"Behold my servant [i.e., Christ, the Messiah]...He shall not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench..." Isaiah 42:1-3a
There is something to be said for the gentleness of Christ, for His absolute, divine meekness. It was indeed the greatest of all foolishnesses to save the world through such a man. At least the Greeks mythologized the descent and death of a god to and on earth with much heroism and grandeur; the Jews at least saw the Messiah as a king who would conquer and kill. What they all got, however, was the poor carpenter from Galilee, Who raise no rebellions, and healed the broken, and was very God of very God. A bruised reed is an easy thing to break, and a smoking candlewick is an easy thing to put out; yet His gentle meekness would leave them all unscathed whilst He saved the world.
We must rescue the words "meek" and "meekness" from the secular trash-talkers and slogan makers. Anyone with a knucklehead's understanding of English vocabulary would know that "meek" is not a synonym for "weak," nor is "meekness" one for "weakness" (no matter how well they alliterate). To have "meekness," to be "meek," is to have power and strength under control. The image is that of an elephant: the perfect combination of bone-crushing power and strength with a gentle disposition. That is what it means to be meek, and since Christ was God in the flesh, then His meekness was absolute power and strength under absolute control.
The opposite of meekness is most certainly not strength. The opposite of meekness is recklessness, or better yet, savagery, a complete and utter loss of self-control that results in abominable cruelty. Those who despise meekness as weakness have no idea what they are doing. There is no greater weakness than a total inability to control yourself, to suffer a complete breakdown of self-control, a spiraling out into chaotic animal volatility. Our Lord did not have this problem. His temptation in the wilderness proved He could have taken over the world whenever He wanted. His own words proved that He could have, with a mere command, summed countless angels to wipe out the world. His own actions, such as in the temple or with the Pharisees, proved that He had power and strength, and that He knew when and where to use them, i.e., He had absolute control over them. These, however, are not the greatest proof of His meekness.
If there is one symbol that will forever tower above all others as the banner of absolute meekness, it is the cross of Christ. Never before has there been such outlandish example of divine power and strength under absolute control. That God condescended for us, and took on flesh, that He went through the kenosis and the Incarnation, is grand enough meekness, but He did not stop there. Let all the nay-sayers be silent before the cross, before the monument of meekness, before the moment in time when the Creator of all allowed His feeble creation to overpower Him (what a thought!) and kill Him (what a thought!). There is no greater meekness, no greater strength, then almighty divinity hanging from the cross. No greater control than the holy Uncreated allowing Himself to be killed by the fallen and defiled created. There is no greater strength to be found than for Heaven, of its own volition, to submit to earth, for the Son of Heaven to freely submit to the sons of earth. How can one call this weakness? Our fallen minds cannot fathom the depths of such strength, the power of such control, and the reality of the truth that on the cross the Meek did indeed inherit the earth. Amen.
"To fathom the strength that is the Cross,
Salvation won through suffering shame.
Can my mind come near to grasping the whole of it?"
-Jon Vowell
There is something to be said for the gentleness of Christ, for His absolute, divine meekness. It was indeed the greatest of all foolishnesses to save the world through such a man. At least the Greeks mythologized the descent and death of a god to and on earth with much heroism and grandeur; the Jews at least saw the Messiah as a king who would conquer and kill. What they all got, however, was the poor carpenter from Galilee, Who raise no rebellions, and healed the broken, and was very God of very God. A bruised reed is an easy thing to break, and a smoking candlewick is an easy thing to put out; yet His gentle meekness would leave them all unscathed whilst He saved the world.
We must rescue the words "meek" and "meekness" from the secular trash-talkers and slogan makers. Anyone with a knucklehead's understanding of English vocabulary would know that "meek" is not a synonym for "weak," nor is "meekness" one for "weakness" (no matter how well they alliterate). To have "meekness," to be "meek," is to have power and strength under control. The image is that of an elephant: the perfect combination of bone-crushing power and strength with a gentle disposition. That is what it means to be meek, and since Christ was God in the flesh, then His meekness was absolute power and strength under absolute control.
The opposite of meekness is most certainly not strength. The opposite of meekness is recklessness, or better yet, savagery, a complete and utter loss of self-control that results in abominable cruelty. Those who despise meekness as weakness have no idea what they are doing. There is no greater weakness than a total inability to control yourself, to suffer a complete breakdown of self-control, a spiraling out into chaotic animal volatility. Our Lord did not have this problem. His temptation in the wilderness proved He could have taken over the world whenever He wanted. His own words proved that He could have, with a mere command, summed countless angels to wipe out the world. His own actions, such as in the temple or with the Pharisees, proved that He had power and strength, and that He knew when and where to use them, i.e., He had absolute control over them. These, however, are not the greatest proof of His meekness.
If there is one symbol that will forever tower above all others as the banner of absolute meekness, it is the cross of Christ. Never before has there been such outlandish example of divine power and strength under absolute control. That God condescended for us, and took on flesh, that He went through the kenosis and the Incarnation, is grand enough meekness, but He did not stop there. Let all the nay-sayers be silent before the cross, before the monument of meekness, before the moment in time when the Creator of all allowed His feeble creation to overpower Him (what a thought!) and kill Him (what a thought!). There is no greater meekness, no greater strength, then almighty divinity hanging from the cross. No greater control than the holy Uncreated allowing Himself to be killed by the fallen and defiled created. There is no greater strength to be found than for Heaven, of its own volition, to submit to earth, for the Son of Heaven to freely submit to the sons of earth. How can one call this weakness? Our fallen minds cannot fathom the depths of such strength, the power of such control, and the reality of the truth that on the cross the Meek did indeed inherit the earth. Amen.
"To fathom the strength that is the Cross,
Salvation won through suffering shame.
Can my mind come near to grasping the whole of it?"
-Jon Vowell
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