Matthew 5.6: “Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

INTRODUCTION

Several months ago, I set out to give a series of messages on the nine beatitudes that begin Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount.” But I got distracted and we only got through the first three.

They were: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…,” “Blessed are those who mourn…,” and “Blessed are the meek…”

The word “beatitude” refers to a statement of the condition of supreme happiness, or “blessedness.”

The word translated in my Bible as “blessed” is sometimes translated as “happy.” But here the word means more than just a feeling.

Jesus is saying, “How fortunate are those who know how poor they really are.” “How supremely to be congratulated are those who mourn!” “How blessed are the gentle, meek souls!”

(And incidentally, the dictionary gives two pronunciations: blest and bless-ed.)

So today I want to go back and review those first three beatitudes and continue with the fourth one, which is: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

The first beatitude was: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

This beatitude tells us that the blessed people—the really fortunate—people are those who are empty and open before God. The poor in spirit have a deep sense of sin. They know how much they need God. They are humble; they are not full of themselves.

The second beatitude was, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

This one surprises us, because it seems to be saying, “How happy—how much to be congratulated—are those who are sad.”

But the idea isn’t that that sorrow automatically brings blessedness. The blessedness comes to those who grieve because of their sins and the sorrows of others. When we sorrow out of sympathy for the troubles of others, God adds his blessing. To have a tender, compassionate heart is a blessing.

The third beatitude was, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Most of us wouldn’t consider it a compliment if someone told us we were meek. My Greek dictionary gives these meanings for the word translated “meek” here—gentle, humble, considerate.

To be meek is to be like Jesus, who said, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.”

One of our residents challenged me. She said, “Do you think that the meek shall inherit the earth?”

We know that, on this earth, the gentle folk get pushed around. But Jesus is talking about the New Earth that is coming, the earth over which Jesus will reign. That’s the earth that really counts. That’s the earth the meek will inherit.

I. Now we come to the fourth beatitude, the one I have chosen to talk about today: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

A. Except for air to breathe, hunger and thirst are the two most intense cravings we experience.

If you go without anything to drink for three or four days, you will die. If you go without food for three or four days, you will not be able to think about anything else.

If you totally lose your appetite for food, the doctors will become alarmed and put tubes in your body and feed you that way.

B. God gave his Son to die for us. When God’s love grips us, we want to please Jesus. And what pleases Jesus is righteousness—whole-hearted goodness.

That’s the righteousness Jesus wants us to hunger for.

And righteousness—like God’s—means generosity, kindness, truthfulness, serving others—and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

C. Righteous behavior, in Jesus’s time, usually meant three things: synagogue attendance, giving to the poor, and following the rules.

Such righteousness could be cold and self-centered. It could be motivated by the desire to impress.

Jesus wants us to go to church, to give generously, and to avoid evil behavior. But our motivation shouldn’t be to impress others but love for God.

God gave his Son to die for us. When God’s love grips us, we want more than anything to please our Savior. We hunger and thirst for righteousness.

We have a passion to do what is right. We have a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

D. But the Greek word translated in my Bible “righteousness” means also “justice,” and in many Bibles, it is translated “justice.” So the verse also tells us, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice.”

Hungering and thirsting for justice goes beyond personal holiness.

If we truly love God, we will be passionate about the things God is passionate about. And there is nothing God is more passionate about than justice. God’s heart breaks as he watches the cruelty, the exploitation, and the violence that rule throughout the world.

Here are examples of injustice that are going on in our world today and every day…

…young boys kidnapped and forced to become soldiers and killers…

…girls tricked into prostitution…

…money lenders getting desperately poor people into their clutches by issuing loans with such high interest rates that the debtors and their families become slaves…

…people denied medical care because they are too poor to pay the doctors and hospitals…

…hatred and mistreatment of people because they are poor…or because of the color of their skin…or because of their nationality…

…rich people taking advantage of the poor and powerless…

That is why Jesus tells us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

As a teacher, the saddest part of my job was trying to protect some of the children from bullying. Some of the stronger children picked on the weaker ones—scorning them, ridiculing them, excluding them from their games.

We called these unfortunate children “isolates.” It was our job to protect them if we could.

If a girl had bad skin or a boy was unathletic, other children could make her life miserable.

The stronger, more attractive kids would pick on the weak ones. They were like the chickens we raised when I was a kid. The chickens would always find one small unfortunate hen to peck at. sometimes they would actually kill their victim.

