Blessed Are the Hungry and Thirsty

Matthew 5:6

Have you found that our study of The Beatitudes here in Matthew 5 has been both encouraging and challenging? I certainly have. These verses at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount give us a portrait of a disciple of Jesus Christ. They encompass both the character and aspirations of citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We have discovered that the focus of the first three of the beatitudes has been to show us that disciples of Jesus begin with a sense of their deep need for God’s grace.

Jesus first told us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven“; and there, we learned that the first attitude of a disciple of Jesus is the recognition that we stand before God as spiritual paupers, utterly bankrupt before Him. Then, Jesus taught us, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted“; and there, we learned that we must have a sense of deep sorrow and remorse over the sin in our lives that caused us to stand in such bankruptcy before God in the first place. And then, Jesus told us, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth“; and in this third beatitude, we learned the frame of mind that should characterize us as a result of coming to terms with the first two. If we truly realize that we stand before a holy God in a state of absolute abject poverty of spirit, and if we are also genuinely broken-hearted over our own sin, then we will approach God meekly—not coming to Him boldly and arrogantly, but meekly and humbly depending only upon God’s mercy and grace. We will – as we have said – become “tamed” in our spirits before Him and before others.

Now, this leads us to the fourth beatitude. The first three were building up to this one. If you are the kind of person that is described in those first three beatitudes, then you’ll realize that the one thing you need more than anything else—the one thing that you know that you do not have in and of yourself but want above all else—is righteousness, a right standing with God and the right conduct that comes from a relationship with God. This is what you will most long for; the thing that you will crave from God; the thing that you cannot live without. It’s the thing, in fact, that you will hunger and thirst after from the very depths of your being.

And that’s why this beatitude is such good news. Because it’s here that Jesus gives us the greatest and most remarkable promise that any poverty-stricken, broken-hearted, meek and humble sinner could ever hear: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

This isn’t describing a “take it or leave it” kind of attitude. It’s describing a “cannot live without it and must have it no matter what it costs” kind of longing! It’s a craving even greater than the one we would feel if we were starving for food or parched for water, because those cravings are only concerned with the need of our bodies, but this craving concerns the deepest and most profound need of our souls. This is the kind of longing that Jesus is describing in this fourth beatitude.

Like the other beatitudes, it has two parts. The first affirms the blessedness of the longing. And I want you to notice that it points us back to the first three beatitudes that highlighted the depth of our need. It sums up that one thing we lack before God, that one thing we desperately need, in one word: “righteousness”. And the second part promises to us the complete satisfaction of that need, that those who have this intense hungering and thirsting after righteousness will be filled.

This beatitude is really the hinge on which the others hang. Just as the first half of this beatitude pointed us back to the first three beatitudes, the second half of the fourth beatitude points us ahead to the remaining four. The last four beatitudes are descriptions of the kind of person who has been brought into a state of righteousness by God and who now lives a completely different kind of life by God’s grace. This kind of disciple is now “merciful”, “pure in heart”, a “peacemaker”, and—especially notice this one!—”persecuted” for the sake of “righteousness”.

Can you see how fundamental this one beatitude is? It stands as a bridge between the first three beatitudes, which show us our need for God’s grace, and the last four, which show us the life lived in response to God’s grace. Joining them together is this beatitude that shows us God fills the disciple with what he needs and longs for: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

So as with the other beatitudes that we studied, let’s ask two questions:

1. What does it mean to “hunger and thirst for righteousness”?

The Greek word for “righteousness” (dikaiosynē) is one of the most important words in all of the New Testament. This noun is found some 92 times in the New Testament sometimes translated “justice” or “justification”. It is found another 81 times in its adjective form (dikaios) meaning “righteous” or “just”. It’s verb form is used another 40 time meaning to “justify” or “make righteous”. It’s the word that gives us the great theme of many of Paul’s letters, especially his letter to the Romans, where he explains how a man or woman becomes “justified” or “righteous” before God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Righteousness in the Bible has at least three aspects: legal, moral, and social.[1] I believe that, to some degree, all three are being touched on in this beatitude.

Legal righteousness is justification, a right relationship with God. Its focus is on an act of God’s grace, whereby He looks down upon a guilty sinner and declares him or her to be “righteous” in His sight. God “imputes” (Rom. 4:6) righteousness to the guilty sinner putting the righteousness of Christ to their account. This is positional righteousness. This is the greatest need that anyone could ever have: the need to be declared “righteous” in God’s sight. Apart from this justification by faith in Jesus Christ, no one can stand before God, for the Bible declares, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Jesus Christ is the only exception. He is called “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1) and “The LORD our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6). This righteousness is worth hungering after.

Another aspect of righteousness is one that we might call the “moral” aspect. This is practical righteousness. Moral righteousness is that righteousness of character and conduct which pleases God. This is the righteousness that God implants in us through the sanctifying work of His Holy Spirit through His word. The disciple of Jesus should hunger and thirst to be practically righteous, like Jesus.

