The Meek

[eclipsoul]

It’s easy to be meek when your best friend is omnipotent. If you’ve only got a gun or a baseball bat to defend yourself, I can see how muggers might take a shot at you. But when you’ve got God in your back pocket, they think twice. Of course, they didn’t think twice about nailing Jesus to a cross, did they? And he didn’t just have God covering his back. He was (and is) God, and they still murdered him.

Why did Jesus let them crucify him?

As God, clearly he could have avoided it. One of the advantages of being God is that you don’t have to be crucified unless you really truly like the idea of being crucified.

So why did Jesus let them do it? Why did he lie there calmly as they drove nails through his limbs and thorns into his crown? Why did he say such strange things as they spat and mocked his dying body?

If you want a good example of a meek man, just take a look at Jesus on the Cross.

Father forgive them? They know not what they do?

These aren’t the words of a God who made the grand canyon. These aren’t the words of a God who didn’t just create a few million stars, but went ahead and made a few million galaxies. Nothing this guy does is small. Nothing this deity says is trivial. A meek God? Would we have ever believed it? If we were to turn God into a man, would we have ever imagined a man like Jesus? The Jews who killed him certainly didn’t.

But yet, these strange words… “Father, forgive them.”

Could anyone be less deserving of forgiveness than those who murdered God? If ever there was an injustice done on earth, don’t you think the crucifixion of our creator would count as the greatest? The murder of Jesus is the most profoundly evil thing to ever occur on earth. It just isn’t cool to kill God. Jesus asked for their forgiveness… well… because they really needed it.

So lets get this straight:

Jesus came and said, “I’m God, and I’m here to save you.”
His killers came and said, “We refuse to believe you are God, we refuse to be saved, and what’s more, we’re gonna kill you. Life sucks, huh?” Then they laugh.

And Jesus forgives them anyways? Is he nuts?

If people go to hell for refusing to “accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior” or for refusing to be baptized, or for killing an unborn baby, or for any of the other things that all the Christian churches love to condemn men and women for, don’t you think that the men who tortured and murdered God himself ought to be down there too? Does Jesus have no sense of justice?

Or am I making a big deal out of nothing? Is Jesus just talking about the soldiers who are just doing their job? You know, another day of nailing men to the cross. “Just following orders, you know?”

Or is Jesus talking about all of us? Haven’t we all murdered Jesus in our hearts? Haven’t we all ignored his love? Haven’t we all turned our backs on him and become a Judas?

What sort of man forgives people like us? What sort of God is he?

Meek. Absolutely and unbelievable meek.

Is there any question that Jesus was meek? Well, I guess there’s that one time he sort of blew his top at the temple and drove all the animals out, then there’s all those times he got really mad at the hypocrites, and every now and then he’d talk about this fiery pit that we were all going to be thrown into unless we repent, but beyond all that hysteria (and all the ‘I’m God’ talk), he was a pretty low-key kind of guy. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, remember? He just wants us to do a few small things, and after that, we’ll all get busy changing water into wine for that big party in heaven he keeps promising us. After all of it is said and done, Jesus just wants to wash our feet and make us happy. He is perfectly content being in the corner, watching us have fun in the world he created. He doesn’t like having to make all these big speeches. He’d rather tell a story or a parable or two. He doesn’t even use the first person! He just calls himself the ‘son of man’, which is like saying ‘I’m just a guy like you, bro’. And then, this crazy nut, this beautiful God of ours, he calls us his friends! No kidding? We kill him, and all he can do is smile and forgive us and call us his friends. Lunacy? Nah.

It’s Love.

