Matt 5.6

Matthew 5:6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for [righteousness] for they will be satisfied.

Two weeks ago we discussed the 9th verse of Matthew chapter 5: the beatitude that reminds us to work for peace. We broke that verse down in this way:
1. We should—work for peace (meaning we should forgive and encourage others to do the same)
2. God blesses—those who work for peace.
3. And those who—work for peace will be called the children of God (i.e. Christians or heirs of heaven).

This week we’ll be discussing the 6th verse of this chapter. And we’ll start by breaking the similarly:

1. We should—hunger and thirst for righteousness
2. God blesses—those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
3. Those who—hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied (i.e. they will hunger no more, neither shall they thirst)

I’m sorry to put you through that yet again but it’s important and soon you’ll understand why.

It would probably be in our best interest to start by defining biblical (as if there is any other kind) righteousness. Righteousness (or justice as some translations have it) is essentially right standing with God. Things that are righteous (or just) are things that God looks at and sees as being correct or precisely as he intended for them to be. When a relationship is righteous it exhibits a give and take of love and appreciation that God desires for his children. When a community (or church) is righteous, God smiles at its corporate actions and activities because that community is doing exactly what he called and equipped them to do. When an individual is righteous he or she is living to the best of his or her ability to please God in everything. Sure there may be short-comings but ultimately he or she seeks God despite them.

Tonight I want us to focus primarily on the pursuit of individual righteousness (as opposed to corporate or relational). I’m interested in this particular facet of righteousness because it’s really the only one over which we can attain any true degree of control in a practical sense. We cannot aspire to corporate (community or church) righteousness unless we’re each seeking individual righteousness (which will unite us in heart and mind).

This verse reminds us that we must hunger for righteousness—hunger, that is, without having our hunger fulfilled--and to thirst for righteousness—to thirst without having our thirst quenched. It's important what we remember that righteousness is an ideal to which we aspire. We cannot become perfect before heaven so we hunger and thirst unendingly. We battle our temptations and unhealthy urges literally until Kingdom come. I’d like to take a brief look at an event in the life of Jesus to see a perfect image of hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

One chapter prior to Jesus’ Beatitudes sermon Jesus gets caught up in a strange little situation. He’s fasting in the desert in Matthew 4 seeking God for a really long 40 day period (before embarking on his public ministry which will lead to his death) when he’s approached by the devil. Now, before I talk about this devil I’d like to bring to your attention a strange point concerning Jesus’ activities in the desert. He is taking this beatitude 100% literally. He’s hungry and thirsty because he is on a complete fast in the desert (i.e. he is not eating or drinking anything at all and that leaves one physically hungry and thirsty) and why is he hungering and thirsting in the desert? Because he desires righteousness. He is hungering and thirsting for righteousness. He wants to do what is right and just in his Father’s eyes. He wants to be prepared for everything his ministry might throw at him. He wants to start this journey by making sure he knows where he’s headed. And at some point in his fast a very peculiar thing happens—the devil comes along and tells Jesus that he should turn a stone into bread and eat it (v. 3). Odd.

BEGIN TANGENT. We’ve all created an image of the devil in our minds. We have certain expectations for what he’ll do and say. We’re pretty sure we know what he’s up to most of the time. And if the devil picture you’ve painted in your head is anything like the devil picture I’ve painted in mine he’s not likely to come along and offer helpful solutions to practical problems (like, for instance, suggesting that you eat some bread if you’re hungry). He’s not likely to suggest you do anything that doesn’t clearly lead to destruction, right? The devil in our minds is essentially a mythical drug dealer who tries get you addicted to something deadly and a liar who tries to trick you into investing money unwisely and a salesman who convinces you that you need every material thing the world has to offer and a Dr. Kevorkian who tries to convince you this could all be over and a pimp who, well, pimps. After looking at this story however I have to wonder if I’ve drawn a caricature instead of a realistic image of the devil in my head. END TANGENT.

This suggestion (to make bread out of stone) doesn’t seem all that bad. In fact I’m not entirely sure of this devil’s intentions (and that's alarming). I don’t see his angle, though I’m sure he’s got one. The thing that the devil suggests Jesus should do (I would propose) isn’t even a sin. Would it be wrong for Jesus to eat a loaf of bread right now if he had one? No (unless of course Jesus had vowed to God that he would not eat for a certain amount of time but the Bible doesn’t say that he did any such thing). So we can only assume that the devil has suggested that Jesus do something here that is not on the level of adultery or idolatry or suicide. If Jesus had turned the stone into bread and the story went on we probably would not have thought much of it. He miraculously prepared food other times in scripture and we’re okay with it. We would just look at this story now and say, remember that time in the Bible when Jesus had breakfast with the devil (The Message’s translation of the Bible would title this section Waffles with Wucifer or something catchy like that), and then we’d add, weird story huh? We might teach that we should try to befriend our enemies and that would be it and we’d move on. But it doesn’t play out that way. Jesus chooses instead to literally hunger and thirst for righteousness—to make the difficult sacrifices necessary to please his Father.

The most important idea for us to adopt from this beautiful picture of Jesus hungering and thirsting for righteousness is that we will be tempted to stray from our pursuit of righteousness and it’s likely to be a distraction we did not expect. It could perhaps even be sinless for all practical purposes but the beatitudes (this one in particular) call us to a deeper level—not just to avoid sinful pursuits. We can no longer simply look out for the enemy that steals, kills, and destroys but also the enemy that is content to distract.

In the Kingdom of God we are sustained by righteousness because we know we can be satisfied by nothing less.