Meekness

At this writing – for some days demonstrations have spread across the country generated by citizens responding to the decisions of government, prompted by grand juries, not to prosecute police officers who have killed, by gunfire, persons of minority racial status in the nation.  The demonstrations have been ugly in confrontations with police, fires set even to homes and businesses far afield from the sites of the tragic deaths – stores looted, and angry protests that have touched millions of persons not related in any way to the alleged wrongs of both offenders and offended in the tragic events.  These events slow the meanderings for improvements in social advancement, perhaps stopping them for a period.  The advancement of peaceful resistance found in persons like Mohandas Gandhi in India, and Martin Luther King in America has been partly muted by falling back to violence, anger, perhaps hatred.  An objective judge would have to find guilt for any officer using excessive measures to keep the law, and those persons violating the rights of others to peace and safety.  Laws broken for any reason, even for presumed righteous retribution, are violation of the meaning of law and can’t be factored into a peaceful society without contradiction for how lay citizens, or enforcement officers, are to function in an orderly and democratic society.

The Christian approach practiced by non-violent persons is based on the teaching of Scripture that we treat others as we wish to be treated, not as we may be treated.  The great illustration of the principle is found in Jesus Christ, who being reviled did not revile in return.  When Peter would begin a demonstration by lopping off the ear of a soldier for the arrest of Jesus, Jesus healed the wound and remonstrated with Peter for his violation.  Peter did not recover himself until awakened to his failure after denial of Christ at the fire when Jesus was on trial.  He was redirected in the understanding that the meek do not change their faith on the acts of others, even to the point of paying the price of life for the right.  Jesus could have called for legions of angels to deliver him from injustice, but refused the option.  His sacrificial way provided the greatest blessing for mankind known to history.  If in maturity, the people of Pakistan and India could have followed Gandhi’s peaceful resistance to official wrong we would be much further along in that part of the world.  If we could continue the King peaceful resistance we would not only be advanced in matters of justice and equality, but in honoring the standard demonstrated in Jesus Christ and those who understand the dignity found in treating others as we would be treated.  We ought to want to any degree to follow the path of love in the place of hatred, of a hand to peace and not to violence, and in solutions not in complications.  We find it simple in that we do not draw our ideals from those who break ideals, but from a faith in peace that invites assistance from God for righteous (right) cause. 

Love your enemies, do good to those who despitefully use you: is our banner.  It is not cowardice or timidity but meekness that recognizes the heart of mankind that cries out for that we believe is just.  Are we willing to pay the price for truth?  Without this approach we have wars and rumors of wars – wars between wives and husbands, between laborers and employers, between races and genders, between the haves and the have-nots. The better way can be found for persons, families, communities, nations and the world when there is a mature approach to the perceived problems found in human context.  We are driven back to the concept of Isaiah: Come let us reason together.  The point Isaiah was making is that the concept can be applied in our dealings with God.  If it is appropriate with God, unseen and ephemeral to mankind, why not try it and stay with it among persons of good will?  To hit a person back when he has struck us is to adopt his ideal (violence) against our ideal of peace (non-violence).  To adopt his approach the tension is lengthened and requires greater sacrifice of humanity’s dignity and rights than the give and take required in true problem solving.  Especially must we educate youths who revel in competitive conflict; of anger that draws upon our lower instincts to find equality; of the false approach that violence must be met with violence; and, of the arrogance that violence will offer meaningful satisfaction for those involved in it. When God is contradicted he responds in peace, which may be silence.  It is a pattern we may follow.