But sometimes we saw children who understood sympathy and would befriend these unfortunate children. That was beautiful.

God longs to see justice in his world, and we should too. That’s what it means to hunger and thirst for justice.

E. As I was preparing this message I realized that, except for praying for victims of injustice, I wasn’t really doing much else.

The missions we were supporting were mostly evangelistic or educational.

But I remembered a Christian Organization we have supported in the past—the International Justice Mission—and we decided to send a monthly gift to them.

The International Justice Mission is a group of Christians—lawyers and others, some Americans, but mostly nationals of the countries they serve in.

The mission has 750 workers, serving in 17 field offices. They work in countries in all of the continents. These men and women work with—and sometimes against—local authorities. They raid brothels, freeing sex workers and helping them get good work.

The other main part of their mission is to free slaves—many of whom are children. Slaves in many countries work in brick kilns, rice mills, garment factories, and fishing operations. Sad to say, some of the goods we import from other countries is produced by slaves.

According to an article in USA Today, February 23 of this year, there are more slaves in the world today than there ever have been in history. Slavery isn’t as obvious today as it was in the past, but, because there are so many more people, now there are actually more slaves than ever before in history.

This mission—The International Justice Mission—has made a difference.

Presidents Bush and Obama have both praised the work of the International Justice Mission.

Many churches, individuals, and other missions are active in this way.

I’m glad I found a way to help. Because that’s part of what it means to hunger and thirst for justice.

II. For those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus promises satisfaction.

A. People seek satisfaction in many places.

Last week some lucky woman had her dream come true.

She won the lottery jackpot of 758 million dollars. She was so happy that she quit her job on the spot. She was satisfied. She’s fixed till the end of her life.

But Jesus promises satisfaction even after our life on earth—through all eternity.

We took a tour of Italy. Some of our fellow tourists told us that every year they took tour after tour enjoying visits to interesting places all over the world. They thirsted for the satisfaction of new and pleasurable experiences.

Some people hunger and thirst for possessions. We went to a museum in Vermont where there was a collection of 100s of quilts a rich lady had collected for her personal collection. What would you do with 100s of quilts. Collecting quilts must have become an obsession. Maybe she always intended them for a museum.

I read a book once called Wealth Addiction. It made the point that with money, the more money people have, the more they want. The richer you are the harder it is to be satisfied. It seems that that couldn’t be true, but it is.

Generally, according to that book, the more money people have the stingier they are.

A STORY

I have an example of both righteousness and justice that might inspire us.

Back in the 1960s you will remember, our nation decided to correct an injustice that had been with us since the founding of our country.

Many African American children had been denied the right to the quality of education white children enjoyed.

So in 1954, the Supreme Court made a decision—“Brown versus the Board of Education”—that outlawed segregation in schools.

Change didn’t come quickly. Many resisted. There was violence.

A six-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges was chosen to “integrate” William Franz Elementary School, in New Orleans.

Every day, during her first year in school, little Ruby was escorted to school by four federal Marshals.

Huge crowds of protesters gathered daily outside the school to shout slurs and death threats at Ruby. Film clips show throngs of angry white people waving Confederate flags, and some even shoved before Ruby an open child’s casket with a black doll inside.

You probably have seen this painting Norman Rockwell painted for the cover of Look Magazine of little Ruby, in her snowy white dress walking to school, two marshals in front of her and two behind. Her fist is clenched, just like the fists of the marshals. On the wall is scrawled “NIGGER” and a tomato has been smashed on the wall behind.

The first day that Ruby went to school, all the parents of children who had been going to that school took their children out of the school. So Ruby was taught as the only child in an empty school for a year.

But there’s more to the story, maybe you haven’t heard. A psychiatrist, named Robert Coles, an Air Force captain, was stationed outside of Biloxi, Mississippi, stumbled on this crowd scene outside the school. He asked about it and volunteered to help her. So Coles began to meet with her every week.

One day Ruby’s teacher told Dr. Coles that she had noticed Ruby moving her lips as she was walking into school. Coles asked Ruby, “Who were you talking to, Ruby?”

She said, “I was talking to God and praying for the people in the street.”

Coles asked, “Why were you doing that, Ruby?”

She said, “Because I wanted to pray for them. Don’t you think they need praying for?”

Coles nodded and asked her, “Where did you learn that, Ruby?”

