WEAKNESS, MEEKNESS AND SEEN

Not all strength is a blessing, not all weakness is a curse. And no matter how we are seen by the world, what God sees will prevail in eternity.

Weakness is normally not considered an attribute. We admire people who like our heroes are courageous and have the power to defeat their enemies.

A few years ago there was a movie made called the “Last Temptation of Christ.” It was based upon a novel that a man wrote where he was trying to portray the human side of Jesus. In his effort to show the humanity of Christ he ended up inserting the idea of Jesus have this erotic and lustful thought about Mary Magdalene.

When it was made into a movie numerous Christian groups were outrage that anyone would portray Jesus in such a manner. And many ended up demanding protests to the film. Not to surprising the film did get some good reviews by movie critics. I wont attempt to comment on the possible significance of that point of view.

I myself did attempt to wade through the movie when it came out on video just to see what all the controversy was about. The first time I tried to watch it I have to admit I wasn’t offend as much as I was hopelessly bored by the story line.

Then somebody I knew claimed the movie did get better later. So I sat down and attempted it a second time. As a writer the one thing that struck me the most was that the way they depicted Jesus in the movie made him from my point of view appear as a very flawed and weak person.

That was perhaps the movie directors over use of creative license, but I just kept watching and asking myself would somebody that flawed and weak honestly end up being worshipped? It just seemed like a very unlikely scenario for anyone who was going to be regarded as a hero, let alone for the one who we as Christians regard as Lord and Savior.

I personally know I am no true pillar of courage or strength and I am grateful that the Lord in his grace still finds place in his kingdom and forgiveness to grant me a chance to follow him. And in that sense I have learned, strong or weak, that meekness as it is meant to be understood as having one’s desires under influence to the power of the holy spirit is part of how God does work in our lives. That kind of meekness is like a wild horse being tamed. It isn’t that absence of spirit, just having it channeled in the right direction.

I’ve seen too many who were too afraid to admit to some weakness or even that they sinned. Oh they claim to believe in salvation by faith, but the one they that will never happened is that they will admit to doing anything wrong. For them the weakness of fear stemming from a need for control and pride will always deny them the simple joy of being truly honest. They will live in the shadows and let the darkness of their own lies prevent them from ever becoming meek by God’s standard. And that is the one place it truly will be seen for the weakness it really is.