The guy is head over heals for us. How couldn’t he be? He made us, right? God’s the kind of guy who sends a girl a thousand roses, and then hides behind a bush as they are delivered to her. He’s the ultimate secret admirer! Meek doesn’t even begin to describe him. It is one thing to be weak and meek, but quite another to be the most powerful being in existence and to shrug and blush about the whole thing. Well, but that isn’t quite right, is it? He did spend a few thousand years hammering one idea into the souls of the Jewish race, or at least, he tried. It didn’t exactly take – not even with all the prophets and exiles and exoduses he threw their way. When it became clear that Israel just wasn’t going to listen, he came down himself, and I can’t help but imagine that he held high hopes that they would finally get his message. And what’s His message? It’s obvious, isn’t it?

Love.

He Loves us. He wants us to Love. That’s it. There’s nothing else. Just Love.

But somehow, they missed the message. We’ve all missed it. Maybe the problem is that we aren’t meek enough to love like Jesus did. Don’t you get the feeling that when Jesus says things, he means them? When Jesus says that the biggest and baddest commandment is Love, and that we ought to Love like he did, and that the greatest Love is a friend dying for his friends, and that we ought to Love our enemies, and that on the cross (in the grandest meekest way ever) he asks for his enemies forgiveness? And then? And then he actually does forgive us! He forgives everyone! Not just you and me and Peter and Paul, but everyone! Whether they accept him and his forgiveness is another matter, but that’s beside the point. He still offers. He offers to forgive Hitler and Mother Theresa alike. He’s desperately in Love with all of us, from Cain to Able, from me to you, he loves us all – forever.

Meek?

Forgiving the unforgivable has to be the most pompous act ever. Maybe it takes a crucifixion to turn such a grand act into something meek. You know what is even meeker? Becoming human in the first place, right? I mean, he didn’t even let himself be born into royalty, or even in a nice place like a house. No, it just had to be a manger. I can just see God pondering his entrance into the world, and talking it over with his angels:

“So Michael, what do you think about this manger idea? Pretty funny, huh?”
“I don’t know, God. It seems a bit ironic, doesn’t it? I mean, even by your standards, it’s a bit over the top.”
“I know, I know, but its funny right? There’s nothing funnier than a meek God being born as a weak human in a manger.”
“Yeah… but…”
“Oh come on, you know its hilarious. All right, send out Gabe to Mary and let her know I’m on my way.”

And then God becomes Man. Turns out Michael sent three kings to him anyways, but God doesn’t mind. He loves it when we try to be like him – loving and meek.

And so what is the point of all this?

Jesus (God himself) is meek, and when you’re meek, you don’t even consider harming another human being. You’d rather die than let any harm come to them. Love doesn’t yell back. Love doesn’t strike out. Love doesn’t defend itself, because it doesn’t need to. Men can kill and spit and mock and crucify, but they can’t destroy Love. Why is Jesus meek? He’s meek because he is Love incarnate. He is meek, because when Death touches him, he touches Death back and saves us all.

Meek men don’t start wars. Meek men don’t execute their criminals – they are executed as criminals. Meek men hear the commandment, “You shall not kill”, “Love your enemies”, “Resist not injury”, and don’t think to themselves, “Ahhh, but God, I know better. You don’t really mean that, because it might end up with me and my friends suffering and dying.”

And then God looks up from his cross, with blood running from his crown of thorns, with blood pouring out his pierced side, and he speaks.

“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

 

[InnerPhyre]

It’s easy to be meek when your best friend is omnipotent. If you’ve only got a gun or a baseball bat to defend yourself, I can see how muggers might take a shot at you. But when you’ve got God in your back pocket, they think twice. Of course, they didn’t think twice about nailing Jesus to a cross, did they? And he didn’t just have God covering his back. He was God, and they still murdered him.

Why did Jesus let them crucify him?

As God, clearly he could have avoided it. One of the advantages of being God is that you don’t have to be crucified unless you really truly like the idea of being crucified.

So why did Jesus let them do it? Why did he lie there calmly as they drove nails through his limbs and thorns into his crown? Why did he say such strange things as they spat and mocked his dying body?

If you want a good example of a meek man, just take a look at Jesus on the Cross.

Father forgive them? They know not what they do?

