The Hungry and Thirsty

So far, we’ve seen that those who are blessed, or “happy” as the world literally translates, is to see themselves as shockingly poor, sad, and unambitiously meek. That is, they are miserable and do not attempt to mitigate that misery in their own strength or have ambitions to pull themselves out of their misery into the joys and pleasures of this world. They see the meaninglessness of those things and are left like poor Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress crying out in agony, “what shall I do?”

But they are not left in this state, instead there is the promise of future relief from their poverty, sadness, and lowness in this world.

So the theme continues as everything we might have believed about happiness is turned upside down. Happy people in this world are not poor in spirit, they are not sad or meek or hungry or thristy, but in God’s infinite wisdom his had turned his saints away from the happiness that can be found in this world for the greater blessings of eternity. As we wait in this world, the more we embrace the state these beatitudes describe the more we find ourselves by his power in the likeness of Christ, until we find these promises fulfilled to the praise of his glorious grace.

What is Righteousness?

Before we look into what it means to hunger and thirst here, it is important to know what Matthew means by “righteousness”. A temptation can be to rush to the doctrine of imputed righteousness developed by Paul, especially in the book of Romans, without first understanding how Matthew is using it here. It is important to remember that Matthew’s primary audience is Jewish and the word “righteousness” meant being in a right relationship with God. If someone is named as righteous, like Noah or Abraham, they are considered by God to be right with him and in his favour.

Practice of walking with God

But how does someone become righteous? Genesis 15:3 makes in clear that Abraham was considred righteousness by believing God. His willingness to take God at his Word and act on his promises. So from the OT we do see Paul’s emphasis on righteousness through faith alone.

Romans 4:13 ESV

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

The connection between righteousness and obedience is the connection between trust and action. Trust leads to obedience, but doubt leads to choosing our own way. The Jews after the exile had slowly come to see the connection between righteousness and obedience much more closely as they sought away to get their righteous standing with God back. Since the disobedience of their fathers had driving God away form them, they thought their obedience to God could bring them back into God’s good graces. Thus, works righteousness became the default Jewish thinking, especially among the Pharisees, the Sadusees,, and the Essenes. These groups believed that going above and beyond the commandsments in the law would bring the righteousness that had been lost back. This, we know, is not the case, but its important for us to understand this being the default way of thinking for the Jews. Righteousness for first century Jews was their attempts to get back into God’s good favour through good works and a strict lifestyle.

Deliverance from Injustice

There is another aspect of righteousness that was heavily in the minds of the Jews of Matthew’s day, and that was the idea of justice. Justice and righteousness translate from the same word, both in Greek and Hebrew, and are intimately tied. As two sides of the same coin, righteousness relates to loving God as well as loving your neighbour. You cannot truly do one without the other.

Israel had a real problem with this aspect during the times of Isaiah and Micah. Both noted that, while Israel was good as keeping up the sacrifices and cerimonial practices, they neglected the matters of justice. Specifically, they ignored the parts of the law that kept the cycles of poverty from forming. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, the prophets, priests, and politicians were paid off so that it stayed that way without confrontation. We’ve seen this in our way through Micah, but its clear in the other prophets as well,

Jeremiah 22:13 ESV

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,

God’s command to Israel in Isaiah 1:17

Isaiah 1:17 ESV

learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

Because Israel had become a society that did not practice justice, they soon found themselves on the recieving end of greed and oppression at the hands of oppressive regiemes. For many years, the Jews had cried out to God for justice, that they would be freed from this oppression. They desired God to free them from the injustice that they faced, but God would not do so until they had stopped practicing injustice themselves.

“Hunger and Thirst”

Now that we understand these two ideas of righteousness being both our walk with God and the practice of justice which is inevitable result of walking with God, we can turn to what it means to hunger and thirst. We can see two ways in which a hunger for righteousness could be understood.

A hunger for a true walk with God.

A hunger to end the injustice and oppression they are currently suffering.

Both of these have a place here, although the first is prominant.

If there is one thing we should gather from the beatitudes we have looked at thus far, its that eternal blessings only come to those who are willing to be miserable in this world. In fact 5 of the 8 beatitudes promise both inward termoil and outward persecution as a positive sign of God’s joyful favour. So it is here that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness look both inward at their own lack of holiness and outward the injustices they may be suffering under. Rather than becoming hard to their own sin and grumbling at the sins of others, they turn their eyes to God and patiently wait for his righteousness to be fully manifest.

A hunger for justice exists in everyone, though it is marred and twisted often beyond recognition. They are enough to let people know that something is wrong, but they are tied to a sense of self-righteousness and not a true view of God.

The first real pangs of hunger may come some time before salvation, a sort of braxton hicks before the true labour of conviction sets in.

The conviction of sin begins to set in painfully as the person becomes aware of their sin in the face of a holy God. They may for a time try works righteousness, but a true convicftion of the Spirit will not be quenched by that unholy painkiller.

The person is brought to their knees before God like the tax collector, crying for mercy.

Luke 18:13 ESV

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

Like Isaiah, they recognize the world as an unjust society in which they take part.

Isaiah 6:5 ESV

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Because of their sense of true poverty, they are cut to the heart with a desire for a righteousness that will make them acceptable before God. Seeing no way to provide such righteousness in themselves, their hunger becomes great and they cry out with the listeners on the day of pentecost,

Acts 2:37 ESV

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

It is then that the bread of life, the gift of God in the form of Jesus Christ our Righteousness becomes their greatest desire, for they see no other that could satisfy their desire for holiness but him,

Acts 2:38 ESV

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What about the second area of righteousness? Those who thrist for justice?

Revelation 6:10 ESV

They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

It is a mark of those changed in their heart that they long for justice to be done, both to them and in this world. But the key is that they call upon God to enforce this justice. They put not hope in man, they certainly don’t trust in their own good works to ‘convicne’ God, instead they call upon him day and night, entrusting themselves like Christ to the Father’s hand, 1 Peter 2:23

1 Peter 2:23 ESV

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

They are not fighting for their rights, they are meek and wait for God to enforce justice. They hunger and thirst for their vindication. Jesus concludes the famous parable of the unjust judge and the widow who cries out to him,

Luke 18:7 ESV

And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?

They Will be Filled

So the last question we can ask the text is, why are such people blessed? How is it that God’s gracous favour is proved by this hunger for righteousness? The answer the text gives us is that they will be filled. Their hunger and thirst will be satisfied.

The passive way this is worded is very important. It does not say, “they will fill themselves” but “they will be filled”.

The hunger for a walk with God is not satisfied by trying harder or going above and beyond the requirements of the OT law. In other words, it is not a righteousness aquired by Works, but by faith as those who hunger look to God’s grace for the righteousness they desire.

The same is true for justice. Those who trust God with true faith can leave injustice in his hands, not passively or not caring, but actively crying out in prayer with faith as David often did in the Psalms he wrote.

For the believer, there is a real disturbance when they see their lack to obtain and keep up a right walk with God, they eagerly desire the grace to be close to God. This causes them to be poor in spirit, mourn for their sin, and meek because they realize their inability to meet God’s perfect standard of righteousness. They don’t try to work their way back to God, they cry out to God for righteousness.

Thankfully, these have their desire filled in the righteousness of Christ. This is where Paul’s great doctrine of imputed righteousness causes us great joy and proves the hungry truly blessed. Romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

If God can bring righteousness to our sinful hears, we can likewise trust God to bring about the justice we seek when oppressed. For God is righteous, he makes us righteous, he will judge the world in righteousness, and one day we will enter into a world were all is righteous, the fully formed Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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