Power Under Constraint

Who was the strongest man to ever walk the face of the earth? Jesus Christ. No one was stronger. As the Creator in human form, He simply could have spoken His enemies out of existence.

Do you think He had to submit himself to Pontius Pilate?

Jesus could have said, “You’re getting on my nerves. You’re dead. Bye.”

He could have walked out of there.

On one occasion, people from the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth tried to throw him off a cliff. But the Bible tells us that “passing through the midst of them, He went His way” (Luke 4:30 NKJV). It was as if to say, “Yeah, I’m not going off a cliff today. I’m going right through here, and you’re getting out of my way.”

Jesus controlled that power, submitted, gave up his rights, and laid himself down. He didn’t lay aside His divinity, but He did lay aside his rights. He suffered for us and died on the cross.

In Matthew 11:29 Jesus said of himself, “I am gentle and lowly in heart” (NKJV).

Joseph, too, is a classic example of meekness. Even though his brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery, he became the second most powerful man in Egypt through God’s providence.

And later, when a famine struck the land and his brothers went to Egypt in search of food, Joseph was in charge of the food supply. They didn’t recognize him. Certainly they didn’t think he was alive.

Joseph, with a snap of his finger, could have had them all put to death. But instead he forgave them. That was meekness—power under constraint.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek” (Matthew 5:5 NKJV). If you want to be a happy person, then seek to become a man or woman of meekness.