A Lesson from the Airport

When returning from a mission trip recently, our family was eager to get home. It had been well over twenty-four hours since we set out on the journey. At Dulles there was a lot of waiting in lines for shuttles, immigration, customs and baggage.

On our flight were perhaps twenty passengers who were ill, so there was a fleet of wheelchairs waiting at the terminal. While waiting for a shuttle, we kept hearing from behind “Excuse, please!” We would shift and allow skillful airport personnel, many of whom were managing two wheelchairs single handedly, to pass. The wheelchairs went to the front of the line. What was striking was how often this was happening.

It is right that the weak should go first, not last. Were we a pack of dogs, it would have been the opposite. Out of the sea of passengers, I did not see anyone show a look of disgust at being jostled out of the way repeatedly.

However, there are times in this world when hate and rudeness prevail, and people find ways to justify putting themselves first rather than giving up their rights for the good of another. I’ve witnessed such things, and I’m sure you have as well. Pressed hard enough, would we join that rude crowd?

I’m not sure that rejecting meekness is really as far outside our way of operating as we’d like to think it is. I’ve seen Christian individuals who come to realize that a spouse has been cheating for a very long time, and they begin to kick the humility that goes with meekness to the curb, saying things like, “I’m so stupid! I should have seen the signs.”

They’ve lost the capacity to value meekness the way Jesus does because they are embarrassed and the adulterous spouse has covered them with shame. If the wronged spouse was sacrificially loving as the meek Jesus has loved sinners who take advantage of Him, there is reward promised by God. God’s plans for the meek may hurt.

Matthew 5:5 records Jesus as saying, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” God will vindicate those who have received the righteousness of Christ, and that union with Jesus includes righteousness that shows itself as meekness. One preacher I heard some months ago defined meekness as lack of self-will toward God and lack of ill-will toward people. Meekness is closely associated with gentleness and humility. Meekness is not weakness. First Peter 2:18-25 describes Jesus’ strength of not threatening when He was mistreated, not hurling insults when He was verbally attacked, but persevering in taking punishment not His own out of love for His Father and for us. That quality of meekness is not a weakness.

Knowing that God will give the meek Christ-follower more than what is taken from him, we gain peace in knowing that God will bring justice, and we don’t have to hold on to internally destructive anger any more. May our Savior grant us grace to be like Him.