In the context here in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus uses the word “righteousness” several times in this “moral” sense. In Matthew 5:10 Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That’s the eighth and final beatitude. When you take the fourth and eighth beatitudes together, you get something like this: We are to hunger and thirst after a kind of life that will cause some people to persecute us for our faith. So righteousness is a lifestyle that distinguishes us as true Christians and invites opposition from the world.

Jesus uses “righteousness” again in Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Pharisees had concocted a religious system built around attendance at the temple. It involved intricate rules and regulations and meant following precepts and traditions. It was done externally and hypocritically (Matt. 6:1) to make them look good to others. Jesus shows that true righteousness starts in the heart and changes a person from the inside out. True disciples seek a righteousness that doesn’t need to be seen by others, but only by God.

Most of us already know the last verse by heart: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). This touches the priorities of life. What is it that you are seeking in life? Fame? Fortune? Career advancement? A good salary? A secure future? A happy retirement? A marriage partner? The fulfillment of your dreams? As good as those things may be, they aren’t the most important things in life. Put God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness first. When you do, everything else you need will be given to you. Seeking “His righteousness” means putting God’s Kingdom first. It means trusting Him in all of life’s circumstances. It means seeking to do that which is pleasing to God.

Putting these passages together we find that we are to hunger and thirst after a truly Christ-like lifestyle that changes us from the inside out so that we no longer seek the praise of men but that causes us to seek God’s approval above everything else.[2]

So first, we should hunger and thirst after “legal” righteousness, and second after “moral” righteousness. And there’s a third aspect to “righteousness” that we should hunger and thirst after; and I believe it should be mentioned last, because it can’t truly be “righteousness” unless it is founded on the other two. John Stott calls it “social” righteousness. It’s a righteousness that has its focus on God’s will being done in this world. It is concerned with seeking to see oppressed people set at liberty, the pursuit of justice in our laws, and compassion toward the downtrodden. Without question, a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ will look upon this dark world of cruelty and injustice, and will “hunger” and “thirst” after “social” righteousness for all. But we should stress again that it must be an outflow of the others – that is, a “legal” standing of righteousness before God, and a “moral” pursuit of righteousness in one’s own life. It would be hypocritical to “hunger” and “thirst” after “social” righteousness, without having a greater hungering and thirsting after the justification by God’s grace that leads to righteousness in our own lives first. This third aspect of righteousness will never be fully realized until Christ, the righteous King, returns and rules.

Now, stop and think about all the other things that the people of this world hunger and thirst after. They long for such things as power, riches, influence, attention, admiration, the freedom to gratify their sinful lusts, and revenge. How many do you know who hunger and thirst after “righteousness”? It was the hunger after something other than righteousness—Adam and Eve’s hunger after the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—that brought about the fall of all humanity into sin.

But then even we, who name the name of Christ, hunger after lessor things without having “righteousness” as our first longing. There are too many that are hungering and thirsting for “blessings” from God rather than hungering and thirsting for God Himself and the righteousness that He provides in Christ. Righteousness is not found by hungering for blessedness. Blessedness is found in hungering for righteousness.

And think about this: you can’t hunger and thirst after something that you’re already in full possession of. Although, as Christians, we are positionally righteous, we still need more and more of the righteousness of Christ imparted to our lives. In fact, the way that Matthew phrases this beatitude shows several aspects of this longing for righteousness.

First, the tense of the Greek verbs used for “hungering” and “thirsting” is the present tense. It describes a continuous, ongoing kind of action. In other words, it’s a hungering and thirsting that is to characterize our lives before Him all of the time. We never come to a point in our lives when we feel contented that we’ve finally achieved “righteousness”; because that won’t happen until we are glorified with Christ in heaven. The pursuit of righteousness is to be a life-long pursuit for a disciple.

Second, this hunger and thirst are not partial—no, they are complete. The form of the word “righteousness” indicates that we don’t want just a little portion of righteousness, we want all of it. He doesn’t say that we are to “hunger and thirst” for merely “some” righteousness. He uses the form of the noun that indicates we are to hunger and thirst for the whole thing! All of it! Nothing less than complete righteousness before God!

Jesus said, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). The standard for righteousness is not the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:21), but to the righteousness of our heavenly Father Himself. We’re not supposed to be satisfied with just a “little righteousness”. Our Father is fully righteous, and we are to hunger and thirst after full righteousness as well.

Third, Jesus is saying that this desire, this hunger and thirst, are not casual—no, they are all-consuming. When you’re hungry and thirsty in the way that Jesus is describing, you can think of nothing else. It is the hunger of a man who is starving to death. It is the thirst of a man who is dried to the bone. Longing for righteousness becomes your singular focus.