These aren’t the words of a God who made the grand canyon. These aren’t the words of a God who didn’t just create a few million stars, but went ahead and made a few million galaxies. Nothing this guy does is small. Nothing this deity says is trivial. A meek God? Would we have ever believed it? If we were to turn God into a man, would we have ever imagined a man like Jesus? The Jews who killed him certainly didn’t.

But yet, these strange words… “Father, forgive them.”

Could anyone be less deserving of forgiveness than those who murdered God? If ever there was an injustice done on earth, don’t you think the crucifixion of our creator would count as the greatest? The murder of Jesus is the most profoundly evil thing to ever occur on earth. It just isn’t cool to kill God. Jesus asked for their forgiveness… well… because they really needed it.

So lets get this straight:

Jesus came and said, “I’m God, and I’m here to save you.”
His killers came and said, “We refuse to believe you are God, we refuse to be saved, and what’s more, we’re gonna kill you. Life sucks, huh?” Then they laugh.

And Jesus forgives them anyways? Is he nuts?

If people go to hell for refusing to “accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior” or for refusing to be baptized, or for killing an unborn baby, or for any of the other things that all the Christian churches love to condemn men and women for, don’t you think that the men who tortured and murdered God himself ought to be down there too? Does Jesus have no sense of justice?

Or am I making a big deal out of nothing? Is Jesus just talking about the soldiers who are just doing their job? You know, another day of nailing men to the cross. “Just following orders, you know?”

Or is Jesus talking about all of us? Haven’t we all murdered Jesus in our hearts? Haven’t we all ignored his love? Haven’t we all turned our backs on him and become a Judas?

What sort of man forgives people like us? What sort of God is he?

Meek. Absolutely and unbelievable meek.

Is there any question that Jesus was meek? Well, I guess there’s that one time he sort of blew his top at the temple and drove all the animals out, then there’s all those times he got really mad at the hypocrites, and every now and then he’d talk about this fiery pit that we were all going to be thrown into unless we repent, but beyond all that hysteria (and all the ‘I’m God’ talk), he was a pretty low-key kind of guy. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, remember? He just wants us to do a few small things, and after that, we’ll all get busy changing water into wine for that big party in heaven he keeps promising us. After all of it is said and done, Jesus just wants to wash our feet and make us happy. He is perfectly content being in the corner, watching us have fun in the world he created. He doesn’t like having to make all these big speeches. He’d rather tell a story or a parable or two. He doesn’t even use the first person! He just calls himself the ‘son of man’, which is like saying ‘I’m just a guy like you, bro’. And then, this crazy nut, this beautiful God of ours, he calls us his friends! No kidding? We kill him, and all he can do is smile and forgive us and call us his friends. Lunacy? Nah.

It’s Love.

The guy is head over heals for us. How couldn’t he be? He made us, right? God’s the kind of guy who sends a girl a thousand roses, and then hides behind a bush as they are delivered to her. He’s the ultimate secret admirer! Meek doesn’t even begin to describe him. It is one thing to be weak and meek, but quite another to be the most powerful being in existence and to shrug and blush about the whole thing. Well, but that isn’t quite right, is it? He did spend a few thousand years hammering one idea into the souls of the Jewish race, or at least, he tried. It didn’t exactly take – not even with all the prophets and exiles and exoduses he threw their way. When it became clear that Israel just wasn’t going to listen, he came down himself, and I can’t help but imagine that he held high hopes that they would finally get his message. And what’s His message? It’s obvious, isn’t it?

Love.

He Loves us. He wants us to Love. That’s it. There’s nothing else. Just Love.

But somehow, they missed the message. We’ve all missed it. Maybe the problem is that we aren’t meek enough to love like Jesus did. Don’t you get the feeling that when Jesus says things, he means them? When Jesus says that the biggest and baddest commandment is Love, and that we ought to Love like he did, and that the greatest Love is a friend dying for his friends, and that we ought to Love our enemies, and that on the cross (in the grandest meekest way ever) he asks for his enemies forgiveness? And then? And then he actually does forgive us! He forgives everyone! Not just you and me and Peter and Paul, but everyone! Whether they accept him and his forgiveness is another matter, but that’s beside the point. He still offers. He offers to forgive Hitler and Mother Theresa alike. He’s desperately in Love with all of us, from Cain to Able, from me to you, he loves us all – forever.

