Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Have you ever thought about how a baby, or even a child, will let everyone around them known they are hungry and ready to eat.

As an infant it is done by crying.

The hunger pangs hit and the baby cries and is fed by mom or dad.

In childhood, the child begins to get a bit cranky.

They may ask if they can have a snack or ask when dinner will be done.

If they’re old enough, they may not even ask, they just grab something to eat.

They are hungry.

They don’t like being hungry and so they satisfy that hunger.

In reality, no one, likes being hungry.

Hunger is uncomfortable.

Here’s a little science lesson for you.

Infants are born with about 9,000 taste buds.

And those taste buds, made up of sensory cells, regenerate themselves every week or two.

But as we grow older, it gets harder to regenerate damaged cells and so foods can lose taste.

The same is true about smell.

The older we get the olfactory nerves lose their ability to send signals.

So it is easy for older people to experience nearly tasteless food.

And because of that, they don’t like to eat.

And the less they eat, the more their bodies get used to not eating and stop craving food as much.

In our passage this morning, we are continuing on with the Beatitudes and we see Jesus talking about the hungry and the promise to those who are hungry.

But we are also continuing on with the Woes and Jesus’s talking about the filled.

And as we see these contrasting teachings, my hope is that we consider that which we are craving and then consider where our satisfaction lies.

So once again, we are given two choices about how we will live our lives: famished or full.

And again, as we close, I want us to look at two biblical examples.

Live Famished

Live Full

Biblical Examples

Live Famished

The first option that we are presented with is the option to live a famished life.

Now, I will admit.

This is not me.

Not literally.

And not usually.

When Jesus used the word for hunger here, it is a word that means to be hungry—having hunger pangs.

This isn’t snack-time hunger if you know what I mean.

This isn’t that breakfast is wearing off in the mid-day and so I better go grab a donut or eat a bag of chips before lunch.

This is hunger that hurts.

It’s the hunger we would describe as being famished.

And that is usually not me—if we are speaking literally.

I don’t like to feel I have an empty stomach.

I don’t like to feel hunger and so I drink all the time.

I used to drink milk when I was a kid, then moved to sodas or Yoohoos.

Now I typically drink coffee or water.

And I have been asked more than once if I was a diabetic because of how much I drink.

And I have to explain that I’m not; I just don’t like feeling like I have an empty stomach.

I have never missed a meal simply on the basis that I could not get to one.

I’ve missed them because of sickness or maybe because I was in trouble or I was fasting, but I’ve never not been able to afford one or for lack of food.

Most of us are probably in that same boat.

Or at least have been in that boat for quite some time.

It sounds strange to hear and pray the words, “Give us this day our daily bread,” when we live in a culture where we have weekly bread or even monthly bread.

When my dad was in the army and even after he retired, my mom would go to the commissary once a month and get cart loads of food for us to eat on for the month because it was cheaper but further to drive.

Today, there are entire industries given to prepping for the worst.

Storage containers of food that will last five or more years.

The idea of not having a meal or going days without a meal is foreign to most of us.

But the promise here is that those who are hungry—those who are famished will be blessed.

And remember that word “blessed” has the beatific ring to it.

It isn’t just a happiness, but a deep, inner joy and excitement.

So you who are hungry are you who are deeply joyous and excited.

Why?

Because you shall be satisfied.

And here is a general point that we need to learn.

Last week’s blessing that the poor feel and this week’s blessing that the hungry feel, and those blessings we will see over the next few weeks, these blessed feelings are not caused by the predicament they are in, but the promise they are given.

This deep joy and excitement is not caused by the predicament, but the promise.

Hence we find in James saying

The trial isn’t a cause of joy and excitement.

But the promise of steadfastness is.

Or Peter who said,

In this—not the various trials, but—in this, the promise of God to guard you through faith unto salvation you rejoice.

The trials can certainly cause grief for sure, but under that grief is the joy of the promise.

Or even the writer of Hebrews who wrote,

Christ endured the cross.

He despised the shame.

So what brought him joy?

That promise that was set before him.

And certainly Paul tells the Ephesians and us to give thanks for everything.

But the context of this and everything before it is given in the first verse of the chapter—chapter 5. We are to be imitators of God as beloved children.

Thus, we can give thanks for everything because it is making us like our beloved Father.

It is no different than what Paul stated in Romans 8:28.

So here is Jesus saying that you who are hungry experience a deep joy and excitement because you will be satisfied.

That’s the promise.

You will be satisfied.

You will be satisfied!

Jesus is not just predicting the future.

He is making a promise.

We do this quite often ourselves.

Kids acting up at the store or in church or something like that and on the way home, we say something like, “You and I will be having a talk when we get home,” or “You will go to your room when we get home.”

We’re not predicting the future; we’re making a promise.

In this case, Jesus’s promise is that the hungry will be satisfied.

And though I’ve mentioned it before in other places, I’ll mention it again.

This is an occasion of the divine passive.

In an effort to not take God’s name in vain, the divine passive was used so that if there is no obvious person performing the action, then it is God who is performing it.

Since then, there is no obvious person giving satisfaction, Jesus is saying that it will be God himself giving it.

And it is interesting that Jesus used this word.

Even in the English, this word is not the same as the word in verse 25.

Here we have “satisfied.”

There we have “full.”

And certainly they are synonyms.

And I haven’t found a single commentary that points out that these are different words in the Greek, so it is obvious that using these different words doesn’t make a whole lot of difference.

So I don’t want to make too big a deal where it is not a big deal.