The language Jesus uses here speaks of a passionate spiritual desire to be right with God and to get rid of sin. This longing is expressed again and again in Scripture, and nowhere more clearly than in the Psalms: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1–2); “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1); “2 My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2). These are not formal religious phrases, or superficial emotions. They are wholehearted, earnest, urgent cries from someone for whom life without God’s righteousness is the spiritual equivalent of starving to death. How often do we feel like that?[3]

Listen, hunger is a sign of life. Watch a little baby when feeding time comes around; it has an intense desire for its mother’s milk. It is a sign of life. Spiritual hunger shows spiritual life. This is precisely what Peter meant when he wrote, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). The person who does not have a hunger for the Word of God as nourishment for his soul should examine himself to see if there is any evidence of genuine conversion.[4]

Hunger is also a sign of health. Doctors often ask a patient ‘How is your appetite?’ because lack of appetite may be symptomatic of a serious disorder. When a professing Christian has little or no appetite for the things of God, something is seriously wrong, even if outwardly everything seems okay. The late Scottish preacher, Thomas Guthrie, challenges us with these words: “If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of God, any table better than the Lord’s table, any person better than Christ, any indulgence better than the hope of heaven—take alarm!”[5]

May God keep at us until we’re “hungry” and “thirsty” for nothing less than righteousness! May the Holy Spirit show us increasingly how short of righteousness we are in our lives, and how much of a blessing it is to become more and more like Jesus. And may He build that hunger and thirst into us so much that we cannot rest, but must pursue it. May we pray like the old Scotsman once cried out to God in prayer, “O God, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be!”

This leads us to consider . . .

2. What blessing is promised to those who long for righteousness?

In a word, it’s “satisfaction”! If they desire righteousness, Jesus promises that they will be “filled“. I found that the word Jesus uses for “filled” (xortazõ) occurs 15 times in the New Testament. And in all but two of those times (this passage, and the parallel to it in Luke 6:21), it refers to eating food until one is full. And so, metaphorically, the word here describes a state of spiritual satisfaction for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus promises to give them the desire of their heart – even to the point of filling them to fullness.

Notice that this verb “filled” is in a passive voice; and this means that, with reference to the filling of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, it is something that is done for them by another. Righteousness not a something that they achieve for themselves or earn through their own efforts, but they are filled, satisfied with righteousness, by God HImself.

How hopeless we’d be if it were up to ourselves to satisfy our own craving for righteousness! After all, we’re the one’s who got ourselves into the desperate need for righteousness in the first place! But praise God! He Himself satisfies that craving in us. I love the invitation that God gives to all of us in Isaiah 55;

Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come and buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good.
And let your soul delight itself in abundance
” (Isaiah 55:1-2).

It’s as if God says, “Come to the banquet of righteousness! Eat it all! I give it to you free of charge! And don’t come to the table with anything but an appetite!”

And how does this satisfaction of our hunger and thirst – this fullness of righteousness as a gift of God’s free and unmerited grace – come to be ours? Through Jesus! Jesus Himself said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

Do you hunger after righteousness? Then go to Jesus. He spoke of Himself as “food” in order to describe a deep relationship of trust in Him, through identifying ourselves with His death on the cross and with the shedding of His blood. He said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (John 6:54).

And do you thirst after righteousness? Then go to Jesus. He cried out one day and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). The woman at the well gave Jesus a cup of water to drink; but He told her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

Full satisfaction of our hunger and thirst for righteousness is found in Christ. But here’s the strange thing about this kind of satisfaction, because it leaves you hungering and thirsting for more. The more He fills you with righteousness, the more you want. The more satisfied you are in Christ, the more of Christ you desire. Like all the qualities included in the beatitudes, hunger and thirst are perpetual characteristics of the disciples of Jesus, as perpetual as poverty of spirit, meekness and mourning. Not till we reach heaven will we ‘hunger no more, neither thirst any more’, for only then will Christ our Shepherd lead us ‘to springs of living water’ (Rev. 7:16-17).[6]

Let me close by asking you; does this kind of hunger and thirst characterize you? Do you long for righteousness—crave it with all your being? Ask yourself: Am I longing not merely to be good, but to be godly? Do I really want to get rid of my sins—every single one of them? Do I long to be holy in my thoughts as well as in my speech? Am I prepared to put to death everything that belongs to my flesh? Am I determined to resist the devil? Do I really want to have done with self-pity, self-interest, self-protection, self-justification, self-concern and self-assertion? Do I want to see the fruit of the Spirit produced in my life? Do I truly want to be like Christ in his humility, kindness, compassion and love, and in his perfect obedience to God’s law?[7]

May we truly hunger and thirst for righteousness. And being filled by Christ Himself, may we hunger and thirst for more! This is the pathway to real blessedness![8]

 

[1] John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 45.

[2] Ray Prichard, https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/full-stomachs-and-empty-hearts/

[3] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 140–141.

[4] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 142.

[5] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 142.

[6] John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 46.

[7] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 156.

[8] Greg Allen, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2004/070404.htm#f1 . I drew several points of my sermon from Allen’s excellent treatment of this passage.

It's only fair to share...Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Email this to someone
email
Print this page
Print