Meek?

Forgiving the unforgivable has to be the most pompous act ever. Maybe it takes a crucifixion to turn such a grand act into something meek. You know what is even meeker? Becoming human in the first place, right? I mean, he didn’t even let himself be born into royalty, or even in a nice place like a house. No, it just had to be a manger. I can just see God pondering his entrance into the world, and talking it over with his angels:

“So Michael, what do you think about this manger idea? Pretty funny, huh?”
“I don’t know, God. It seems a bit ironic, doesn’t it? I mean, even by your standards, it’s a bit over the top.”
“I know, I know, but its funny right? There’s nothing funnier than a meek God being born as a weak human in a manger.”
“Yeah… but…”
“Oh come on, you know its hilarious. All right, send out Gabe to Mary and let her know I’m on my way.”

And then God becomes Man. Turns out Michael sent three kings to him anyways, but God doesn’t mind. He loves it when we try to be like him – loving and meek.

And so what is the point of all this?

Jesus (God himself) is meek, and when you’re meek, you don’t even consider harming another human being. You’d rather die than let any harm come to them. Love doesn’t yell back. Love doesn’t strike out. Love doesn’t defend itself, because it doesn’t need to. Men can kill and spit and mock and crucify, but they can’t destroy Love. Why is Jesus meek? He’s meek because he is Love incarnate. He is meek, because when Death touches him, he touches Death back and saves us all.

Meek men don’t start wars. Meek men don’t execute their criminals – they are executed as criminals. Meek men hear the commandment, “You shall not kill”, “Love your enemies”, “Resist not injury”, and don’t think to themselves, “Ahhh, but God, I know better. You don’t really mean that, because it might end up with me and my friends suffering and dying.”

And then God looks up from his cross, with blood running from his crown of thorns, with blood pouring out his pierced side, and he speaks.

“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Amen Amen Amen and

 

[Credo]

Terrific post, eclipsoul!

 

[Dream]

Excellent post! It looked to long at first, but everything you said made perfect sense. Thank you very much for sharing that.

 

[eclipsoul]

thanks guys Its part of a book I'm writing, called "Resist Not: The Terrifying Cross of True Love". I'll probably be posting it as I go along on my website, if you want to read more later.

 

[InnerPhyre]

This is hitting on exactly the problems I've been struggling with lately about the cause for war, self defense, etc. This offered some great insight.

 

[Dream]

thanks guys Its part of a book I'm writing, called "Resist Not: The Terrifying Cross of True Love". I'll probably be posting it as I go along on my website, if you want to read more later.

You've certaintly got a talent for writing. Keep up the good work. Let us know when this book is published.

 

[eclipsoul]

I should have put this in my last post for you InnerPhyre - I already wrote a book called +he Way about the very questions you brought up. When I was discharged from the Army as a Conscientious Objector, I had a long time to think about things, and I started writing. Eventually it turned into a book. Its on sale at amazon, but its online here, in pdf format. Just don't let people know - they might stop buying my book (all three of them!)

 

[InnerPhyre]

I should have put this in my last post for you InnerPhyre - I already wrote a book called +he Way about the very questions you brought up. When I was discharged from the Army as a Conscientious Objector, I had a long time to think about things, and I started writing. Eventually it turned into a book. Its on sale at amazon, but its online here, in pdf format. Just don't let people know - they might stop buying my book (all three of them!)

I can't wait to read it! Got a link to it on Amazon?

 

[eclipsoul]

I can't wait to read it! Got a link to it on Amazon?

I'd feel funny posting a link to a commercial web site, but you can find the first chapter and the link to its amazon page through my website at ... this page