On the 13th of February 1978 a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel in George Street, Sydney.  The bombing was the first major terrorist incident in Australia.  The bomb had been planted in a garbage bin just outside the hotel entrance.  It exploded when the bin was emptied into a council garbage truck.  Three people lost their lives and seven more were injured.  In the soul searching that followed someone labelled that generation “the hate generation”.

Fast forward to October 7th 2023 and the incursion of Hamas terrorists into Israel.  More than a thousand people were murdered and hundreds more taken hostage.  We are not strangers to terrorism with its philosophy of social and political change through violence, kidnappings and bombings.

Of course such excessive outbursts of violence are really only a small part of a much wider and much more common ‘rough and tough’ outlook on life.  We have built a whole philosophy of toughness around us.  Life is hard and the soft-hearted won’t get far in life.  It’s the aggressive, the ruthless, the tight-fisted and self-assertive who is going places and who will be successful.  Think of the corporate world where you have to fight your way to the top.  Or think of how politics generally works: you have to outshout and out-manoeuvre your political opponents.  You need a killer instinct to squash your opposition.  The philosophy of rebellion and violence is not far below the surface in everyday life.  That kind of outlook is always ready to transform a peaceful street march into an ugly scene of violence.

In our society the words of Jesus Christ seem rather out of place: “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”  Meekness will win the world...!?!  Tell that to the terrorist and to those who strive to create a new society from the barrel of a gun.

Anyone who regards the meekness of Jesus as a model for us today is bound to be dismissed as a dreamer and out of touch with the hard realities of life.  But has violence really ever accomplished anything lasting?  Has rebellion really achieved much?  Perhaps there is need after all for that Christian virtue of meekness... a meekness which is prepared to allow God to be the one who settles personal injustices.

The problem is that we often fail to understand what it means to be meek.  I recall a youth camp many years ago where I took a series of studies on what the Bible calls The Fruit of The Spirit.  One of these nine fruit in Galatians 5 is ‘gentleness’ - corresponding to the ‘meekness’ Jesus is speaking about.  Afterwards I heard some interesting reactions.  One young lady confronted me... most irate: “If you think I’m going to be a doormat for other people you’ve got rocks in your head!”  Another person said: “At work I owe it to myself to stand up for my rights.”

So what then?  Does Jesus indeed mean you’ve got to take everything lying down?  If that’s the case then let’s just skip this particular beatitude and go on to the next one.  No!  Meekness has two key features.  FIRST meekness is an absence of pride.... humility comes into it.  You cannot have meekness where pride and arrogance rear their ugly heads.  SECOND it is a voluntary willingness to submit to others... to give in.  Meekness involves a willingness to deliberately turn the other cheek.  And that takes a certain strength of character.  Two examples from the Bible will help us.  Moses was said to be the meekest man on earth.  But we hardly ever think of Moses as a weak character - there was a strength there that was prepared to stand up to Pharaoh.  Or think of Jesus - meek but not weak - as He drives the money-changers from the temple with a whip.  Or think of the strength of character Jesus displayed at his trial and execution.

Jesus also showed us how to use that secret weapon of meekness: “If your enemy is hungry give him something to eat; if he’s thirsty give him something to drink.  For if you act in this way you will heap burning coals upon his head.”

Terrorists and rebels try with the power of a gun to bring about a new order.  The Bible says that God’s new order is to be given to those who know and live by the saying of Jesus: “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”

John Westendorp