, anger, impatience, discontent hinder true Christianity until they are healed by Christian meekness. When these things are removed from us, there is an emptiness in us because these things take up a great deal of space within us, in our spirit or in our soul. Let me give you an example: sometimes when people give up smoking, for example, they fill the space left with something else. They replace the craving for one thing with the craving for something else. Jesus says when poverty of spirit, when mourning and meekness get rid of wrong emotions and wrong passions within us,…. He says, “fill the space with a hunger and a thirst for righteousness”. Righteousness is to do what God requires. It is to be holy, it is to have the mind of Christ within us. And Jesus says, be hungry for these things. Long for personal holiness, like a thirsty person cries out, “Water, water.” Cry out for righteousness and notice what Jesus says,…… He says,……. “you will be filled.” What with?..... Popcorn? ……No, with righteousness. Isn’t that Good News? That’s incredibly good news. The rest of the New Testament will teach that we can become filled, not with a righteousness of our own but with the righteousness of Christ. That’s part of the renewal, the rebirth, that Jesus says is absolutely essential.
Notice, it is not those who are righteous who God will satisfy – it is those who want to be. Too many try to be righteous rather than wanting to be righteous. We try to behave but we don’t really want to behave, which is why many of us (this preacher included) struggle with sin instead of gaining victory over sin.
In Hebrews 12:14, we are told, “Be holy, for without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Who wants to see the Lord?........ Lots of us, I see. Well then, stop trying to be holy, because that’s something that comes from the head and start really wanting to be holy. That is something that comes from the heart. God will work a miracle in your life today. Listen to this wonderful good news. This is truly a blessing. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. One of the first results of a deep desire to become more like Jesus is–………. we become more like Jesus. More of his mind will be in our mind and one of the first manifestations of that work in our life is this: we become merciful. We show mercy to others because God has shown mercy to us. Because we are spiritually poor we know that we have offended God far more than anyone could ever offend us. No matter what they did to us, we know that it is nothing compared to what my sin has done to God. It killed his son. That’s what my sin did. And if God has shown mercy to me, I dare not refuse to show mercy to others.
We know what the world thinks of meekness. We know what the world thinks of hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We know what the world thinks of showing mercy. We know what wisdom is and we know what foolishness is. And we know as we read the Sermon on the Mount whether we are wise and building on the rock of His teaching or whether we are foolishly building on sand.
Are you wise or foolish?
If wise…..continue in the way of the Lord and be blessed.
If foolish, Praise God,….. praise Him for His grace in showing us our foolishness while we still have time to change.
Amen
