Issue 9, Jun 2008
Last month, we began to look at Jesus Christ’s first recorded public sermon in the first Gospel of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew. The sermon opens with the Eight Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:3-11. 

 

We specifically reflected upon what it means to be “blessed”, upon the “poor in spirit” and upon “those who mourn” (Matthew 5:3-4). 

 

It is important to remember that the Beatitudes are Gospel, not Law. The Gospel offers and works forgiveness, reconciliation to God, and new life in Christ Jesus by bringing to us the Person, work, and benefits of Christ Jesus. Hear Paul’s letter to the Romans:

 

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (1:16,17)

 

The Third Beatitude, Matthew 5:5, contains Jesus’ words to each of us: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

 

As you consider His words, ask yourself how we typically define the word “meek” in the everyday language of this world. Do we not use it to describe someone who is so non-assertive that he is most likely going to be completely run over by others without offering any resistance? That may be how we use the word, but the real question is how, in His inspired Word, our Lord defines “meekness.”

 

The Greek word translated into English as “meek” is praotes or prautes. The Greek word does not, any sense whatsoever, point to a person lacking courage or vigor. In fact, it clearly points to person who demonstrates gentleness in power, not weakness. 

 

Praotes, as Jesus uses it, refers to the power of God working within a believer living under the Cross in the way of salvation. This power remains totally under God’s control.

 

Further, this power is given, sustained, strengthened and preserved by God Himself only in the means of grace, the Word and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. By these means, he both offers and works forgiveness, speaking His Word of Absolution. Thus we are empowered to live that life of Christ, the life that will never end.

 

He may give his Word of forgiveness and absolution in the Word read or in the Word proclaimed, in the Lord’s Supper, through the waters of Baptism, privately through the lips of a pastor or a fellow member of the Body of Christ or in personal Bible Study. Note that God’s power is given, preserved and strengthened in others through human lips when men proclaim that sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus. 

 

Meekness as used in this Beatitude is not allowing others to run over you. Rather it is being filled with the gift of sharing in the victory of Jesus Christ over sin, Satan, and death itself.

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ continues in Matthew 5:6, with a Fourth Beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (NIV)

 

These first four Beatitudes go together. Jesus calls us to be filled with Him and His life, to be “poor in spirit.” He calls us to mourn over the reality of sin, the sin that kills and is a curse upon this world. Then He invites us to follow Him in meekness, ever knowing that we have life from Him, life empowered by Him and under His control.

 

The Fourth Beatitude presents the Gospel promise and works faith in us as our gracious Heavenly Father, by His Word, both creates the needed spiritual appetite and fills us with true nourishment for our souls. That Word-created and sustained faith grasps the benefits of Christ’s Person and work, our real and complete salvation. Through saving faith worked by His Gospel, His righteousness is imputed to us so that He is ever our righteousness.

 

To avoid His Word in any way is to avoid Him and to be cut off from true life, life that begins now and will continue forever. To be fed by His Word is truly to have the Lord Jesus Christ within you, to be in Christ. That is what we ultimately seek when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Jesus is and must always remain our “bread of life” (John 6:35). He Himself wants to feed you everyday. We truly live by and in His Word. 

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By Larry D. Harvey