“From my mommy and daddy and from the minister at church. I pray every morning when I come to school and every afternoon when I go home.”

Coles said, “But Ruby, those people are so mean to you. You must have some other feelings besides just wanting to pray for them.”

“No,” she said, “I just keep praying for them and hope God will be good to them… I always pray the same thing. ‘Please, dear God, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.’”

This story gives us two examples of people “hungering and thirsting” for righteousness—Ruby and Dr. Coles. But there’s more.

In every one of the many photographs of Ruby that appeared in the papers. Cute little Ruby is always dressed immaculately in her white dress, white socks, and Mary Ann shoes.

Ruby’s parents were poor sharecroppers. They could never have afforded those clothes. Somebody sent them, but the family never found out who.

Years later, after Ruby had grown up and become famous, a woman approached her at a gathering and introduced herself as a relative of Dr. Coles. She told Ruby that she had sent those outfits.

So there’s a third person in the story that exemplifies a hunger and thirst for righteousness—the woman who made sure that Ruby looked beautiful in all the photos.

CONCLUSION

When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we are also hungering and thirsting for Jesus, because Jesus is the embodiment of God’s righteousness and saving justice.

Some said that we have a God-shaped hole in our heart. Like the prodigal son who tried to stuff his starving belly with the husks the swine did eat, we can try to stuff our starving hearts with the wealth and pleasures of this world, but our hearts will be empty still.

When we are hungering and thirsting for righteousness—for justice—we are really hungering and thirsting for God himself. And he will come in and we will be satisfied—for ever and ever.

Luke 6:37-42: "Judge not"

INRODUCTION

Today I want to talk about the most dangerous temptation for those of us who are serious about our faith.

Jesus said, “Follow me.” To follow Jesus means true commitment. And that is what we want. We want to be more than casual Christians. We want to be, not just one-half Christian, or three-fourths Christian, but one hundred percent committed—to hold nothing back, and to follow Jesus to the end.

But there’s a danger—a real danger—whenever take the gospel seriously and set out on the road of true discipleship.

We become serious about our Bible study. Each day we seek to penetrate deeper into its meaning.

We become serious about prayer, and we spend time in prayer every day.

We want our words to be always gracious, to encourage others.

We become serious about serving others. We want to love our neighbor as ourself and serve people in the name of Christ.

And just when we think we are making a little progress, the devil smuggles this idea into our minds—we can’t help it. He tells us, “Hey, you’re becoming a really good Christian!” “You’re not like these ordinary church members.”

And we fall for it.

This is a danger the Bible warns us about. St. Paul wrote in one of his letters: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

In Luke 6, we have a long discourse from Jesus called “The Sermon on the Plain.” This message is somewhat like “The Sermon on the Mount,” except that Luke tells us that it was spoken on a “level place.”

Like all preachers, Jesus repeated himself, and in this shorter sermon, Jesus repeated some of the great truths he talked about in his Sermon on the Mount, and added some others.

So here is my text for today—from Luke 6:37-42:

“Do not judge and you won’t be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

He also told them a parable, “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye?

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”

I. Jesus says, “Judge not.”

A. That little phrase—“judge not”—has been much misunderstood.

Some people think that we must never express any opinion about what is good or bad or right or wrong.

But Jesus isn’t telling us that we are to simply ignore all that is wrong in the world.

As believers, we need to take a stand against the evil in the world. Faithfulness to God requires that we stand for what is good and oppose what is evil

But we must be gentle and humble, knowing that we also are far from blameless.

We grieve over the sins we see in the world. We don’t delight in them and dwell on them in our conversation—or in our thoughts.

B. When Jesus says, “Judge not,” what he is warning us against that censorious, faultfinding spirit that we are so tempted to engage in.

He is warning us against majoring on the sins of other people.

He is warning us against thinking we are superior because we have responded to God’s call and are serious about living for God.

Have you ever noticed how much of everyday conversation consists of finding fault with other people?

I hear it all the time.

People talk constantly about the faults of the younger generation—the faults of the politicians—the media—the Muslims—the rich people—the poor people—the people who aren’t like us.

I’m not saying there’s not plenty wrong in the world. I could go on and on. But the faults of others shouldn’t be the content of our conversation.

Rather, we need to look for what is good.

St. Paul wrote, also in his letter to the Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

What we fill our minds with is what will come out of our mouths.

