Matthew 5:6

As we have seen so far, these seemingly contradictory, quaint little poetic phrases are actually loaded with meaning –they are, in fact, kind of like the by-laws of the Kingdom of God. These are the governing rules. These little statements, I believe, reflect God’s heart more accurately and more directly than anything else that has ever been said or written.

Today, we look at Matthew 5:6. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
I know that I said I wasn’t going to do word studies in this series, but I’ve preached through the Beatitudes so often that I can’t unknow what I’ve already learned, so I’m going to talk about the words a bit.

That being said, I want to point out a couple of key words that are used here, so we can get a full understanding of what Jesus is telling us. First, as with the other Beatitudes, the word “they” here is emphatic. That means this should be read as “only they.” In other words, “Only those who truly hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.” The other key words here are the words used for hunger and thirst. These are very strong words that denote true hunger and true thirst. This is not talking about someone wishing for some potato chips to eat while he watches television. This isn’t talking about a between meal snack. This is talking about serious, life-threatening hunger and thirst. This is talking about the kind of hunger that happens when someone is starving or thirsting to death. If this person doesn’t get some food, if this person doesn’t get some water soon, he is going to die.

I have never actually experienced that level of physical hunger.  I have been hungry and I have been thirsty, but my life has never been in jeopardy from lack of food or water. Even so, even with the my limited experience of occasionally feeling hunger pains, there are a few things about hunger and thirst that I know without having actually experienced starvation.

Hunger and thirst tell us when its time to eat or drink. Our bodies need fluids and they need food. If we don’t get the right amount of the right kinds, we get sick. If we don’t get any or if we don’t get enough, we could die. So, even though hunger pains are uncomfortable and even painful, they are useful because they tell us when to eat. The other thing I’ve noticed is that when normal people are hungry, they are going to find something to eat. And the hungrier we are, the more insistent we are on eating. When we get hungry enough, we will spend whatever money we have, go wherever we have to go, do whatever we have to do, but we are going to get something to eat. So, it’s not too difficult for us to imagine that for the starving person, food becomes a passion.

 I know that in many third-world countries, the average person spends most of his waking hours looking for or working for enough food just to stay alive. Starving people, especially poor starving people don’t have the time or energy to worry about anything else. The average person in a third world country doesn’t think a whole lot about savings and investments. They don’t think about money or material possessions. They don’t think a whole lot about world politics. They don’t spend a lot of time deciding what movie to go see or thinking about what’s on television tonight. Mainly, starving people think a lot about food. Starving people know that without food they will die.

The truth is that all of humanity is hungry. God has created in each of us certain spiritual needs and cravings. We want to be whole, we want to be loved, we want to be cared about, we want to be happy. All of humanity has these needs, this hunger. Now, if we all have these hungers, what is it that keeps us from being filled, from being satisfied?

This isn’t an exhaustive list of what keeps spiritually hungry people from being satisfied, but here are a few ideas.

First, is the stuff included in the first three Beatitudes. Our spiritual appetite is sometimes hindered by a lack of meekness and willingness to be surrendered to God; and by a lack of spiritual poverty and honesty about our true spiritual condition; and by a lack of brokenness.

Next, a factor for many “spiritual” people, and a potential problem for all Believers is a twisted and perverted form of righteousness –that is, self-righteousness. This happens when we take our eyes off of Jesus and the Kingdom and the law of love (love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor while your at it). Self-righteousness is a form of legalism that keeps us looking at all the things we do for God instead of living out of the reality of who we are in Christ Jesus. When we are too full of ourselves, it is hard to feel hungry for God.

And then comes what may the biggest issue for we who live in America and other affluent cultures. We may not actually feel hunger for God because we tend to snack on spiritual junk food. Think of this first in terms of physical hunger. Can you see that it is possible for someone to eat so much candy and non-nutritious junk that the person doesn’t actually feel hungry? But can you see that there might still be a problem? When our bodies are craving nourishment and all we give them is junk, eventually we are going to have serious health problems.

Again, God created in every person a spiritual hunger. But most people attempt to fill that spiritual void with all kinds of things that don’t truly provide spiritual nourishment. People try to fill the spiritual hunger with education, with careers with sex, with alcohol, with families and relationships, with material possessions –people try to satisfy this hunger with all kinds of things. Some of those things are great and even necessary things, but they won’t fill the hunger for God. The problem is that we are sometimes so stuffed with things that aren’t really satisfying us that we no longer feel hungry for the Person who will. And even we Christians, it is easy to get sidetracked and become passionate about things that are of no eternal value. How easy it is for us to sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the temporary. How easy it is to be consumed by things that don’t truly matter in the greater scheme of things. How easy it is to fill ourselves with spiritual junk food when what we need is serious nourishment.

Here is what Jesus is telling us:

“Blessed is the person who is literally starving for righteousness, who has such a passion for righteousness that it is all he thinks about. Blessed is the person that has such an intense desire to be righteous that he will perish if he cannot be righteous, because only that person will find righteousness and have the hunger filled.”

I’m reminded of a passage from Isaiah 55:

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; 
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! 
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? 
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. 
Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. “