Matthew 5:5
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
The 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is probably most famous for the shocking statement: “God is dead!” The phrase is put in the mouth of a madman in his classic work: THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA. Nietzche was making the case that humanity had outgrown religion and would soon need a replacement morality. Nietzsche believed that religion (especially Judea-Christian religion) was ultimately bad for civilization. That it inhibited progress and kept humanity from achieving its full potential.
In his other classic: THE GENEAOLOGY OF MORALS, he tells a parable to illustrate his argument. It has to do with eagles and lambs.
He says that eagles are, by their very nature, birds of prey. They are naturally stronger than lambs and it is their instinct to swoop down and carry off a lamb and eat it. They are not responsible for this action. It is just who they are. It would be unnatural to expect them to be anything else.
On the other hand, it is the lamb’s natural desire to not want to be eaten. There is nothing the lambs can do about this though. They can’t fight back against eagles. They have neither wings nor talons. All they can do is hide in holes and pray they don’t get eaten.
According to Nietzche, the eagles and the lambs each have their own morality. He calls it the “master morality” and the “slave morality.”
The morality of the eagles, the “master morality”, is simply what is good for the eagle. I am hungry. I crave lamb. One is within my grasp. Therefore I shall take it. This morality is based on what Nietzche calls “the will to power.” Some people are simply more powerful and are able to dominate others. That is the most natural thing for them to do. In the morality of eagles there is no such thing as free will. People just give into their most natural inclinations.
The morality of the lambs is the “slave morality.” Nietzche imagines the lambs in their holes creating a set of rules to explain why it is evil for the eagles to dominate the lambs. They invent something called ‘justice’ that says it is not fair for the strong to pick on the weak just because they are able. They invent something called the ‘soul’ and ‘free will’ to explain that the eagles actually have a choice whether or not they carry off the lambs and because of justice, they should choose not to. Then they invent something higher that the eagles to eventually hold them to account. They call this high-flying creature: ‘God.’ In the morality of the slaves, it is evil to be like an eagle. God wants us to be more like lambs: Peaceful and forgiving. Mild and unassuming. Meek.
Nietzche argues that there is nothing inherently wrong with either morality. It is natural to each creature. As he puts it:
That lambs dislike great birds of prey does not seem strange: only it gives no ground for reproaching these birds of prey for bearing off little lambs. And if the lambs say among themselves: "These birds of prey are evil; and whoever is least like a bird of prey, but rather its opposite, a lamb—would he not be good?" there is no reason to find fault with this institution of an ideal, except perhaps that the birds of prey might view it a little ironically and say: 'We don't dislike them at all, these good little lambs; we even love them: nothing is more tasty than a tender lamb."
Of course Nietzche isn't really talking about animals. He's talking about people. In his view, some people are naturally superior to others: more talented, more powerful, more intelligent... He also believed some peoples were naturally superior to other peoples. These superior people or peoples he felt should be allowed to soar and not have their wings clipped by a slave religion that shames them for dominating when it is their nature to do so.
And this was exactly what Christianity was to Nietzche: the religion of a slave God, forced upon the powerful and naturally superior. The choice of eagles and lambs was not subtle either. The eagle was the standard of the Roman Empire which once dominated the known world until it turned to the religion of a God who sided with slaves over pharaohs, who was sacrificed like a lamb upon the cross.
The trouble with the teachings of Jesus, according to the most influential philosopher of the 20th century, was that they shame and cajole us into being something unnatural. No one who is powerful should aspire to be powerless. No one who is superior should put limits on their own achievements to benefit the inferior. Blessed are the meek… turn the other cheek… forgive your enemies… the last shall be first… that, according to Nietzche, is slave talk.
I don't care what you were told in your Freshman philosophy class; you can draw a direct line from the ideas of the German philosopher to the policies of a certain German chancellor some 40 years after his death. Nietzche spoke of a master race that would be free of the morality of slaves and would dominate. Hitler tried to make it a reality. The morality of eagles in practice leads to death camps.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul said that "the wisdom of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing... but to us who are being save it is the power of God." What Nietzches and Nazis of yesteryear, and all those today who champion the right of the strong to dominate the weak, simply cannot see is that meekness is not powerlessness. Meekness is strength. The true power comes in sacrifice. That the God of slaves parts waters and the lamb of God triumphs over sin and death.
Forgiveness is not weak. Sacrifice is not weak. Turning the other cheek is not weak. It takes more strength to do what is against one's natural inclinations than it does to simply give in to every mood. A god who can hurl a thunderbolt at every sinner is strong. But a God who can restrain himself in the face of mockery, torture, and death, is powerful beyond comprehension. Disciples walking in the way of Jesus are superior to no one but slaves to every one. And this, paradoxically, is where we find true power. That is the wisdom of the cross.
Whenever we're tempted to worship the god of the eagles and sacrifice the weak for our own self-interest, we should remember that none of us is the master we think we are. All of us are born slaves to sin and death. And it is only by the blood of the lamb that we are freed. He alone is worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise, forever and ever. Amen.
Father, We come to you as your servants. Make us humble and meek. Give us restraint and gentleness in a world that sees such things as weakness, so that we may know the true power of the cross. Amen.
Comments