Blessed Are the Meek, for They Will Inherit the Earth"
by Jonathan and Thelma Nambu Issue #138 November/December 2003


There was once a man who spent his life doing the right things. He was a reliable man who tended his father's farm. Day after day, he rose early, along with the servants, to work the fields until sunset. His burly, tanned body spoke of his persevering, painstaking labor. So did the bounty of the harvest he helped to reap, which was always plentiful.
In spite of his faithfulness, the man still lacked something. The joy and contentment that should have come with his hard work were absent. This became apparent the day he learned his father had called for a celebration to mark his younger brother's return. In the older man's eyes, his younger brother had done everything wrong: He had asked for his inheritance, then left for a distant city where he had squandered it all. When the young man had grown destitute, he returned home and begged his father's forgiveness. The older brother complained bitterly to the father:

Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!
—Lk. 15:29–30

The father replied, "My son…you are always with me, and everything I have is yours" (v. 31).
How many times do we act like the older brother, doing the right things for God and missing the inheritance our Father wants to share with us? We may be faithful in prayer, Bible study, and doing kind deeds for our neighbors, yet still miss out on the peace, joy, love, and contentment God promised His children (Jn. 10:10, 14:27; Gal. 5:22–23). Why does our striving sometimes hinder us from knowing the God we work so hard to please?
Perhaps the answer lies in Jesus' words, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Mt. 5:5). The inheritance God promised is a blessing only the meek experience deeply. It is not a by-product of their doing, but rather flows from their being. Meekness is a posture of the heart toward God—a posture of humility. Without meekness, we will not receive what we already have in Christ, just as the older brother failed to receive his father's love.
What does it mean to be meek before God? We see this quality demonstrated in three images from the life of the son who left home.

Humble Hearts

Meekness begins with a heart that recognizes how needy, helpless, and impoverished it really is. Until our hearts are emptied of self, we cannot be meek before God. The older son was far from meek—despite his commendable deeds—because his heart was haughty. He was self-sufficient, self-righteous, and valued recognition more than a deep relationship with his father and brother.
The younger son initially adopted the same stance of self-dependency as his older brother. He prematurely demanded his inheritance in order to pursue life on his own terms. A famine stripped his hopes bare and revealed his need. In the mire, he came to his senses and remembered that he had not lost everything. He still had a good father to whom he could run.
But returning to the father required exchanging his arrogant heart for a meek one. The prodigal son knew he was unworthy of love and forgiveness, absolutely dependent upon the mercy of one whose love he had rejected (Lk. 15:13–21).
A destitute heart recognizes that apart from God, we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5). We are utterly impoverished and dependent upon Him. All our good works and efforts will not satisfy our cravings for love and meaning in life. Only God will. We see that attitude of dependence in the opening words of Psalm 123.
I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.
—vv. 1–3

The psalmist's words remind us of Beth, someone we've befriended in our ministry among women ensnared in prostitution. When we first met her, Beth exuded the kind of confidence that came from years of determined dependence on herself. Four years later, Beth hit bottom. Nearing despair, she turned to the Lord in meekness, looking to God for salvation and survival. She admitted she couldn't make it on her own.

Bended Knees

We find a second image of meekness in Rembrandt's beautiful painting of the prodigal's story. The artist depicts the returning son on bended knees, pleading to the father, while the older son stands nearby—stiff, unsympathetic, and furious. The prodigal's posture, in contrast to his self-righteous brother's, is a portrait of surrender.
Surrender involves the twin actions of letting go and relaxing. Letting go requires continually releasing control over our lives and relinquishing our plan in favor of God's will. It may mean letting go of a bad habit, an addiction, an approval-seeking behavior, or anything else we've used to find fulfillment apart from God.
The call to surrender is also a call to relax in the Father's unconditional love, into which we are forever invited. Our striving, grasping, positioning, manipulating, performing, and mask-wearing can all slip away as we yield to the goodness of our Father. He loves and accepts us as we are. In relaxing, our souls find true rest.

Open Hands

Finally, a meek heart resembles open hands that are ready to receive. The older son missed out on what he already had in the father's household. He was so consumed and blinded by his efforts to earn the father's riches that he couldn't receive the father's freely given love, presence, and acceptance.
The father wanted to give so much more than just an inheritance to his sons: He longed to give himself. In the same way, our heavenly Father wants to give Himself to us; He longs to be admitted into our hearts. But He does not force His way. Rather, He waits for us to open the doors and receive him (Rev. 3:20).
Living with hands ready to receive the Father's love doesn't come naturally to many of us, perhaps because it requires the humble acknowledgment that we are limited, dependent, weak, needy, and sinful. Our understanding of acceptance can be very similar to the older brother's—something we earn rather than a gift we receive freely. We do this with people, and we do it with God, driven by the lie that approval must be merited.
Yet unless our hearts are destitute, unless our knees are bent before God in surrender and submission, it will be hard to stretch out our hands, to wait for and receive the gift of love and mercy God is always ready to give. As we welcome our neediness and surrender our control to God, we are released to receive all that He waits to bestow upon us. Through the hidden blessing of meekness, we inherit the earth—and all the joy our Father wants to share with us, His beloved children. .