Why Meekness Should Have a Quality of Arrogance

You're bound to be abused if you are meek. You'd be prime target for bullying. But don't get me wrong, meekness is essential. We have to have this lofty and powerful trait intact in us to stay grounded. Some things can be deceiving, like success and adulation. [Image above from Chris Karidis, Unsplash]. Meekness makes us see our true self and enables us to stick to it.

But meekness has to stay guarded. It's so susceptible to exploitation. A lot of folks are bound to take advantage because they see it as a weakness. Odd, but even lots of church people see meekness that way, too, although the Lord has stressed how the meek are blessed and will inherit the earth. But really, they do not see the meek like that. Instead, they respect you if you're condescending, smug, big-headed, have an air of haughtiness and treat people high-handedly.

Or, if you're self-assertive, overconfident, commanding, defiantly aggressive, self-assured, or a bit domineering. They see this as strong-willed and powerful leadership. Not meekness. Meekness to them is a dead end. It's too passive to amount to anything. To them. meek people just wait for things to happen around them--like the folkloric Juan Tamad lying under a guava tree waiting for a ripe fruit to drop in his mouth. They teach about meekness but nobody really wants to be meek.

And talk about waiting. Nobody wants to wait. They all need things to happen right now and will make things happen right NOW. Not even ASAP, but right now! But waiting is an indispensable virtue of meekness. The meek and the patient are always one flesh. The meek are waiters, and waiters are meek. No wonder Jesus saw them inheriting (or conquering) the earth. Making disciples of all nations (inheriting the earth) is not accomplished through hurrying up but by patiently waiting for the Lord. Joiners (who scorn meekness and waiting) will never understand. You have to be a nonjoiner.

However, neither is meekness being too tame or docile or servile or gullible. If you are so easy to persuade, it's not meekness. It's naivete or being dupable (or easily duped). Neither is timidity meekness. We often think that easily succumbing to pressures is meekness. It's plain timidity, period. To get a true picture of what proper meekness is, we look at Jesus.

Jesus was meek but the Pharisees saw him as arrogant. They asked him what authority he possessed to do the things he was doing--like driving out sellers from the temple--because he dared do ministry without seeking their permission or approval. Such arrogance! But Jesus replied by merely asking them about John the baptist's authority. When they refused to answer him, he told them, "Then neither will I tell you what authority I do these things." You see that arrogance? How dare you talk like that to the religious authorities.

He even once told the Pharisees to "Go tell that fox..." referring to King Herod. The word "fox" here means a worthless person. If he was meek, how come he was like that?

Our understanding of meekness means complying with the Pharisees' demands, giving them what they wanted with fear and trembling. Or remember the time when Pilate reminded him how he could be released from prison simply at his word? But Jesus told him, "You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin," [John 19.11]. Again, that's clearly defying the powers that be. It's arrogance.

But it's not arrogance the way mortal, fallen men have it. It's a quality of arrogance that strongly reeks of the Kingdom, an arrogance that bows down only to heavenly authority. It is meek but it is arrogant--another of God's great reversals. It takes pride only in God and his Kingdom and disdains whatever is of man, even what man has accomplished for God. It's God and His Kingdom or nothing. One day, his disciples marveled at the great temple buildings, But he said:

“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”

In other words, they're nothing. Instead of marveling as the disciples did (being awed by what great men had achieved for God) he treated it with contempt. If you see somebody like this today, you'd probably hate him. This Kingdom "arrogance" is a vital part of Kingdom meekness. And yet Jesus meekly submitted himself to the laws, like paying taxes and showing yourself healed to the priests as a testimony. He also advised to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's."

But arrogance derived from self or ego is garbage. I'm not talking about that. Lots of folks today see nothing good except in themselves and their accomplishments--or in their church denomination.