Sometimes we need to steer the conversation away from the negativity we hear around us. We just need to be quiet and not take part in the faultfinding. We need to try to turn it to something positive.

I read once of a grandmother who was so positive in her speech that her grandchild said to her, “Granny, you’re so nice, I think you’d even have a kind word for the devil!”

The old lady said, “Well, we could admire his perseverance.”

If our minds are filled with the goodness of God and love for others, then the keynote of our conversation will be thanksgiving—not the evil in the world.

II. In the next sentence after Jesus says, “Do not judge…” he says, “Forgive and you will be forgiven, give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

A. It sounds like the Lord is changing the subject from not judging to generosity. And that is exactly true. Because the opposite of judging is generosity.

Jesus wants us to be generous in forgiving those who offend us—to cut them some slack—to make excuses for them—to consider the reasons people are as they are.

In his book, The Chosen, Chaim Potok records this conversation between a rabbi and his son. In the conversation, the son laughs and says to his father, “That man is such an ignoramus, Father!”

The father was angry and he rebuked his son. He said, “Look into his soul. Stand inside his soul and see the world through his eyes. You will know the pain he feels because of his ignorance, and you will not laugh.”

B. Think of the person you have contempt for—and think of what it would be like to be him or her. And have pity—not contempt.

Consider that you have no idea of what his life experiences are. You don’t know the hurts he has sustained. You can’t imagine the ignorance that darkens his soul. You have forgotten what it is like to live without the grace of God in your life.

III. Now let’s talk about the last part of the words I read—the part about taking the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

A. Jesus doesn’t tell us that we are never to confront another person with his or her faults.

He only tells us that we should first take the log out of our own eye.

In other words, look to yourself first. Make sure that you are qualified for this delicate task of confronting your neighbor with his faults.

B. But I think Jesus said that with a twinkle in his eye, because he knows that when we confront the log in our own eye, we lose our enthusiasm for extracting the speck in our friend’s eye. For me, that is really Jesus’s point.

If we really consider our own sins, we may be able to see more of the good in other people—even those who fall short of our standards.

C. But it’s not enough not to talk about the faults of others, we need to try not even to think about them.

And when an unkind thought comes into our mind, we need to confess it as a sin and replace it with a prayer for that person.

Here are some sayings worth repeating:

“Forget others’ faults by remembering your own.”

“It is the property of fools to be always judging.”

“Everyone has enough to do weeding his own garden.”

“The faults of others are like the headlights on an approaching car—they only seem to be more glaring than my own.”

I have a friend who likes to quote this saying of Confucius: “When we see persons of worth we should think of equaling them. When we see persons of contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.” (Analects, Bk. 4.16).

Rather than dwelling on the sins of others, the best plan is to be a good example. If we are gentle, kind, and forbearing, we will be a lot more pleasant to be around.

D. One problem with confronting other people with their faults is that whenever we do that, we focus their attention on our own flaws.

I remember one time when a fellow teacher, who I liked and admired, corrected my grammar. I didn’t hold it against her, but from that day on, I noticed especially every error in grammar that that my friend committed.

In a Peanuts comic strip Lucy is following Charlie Brown. She says, “You have a tendency to talk loudly when you get excited, don’t you, Charlie Brown? Why do you suppose you do this?”

Charlie Brown turns to her: “I don’t know,” he says, “No one has ever been rude enough to tell me about it before.”

In the last picture, Lucy is standing alone with a frowning expression on her face. She says, “We critical people are always being criticized!”

That’s a truth to consider. The more critical we are, the more we will be criticized.

And, actually, that is another way to look at Jesus’s command, “Don’t judge, and you will not be judged.” The more judgmental we are, the more harshly our fellow humans will judge us. To be a judgmental person sets us up for greater scrutiny from others—as well as from the Lord!

CONCLUSION

An old Greek fable tells us that each of us carries two packs, one in front and one behind. The one in front is everybody else’s sins; the one behind is our own.

It is true that while other peoples’ sins and peculiarities are always plainly visible to us, we seldom are able to see our own faults.

St. Augustine, who lived from A.D. 354 to 430, lived very simply. His meals were simple, mostly vegetables. He dined with brothers at a common table. And on his table, he had these lines engraved:

“Whoever likes to talk ill of those who are absent

is forbidden a place at this table.”

Wouldn’t that be a good rule for all of us?

Let us pray every day that we may be gracious, generous people—generous with our money, generous with our time, generous with our judgments.