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.