Who dares wins

Given the number of verses in the OT that encourage the people of God to be strong (e.g. four times in just Joshua 1) it might come as a surprise to find that Jesus never commanded his disciples to be strong. That is not to say that strength is a bad thing - indeed Luke 2:40 describes the child Jesus as growing and becoming strong, filled with wisdom... (where as John the Baptist grew and became strong in spirit (Luke 1:80). Instead disciples of Jesus are commanded to be meek, to be gentle.

I'm sure that Jesus had nothing against physical strength - as a carpenter in the first century he would have had to be physically strong. Likewise the fishermen would have been strong men. But you can be both physically strong and meek or gentle at the same time. Meekness/gentleness is to do with attitude. It also has nothing to do with weakness. Jesus is described as gentle but he could never be accused of being weak. Facing the cross Jesus refused to argue back, he refused to call armies from heaven - he was God and yet he took it all - that's not weakness.

If Jesus had said that the strong would inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) - that would be something we could all identify with. We are all too aware from the daily news programmes that we still believe, after all these years, that the way to be successful is to be stronger than your opponent - whether that works out as gun and knife crime on the streets or military campaigns on an international level. The world would want us to believe that you need to be strong in order to get on.

But Jesus tells his disciples that we are to be meek. Not domineering or aggressive, or harsh. Not trying to establish our own little kingdoms/empires at work... Not to assert ourselves over others to get our own way. But that does not mean that we will be weak. It does not mean that we won't confront injustice where we see it. It does not mean that we won't stand up and be counted...