"Eyes On Your Master"

“Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” (Matthew 21:12-13, NLT)

“Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?’ But Jesus remained silent…” (Matthew 26:62-63, NLT)

“Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’” (Luke 4:9-12, NLT)

The one time Jesus described what he is like to his disciples in his own words, he said this: “I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29, ASV). Not forgiving, not loving, not righteous, wise, holy, sacrificial, or any of the other wonderful ways we know his character.

“I am meek,” he said. “Learn from me.”

But meekness is not what you think. The prevailing cultural understanding sees meekness as timid, shy, a quiet disposition, someone who would never “rock the boat.” But let’s hold that understanding of meekness up to Jesus: Meek and lowly Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert and withstood direct attacks from Satan, wielding Scripture as his sword. Meek Jesus brandished a whip and flipped tables in the Temple. He is the same Jesus who stood silent before his accusers, able to call down legions of angels, and yet went boldly to the cross. And you won’t find one circumstance where Jesus was afraid to “rock the boat.”

Meekness is not a personality trait. It’s a character virtue. It is the radically countercultural strength to live with your eyes so fixed on your master, Jesus, that your heart and mind want his desires, not yours.

God will not force you to obey him. You can stomp and kick and buck, thinking you are really doing a lot in this world, unaware that your hustle to be somebody is focused on things with no eternal value. After a while, nobody is impressed by a wild mustang running around a pen. Nobody “oohs” and “aahs” at the amount of dust you can kick up or the dents you can create.

What is impressive is when a mustang becomes a warhorse, running fearlessly into battle. A true, loyal warhorse is formed not by hustle and punishment but by respect and patience. It has the humility to continually align its love with the loving gaze of its master.

To embrace meekness, you have to stop and see a God who is patiently waiting for you to receive his love—the perfect love displayed for us in Jesus’ death on the cross. And when you do, you can begin to trust his character and his promises. It’s when you trust him with your whole life that he can take you outside the pen for a journey that is more than you could ask or imagine.