“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NKJV).The fourth Beatitude sets a high goal for us. “We are blessed, and will consequently be filled, if we hunger and thirst for righteousness.” It is like Jesus was saying: What do you seek? Is it wealth? That can fail, be stolen, get lost in a failed economy. Do you seek adulation, notice, recognition? These are the basis of pride, and “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Therefore, Jesus pleads, ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness.’
If we have ever truly been hungry and thirsty of body, then we relate those needs to how diligently we should seek for righteousness—goodness and Christian principles in their deepest sense, the guides Jesus gave us to live by. Let your pursuit of them be as a gnawing hunger that can only be satisfied by eating what is good and nourishing. And for the spiritual life, the Word of God, the Bible, should be that soul-hunger we seek to satisfy by studying, absorbing, and living by it. Let your pursuit of righteousness be as an unquenchable thirst that can only be satisfied by drinking deeply of the Water of Life. Do you have a time each day to satisfy these soul-hungers, soul-thirsts? You first must recognize a need for them—develop a hunger and thirst for them—and then go to the Fountain which alone can provide the Water of Life and the Bread of Life. As with a regular meal, set aside a time to eat and drink from the Word. And Jesus Himself told us He is each of these, Water and Bread, to us. “Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). By these words Jesus gave us the example of how we can defeat the devil’s temptations.
In The Disciples’ Study Bible (Holman, 1988) which I often use for my daily Bible studies, Clair M. Crissy who wrote the studies on Matthew states: “The quest to be right, what God wants us to be, can be like a powerful hunger or thirst. People who long so intensely after what is right will have their hunger satisfied and their thirst quenched.” In one of my husband’s pastorates, we had a very strong group in our youth department. It was my joy and privilege to be their director, both in Bible studies and in musical training. We had some marvelous retreats, life-changing, I might say, for the youth themselves and for me, one of their leaders (Other capable adults assisted with teaching and being role models for the youth). God took hold of that group and gave them a hunger and thirst for righteous living and seeking God’s will. Today, members of that group are in mission work, the pastorate, church-related vocations, and lay ministries that bespeak their seeking after and finding the righteousness of God.
In Jesus day, as it is today in third-world countries, hunger was and is a very present and prevalent problem. We in most congregations today are too well-fed and must handle over-feeding with weight-reduction programs and denial of our over-indulgence in foods. But to hunger when one is starving and the food is not available is the type of hunger Jesus meant when he gave the fourth beatitude. Sir Norman Birkett, famous lawyer and judge, got close to the meaning of this beatitude when he said that there is something inextinguishable in every person for goodness. And St. Augustine said it this way: “Man is restless until he finds his rest in God.” And that inimitable Bible teacher, Dr. William Barclay, wrote: “The true wonder of man is not that he is a sinner, but that even in his sin he is haunted by goodness, that even in the mud he can never wholly forget the stars” (Daily Study Bible: Matthew, Westminster, 1956, p. 96). Yes! Hungering and thirsting after God’s righteousness is from deep within each soul, that part of us made in the image of God. Eugene Peterson stated Matthew 5:6 this way: "You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.” (The Message, NavPress, 2002, p. 1335.)
c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, September 16, 2010
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