Main Idea: Being simply Christian means I gain what is God says is best by using what others think is the least.

How do you propose or plan to gain what you think is best for your life? What is your plan to achieve your greatest desires? Most people would say that brains, guts, determination, good breaks, strength and courage are just a few of the essentials that are required to get what we think is best. None of those are wrong or bad if they are kept in balance. The only problem is that you don’t have to be particularly Christian to apply those things to your life. I mean those things are the basic conventional wisdom for our day. Any business magazine or book you pick up is going to have a story or article about someone who got what or where they wanted by using one or more of those things.

If though I am going to be Christian, simply Christian, how will I gain the best, especially God’s best for my life? Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." (Matt.5:5) You will have to admit that at first glance this is an absurd statement because it doesn’t fit our culture. It seems irrelevant and out of place in a world such as ours. Yet Jesus was the master at saying things that turn our ways of thinking upside down. Over these weeks we have discovered that if we are going to be simply Christian then it will be the things everyone else thinks are ridiculous that separate us from everyone else. We have seen that God gives his approval, blessing, to those who declare spiritual bankruptcy and dare to confront life seriously. Now Jesus says that if you will gain the best, it will be done with what we think is the least likely way and that is through meekness or gentleness.

Why do we resist the idea of being meek? I suppose that if you are like me, when you think of being meek or meekness you think of the negative perception of someone who is weak, spineless, timid, shy, withdrawn or gutless. The positive would be someone who is soft spoken, quiet, unassuming and who likes dogs and children not necessarily in that order. They are someone who really doesn’t bother anyone and goes about their life being nice and not stirring up trouble. This is why we struggle so with what Jesus says because if that is what it means then we know that a person with that kind of attitude is going to get is run over certainly not gaining or getting anything.

Our misunderstanding of meekness further comes when you compare our idea of what meekness is with what we see in the life of Jesus and hear from the lips of Jesus. Jesus said in our text for today: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." He later referred to himself in Matt. 11:28-29 by saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Now from those words you would get the idea that at all times Jesus was that passive, mild, quiet person that we normally assume is meek or gentle. Yet twice in his ministry Jesus wrecked the tables of the moneychangers who were defiling God’s temple. John writes, "Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and oxen, scattered the money changers' coins over the floor, and turned over their tables." (John 2:15) I think you would agree with me that making a whip, using it to drive people out of a building and turning over tables is really someone who needs anger management, not referring to themselves as meek!

So how do you reconcile the statements of Jesus about his meek and humble ways with the actions of aggression and anger he displayed at other times in his ministry? To do that, let’s take a moment to understand the meaning of the word "meek." It generally means gentle, mild, quiet, humble or friendly. Yet it also referred to an animal that had been tamed or trained to do a specific task, such as a horse that has been conditioned or trained for battle or racing. We imagine that being meek or gentle is the equivalent of weakness when actually it is strength that has been put under control. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said it described a person who was "angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time." So a meek or gentle person is someone who has chosen to bring their emotions, passions and desires under control or containment for a higher or greater purpose than their own satisfaction. They have surrendered their idea of what is best in order to achieve a greater good or something better.

When did Jesus choose this kind of surrender in order that he would be or demonstrate meekness? It was when he surrendered his rightful privileges as the Son of God in order to achieve the greater purpose of God. Paul would say in Philippians 2:5-10, "Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross. He surrendered all that he claimed as his rights as God’s Son to satisfy the very best that God wanted for him and ultimately for us.

It would be this surrender that would penetrate his life and ministry that turns our view of success and achievement upside down. When we expect a king to be born in a palace, he is found naked in an animal-feeding trough. When we expect that he would take over John the Baptist’s ministry, he, instead, submits to his baptism. When we look for him to organize an influential network with the powerful, he, instead, secluded himself with twelve misfits. When we anticipate his claiming his rightful place in history, he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey accompanied by children’s songs. When we imagine his last actions will be planning the overthrow of Rome, he washes the feet of his followers. When he is arrested and abused, we are sure he will call down angels; instead, he is silent and doesn’t defend himself. When we believe, he, at last, will refuse unjust execution and show his power, he is nailed to a cross between two thieves. What kind of person is this? What kind of God is this? What kind of example is this?

Jesus gained the best that God wanted for him because he had surrendered his greatest desires. That is why he could say; "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."(Matt. 5:5) and "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matt. 11:29) Because Jesus surrendered his desires it freed him from trying to achieve his or God’s purposes by force or manipulation. Because he had experienced the surrender of his desires he had the freedom to call himself "meek" or "gentle" and knew that meekness was the way to find lasting achievement. He understood that he would gain the best with what everyone assumed was the least.

Let me ask you: What is the best that you want out of life? I mean look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:5. He is promising us that if we have this attitude that the "earth" could belong to us. I’m not really interested in the whole "earth" and I don’t think that Jesus was talking about the physical alone. I think his words really apply to the things we desire that are best in life. Things like our goals or achievements. So what is the best that you really want? What are your greatest desires? You may be a person whose desire for what is best drives you continually. It isn’t just temporary but desires that are firmly planted in your soul and whatever else may come there is this one thing that you are directing all of your life to achieve. On the other hand, you may be a person who has certain temporary goals that are like rungs on a ladder. You want to improve your ACT score, get a scholarship, get your degree, get a job, get married, have kids (change diapers, stay up all night, wipe noses), get a house. Those are sort of temporary stair steps that we find are our heart’s passion and we are steering our life toward them with purpose and intention.

