Blessed are the Meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Several years ago, I studied with a Kabbalistic orthodox rabbi in an attempt to understand the Jewish perspective on life and the world. The basis for this is called The Tree of Life. Most have seen the series of circles and connecting lines that form the model for the way, they believe, God is interacting with His world. It is a model of balance. Inspired by one of the rabbi’s statements, I was on a personal pilgrimage to hunt down and destroy all the barriers I could find within myself that kept me from seeing the hand of God in my life. (Humble man that he is, he didn’t even remember having written it and had no idea that someone would be inspired by it.)
Back to the Tree of Life. One of the circles (Sephirot) was giving me trouble as I tried to understand their relationship to each other. It is called Netzach or Victory. The circle balancing it out on the other side is Hod, often translated as Self-effacement or Humility. How do these two balance out each other? I didn’t get it.
The year was 2007 and the Transformers movie had just come out. Of course, I had to see it with my sons — a real family event because my oldest not only grew up with the Transformers cartoon and robots, he felt kin to them. It was also the year I started with the rabbi. Here is the prayer journal I did at that time:
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the Transformers Movie…. Well, actually, in the Transformers Movie. The action was high as robots were thrashing each other around on screen, and I thought, “am I aware of the LORD at all while watching this movie?” The emotion of the movie was building and all I could focus on was my own emotions. I tried to focus on Him, but wasn’t being very successful. And then, the hero of the story repeated a family motto that had been said a few times throughout the movie, but it never made quite the impact until now: “No sacrifice – no victory”.
No sacrifice – no victory. Wasn’t this exactly what I had been looking at? What is sacrifice but a form of self-effacement? No Hod – no Netzach. How simple is that? True self-effacement isn’t about being afraid to assert oneself. It’s about sacrifice for others, freely given. It’s as active as assertion. My fear of dominance and of being dominated is tied up with my unwillingness to sacrifice what I value for the sake of victory. To do this is true transformation. Without this, the Kingdom will never make it through the birth canal; it will never become what it is meant to be.
And what made a difference for me in that theater? I knew that the story was somehow about You. “Transformers — more than meets the eye.” This life has its own appearance, its own shape – but to discover Your life beyond what I can see, this would change every aspect of my life. You may sometimes look like You are only a junk car, but Your power and heart are hidden in the twisted metal, ready to reveal Yourself to those who are willing to open Your doors and get in for the ride.
Getting into Your car – jumping into Your arms. It’s all the same. Trusting that when I sacrifice myself, You will not consume me, but transform me into Your Light.
Bumblebee, the star of the movie, didn’t start out as a Camaro – he started out life on earth in the form of an old VW Beetle. Even the movie’s first director didn’t like this representation and felt the need to change Bumblebee to a muscle car. While the Camaro fed into most people’s ideas of what Transformer power should look like, Bumblebee’s motto is “The least likely can be the most dangerous.” It is precisely because of his small size and big heart, that the original Transformer was able to fight the Decepticons in places his larger comrades couldn’t.
What does this have to do with Meekness? Just about everything. God’s Kingdom isn’t a future, pie-in-the-sky reality, or even an alternate reality — it IS reality. The thing that’s skewed is our ability to see it. I think that, in New Testament terms, Hod is Meekness. And Meekness, not power-lust, is the key to Victory. Isn’t this what Jesus is saying in this Beatitude? Meekness looks like a junked VW Beetle to most who see it: weak, timid, damaged, passive, insignificant. But in God’s eyes, the person who is truly meek, who seeks the welfare of others above their own, who doesn’t have to appear the winner, who sees the whole person before their eyes (even that of an enemy) as one who is precious to God – this person is really, God says, the one who inherits (i.e. is Victor over) the earth.
Meekness is power under restraint. It relates to a wild stallion that someone was able to put a rope onto: the stallion has the power to destroy and damage… but chooses to not use it or at least to yield its wildness to the control of its rider. Power-lust only knows one way. Meekness is able to choose a different path that builds rather than destroys. This is the true victory.
How does this look in my simple, everyday life? It’s foregoing saying that biting comment that will show off my wit. It is delighting in someone else’s shining moment without envy or competition. In fact, I don’t have to compete at all. It really does mean I’m not to delight in the downfall of another. It means I don’t have to defend myself every time I’m insulted – and certainly not with a comeback insult. It means I’m going to look bad to many of my fellows who see power as a muscle car and not as a beat up, old VW.
Meekness. It really is more than meets the eye. It’s God’s goal for my life if only I have the real courage to pursue it.
P.S the toy in the picture is currently for sale on Ebay 🙂
Hard to be blessed 
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