The third Beatitude is, in my opinion, one of the most misunderstood teachings in all of the scriptures. In our parlance, meek is synonymous with weakness and the unfortunate habit of being a pushover. Meek people get steamrolled by powerful people because they have no gumption or bravery. Meekness is timidity, uncertain, and unsure. That is the way the world looks at it, anyway. I am not so certain that is what Our Lord was talking about.

Matthew 5:5

Happy are those who are gentle, for the land will be theirs.

Because of this misunderstanding about the Lord’s teachings, I opt instead for the word gentle. To be truthful, either word works, but my goal in these renderings is to shake us out of familiarity. It is the same word used in Matthew 11:29 where Jesus instructs those who are weary to come to him and learn from him, because he is ‘gentle and humble in heart.’

Jesus was no pushover, and he certainly wasn’t timid. But he was gentle, like a good shepherd who knows his sheep. A bruised reed, he will not break (Isaiah 42:3, Mt. 12:20). I am thinking now of the attributes of gentleness which include things like patience, serenity, kindness, tolerance, and a large amount of empathy. Gentle people encourage others rather crush and consume. It is about this time, as we reflect upon gentle, that we recognize gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5.

Gentle people allow space for others to learn and grow at their own pace rather than bullying them into performing.

The more I personally reflect on these Beatitudes, the more shocked I become at what Jesus doesn’t promise. He doesn’t promise the gentle people will be treated gently. He doesn’t say, ‘Happy are the gentle, for they shall always feel good about themselves.’ Nope. Instead, he promised them land.

This promise of land is usually rendered as earth, which is fine. I have no problems with that. I love the idea that the earth will be handed over to the gentle souls of this world — the caring moms, the patient fathers, the nurturing school teachers, the caring nurses. These people are the ones who don’t want to rule and govern, and that probably makes them the most qualified to do so. How much better off would the world be if every politician and decision maker in the world were replaced by first grade teachers?

So, I am fine with that traditional understanding. But the word itself doesn’t have to mean earth, the word can mean land as in property or territory. Put your ear to the ground and you can hear in this Beatitude an echo of the Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and mother, so that the days maybe long in the land. What connects them is the promise of land. Perhaps also, our Lord is teaching us that honor is a part of gentleness. Gentle people honor others with their words, their actions, and their intentions. They do not dishonor them.

Now we may be somewhere new in this:

Happy are those people who honor others, for they shall inherit the promises of God.

Matthew 5:6

The Fourth Beatitude conjures memories of a conversation I had earlier this year with a medical professional. I had read, and maybe you have too, that doctors say if you wait until you are thirsty to drink water, you’re probably already too late and are dehydrated. The conventional wisdom goes that you should drink water to avoid getting thirsty and constantly avoid dehydration.

I challenged that, because it is illogical. Thirst is what my body does to signal me it is time to drink water. Thirst is not to be avoided, but rather it is to be celebrated as a reminder that my body is working just the way it should. I’m also kind-a so ‘over’ all the water pushers who would have us guzzling four gallons of water a day and then spending all our time in the bathroom. But I digress, back to Jesus, now:

Happy are those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for they themselves will be fed.

Righteousness appears twice in The Beatitudes, here and at the end when people are persecuted because of righteousness. Interesting, no? It’s like when you realize the word ‘heaven’ appears twice in The Lord’s Prayer. It probably means something.

The metaphor of hunger and thirsting, regardless of my personal problems with the medical professions definition of dehydrated, is a metaphor we wall understand pretty well. It is about desire. People who desire righteousness is whom Jesus is talking about. But what is righteousness?

Biblically it is a theological term that indicates our standing before God. In this sense, Jesus, and Jesus alone is righteous and embodies righteousness because his perfection is what provides for atonement and the forgiveness of our sins; thereby we have a borrowed kind of righteousness from him, which we usually think of as grace. That is my best summary on the teaching of this from the Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Is that what Jesus means here in this Sermon on the Mount? ‘Happy are people who pursue my righteousness, who pursue me’? Perhaps, for I think there is truth in it. Those who pursue Jesus are certainly satisfied and fed, the images of bread and wine now come to mind.

Yet, leaving it here doesn’t seem right either. If we take Paul and his use of the idea away for a moment, Jesus is likely referring to people in this world who are hungering for righteousness in the normative sense of moral uprightness. A little help from Spanish might help us here, for the Spanish use the word ‘justica’ here. Those who hunger and thirst and desire for justice will be satisfied. In this way Jesus is thinking of Isaiah 2, when God’s justice flows out of Mt. Zion to right all the injustices of this world: When the child traffickers are locked up for good, when the people who take advantage of the elderly are dealt with, when all people are fed and clothed because greediness is condemned, when they will train for war no more, and when racism will finally be eradicated.

There is more than a tad bit of apocalyptic in Jesus’ words. These are people who recognize the brokenness in this world and hunger for it to be better now, but recognize it will not be until then.

These people eat the crumbs of what passes for justice now, but some day they will be fully fed and satisfied. I chose the word fed because the word Jesus uses is common for that of haying the animals. It was used at the feeding of the five thousand to describe how they were fed and satisfied.

It is also used in The Revelation to describe the ravens who gorge themselves on the flesh of crooked humanity. How is that for an apocalyptic view of justice?

Happy are those who desire justice, for they will feed upon the corpses of the corrupt.