You could be a person whose idea of what is best has just begun to take shape after getting a little further down the road. You have accomplished all the steps on your plan and now you feel like you want to go in another direction or that you have something extra to give or share at this place in your life. You feel like there is still a lot of "tread" left on the tires and you want to spend the next portion of your life significantly impacting the lives of others. You may be a person who feels that you really are at the end of your effectiveness and you are looking back and see how God has used you. The only thing left for you is heaven and as far as you are concerned there is nothing greater or best in life.

So what is the best that you want out of life? You don’t want the whole "earth" but you do have a desire for just a little more. How are you going to gain what is best? There are a lot of different ways to get what you want. You could do it by sheer human will and determination. You just work hard and work harder than anyone else and there is a possibility that you can get what you are wanting. You may not be as disciplined as some to work as hard as it will take so you decide that you will spend your energy in force or manipulation. It takes as much work but you bully, intimidate or manipulate people and circumstances to get what you want. There is a possibility that you can get what you want by shear, raw power. You may choose to see every person or situation as a battle that you must fight so you choose combat and conflict to get what you want. The truth is that there is a possibility that any of these methods will work. I mean other people do it all the time so why shouldn’t you?

So there is a possibility that hard work, manipulation or aggression can get you what you want. It’s worked for some. It may work for you. Who is to say? Let’s say you try any of these approaches for gaining what is best, where does that get you? It may work but it may not. The result is what Jesus described in Matthew 11:28, as being "labored" or "weary" and "heavy-laden", carrying "heavy burdens." The Message just says, "tired" and "worn out." That’s the price you pay for using those methods for gaining what you think is best. The cost of force is always high: poor health, high stress, broken relationships, and lost marriages, loss of integrity, respect and exhaustion. You may or may not have what you want but because of what it cost you to get there you may very well have paid more than what your idea of what is best is really worth.

So Jesus offers you an alternative: meekness. He tells you that you will gain the best by utilizing the least. He tells you to come to him and he will give you rest. I don’t hear that as passive, like lying down in a hammock under a tree. No, I hear it as fulfillment. There is nothing as fulfilling as achieving something. It is just a "good tired." He continues by saying, though, that to have this satisfaction we have to trade or surrender the burden of our desires for what is best to the benefit of his direction. He says, "Take my yoke upon you." A yoke was what they put on the shoulders of cattle or oxen to direct them in the field. He tells us that his "yoke" or direction "fits perfectly" and the responsibilities are "light." They are not constraining or exhausting. His alternative to our struggle is surrender to his direction and purpose. He is content to let us struggle if that is what we want but it will cost us everything. He offers us the option of surrender to his direction and assures us that if we do we will receive God’s best.

So let me ask where has your way taken you? You may have achieved your definition of what is best and everything you have set out to do but you may not even be close to being truly satisfied. You may have tried all you have known to do and you are nothing but tired and the best isn’t even a dream. It all boils down to surrender: receiving his direction and yielding to his responsibility. That is the only way he offers for gaining the best. And there is nothing like the satisfaction of surrender because it is then that we find the meaning of meekness. You see meekness is what’s left when surrender is complete. Through meekness, Jesus promises you nothing but the best.

Pastor and author Leith Anderson tells a story about a bicycle race in India where the object of the race was to go the shortest distance possible within a specified time. At the start of the race, everyone cued up at the line, and when the gun sounded all the bicycles, as best they could, stayed put. Racers were disqualified if they tipped over or one of their feet touched the ground. And so they would inch forward just enough to keep the bike balanced. When the time was up and another gun sounded, the person who had gone the farthest was the loser and the person closest to the starting line was the winner.

Imagine getting into that race and not understanding how the race works. When the race starts, you pedal as hard and fast as you possibly can. You're out of breath. You're sweating. You're delighted because the other racers are back there at the starting line. You're going to break the record. You think, This is fantastic. Don't let up. Push harder and faster and longer and stronger. At last you hear the gun that ends the race, and you are delighted because you are unquestionably the winner. Except you are unquestionably the loser because you misunderstood how the race is run. (Leith Anderson; from sermon "The Height of Humility", 9-12-99)

That is the way too many of us end our lives. Thinking that we have won when we have lost. So what is the best that you desire? What are the greatest desires you have? What do you really want? What part of this world do you hope to inherit? What do you think is yours? How will you get it? Are you willing to surrender to find God’s best for your life? Don’t misunderstand me: letting go is going to be painful. The question is do you want meekness to invade your life or do you just want to keep on hitting your head against the wall to gain what you imagine is best? Jesus promises that the one who wins this race is the one who lives their life with meekness. They will gain the best by utilizing the least. God wants to give you the best. It will be yours as you are meek. It will not happen any other way.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org