Read Along
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used with permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Jesus sits down on a mountainside in Galilee, with crowds all around Him, and the first thing He says is a list of people most of us would never choose to be. A beggar. A mourner at a funeral. Someone too gentle to fight for their share. Someone hungry and thirsty for what’s right. And He calls every one of them blessed.
This is the first of twelve episodes on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters five to seven, one hundred and eleven verses in all. You already know pieces of it, even if you’ve never read it straight through. Turning the other cheek. Going the extra mile. The Lord’s Prayer. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Each episode takes one stretch of it and answers one question, from these first blessings to the house built on the rock. And it matters because of the way Jesus ends it.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The whole sermon is meant to be built on.
Start with the third person on that list, the meek.
Matthew uses the Greek word for “meek” only three times, and two of those three times it describes Jesus.
In chapter eleven, Jesus says it about Himself.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.
In chapter twenty-one, He rides into Jerusalem, and Matthew quotes the prophet:
See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey.
The English says gentle both times.
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