In the third and fourth beatitudes, Jesus again announces a counter-intuitive blessing upon a type of individual who is lacking. First he pronounces blessedness upon the meek. Meekness, a word that has lost much of its meaning in our day, describes a condition of being powerless in the eyes of the world. Just like in the first two beatitudes, Jesus is not blessing a virtue, but a void. Meekness goes beyond humility, in that meekness is more than a good quality, but it is a bad condition. Meekness is not a good attitude or a good work, but a countercultural pitiable circumstance. The world despises the meek; there is no praise for those who are timid and unaggressive; to the world, it is the aggressor who struggles his way to the top, it is the self-confident possibility thinker, it is the dynamically assertive, who are likely candidates to get somewhere on earth. But Jesus says that it is the very kind of person who is least likely to possess anything, who will be granted the entirety of God’s green earth. While the idea that “God helps those who help themselves,” is found in most religions of the world, in first four beatitudes Jesus teaches just the opposite: “God helps those who cannot help themselves.” Likewise, in the fourth beatitude, Jesus does not pronounce His blessing on the righteous, but upon those who so lack righteousness, that they are starving for it. What is this righteousness that Jesus is blessing? Does this refer to a moral righteousness expressed in obedience to God’s ways, or does this point to the imputed righteousness of Christ placed on our account, as a result of His perfect life and atoning death?
