The Beatitudes
“Blesséd are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6
Most people can sense physical hunger and thirst and they know how to satisfy it. Go to the source of food and drink. In addition, they hunger for recognition, power, riches, sex, and temporal knowledge and are not averse to using wickedness to satisfy their craving.
However, when God’s Son came down to earth, He did not try to obtain such things for Himself or for us. The objective of His earthly life was to be righteous by the keeping of God’s Law. From Bethlehem to Calvary, He was perfectly obedient, fulfilling all the laws of God. Of all the people on earth, He alone achieved perfect righteousness.
Can we attain such a status? If so, God will declare us to be blesséd. However, if not, He proclaims us curséd. What an eternally wretched status that would be! Yet, this is what we have earned for ourselves by our sinfulness. Far from attaining the status of a righteous one, we fell to the infamy of complete unrighteousness.
It is in response to this that God, out of infinite love, sent His Son into the world. Jesus of Nazareth came to achieve for us what we failed to achieve for ourselves. Since He was our substitute under the Law, the fulness of His righteousness has been counted to our credit.
God’s blesséd ones (us) hunger and thirst for righteousness, but not a righteousness of our own. Our craving can be satisfied only by Jesus. As we confess our sins and seek forgiveness … as we read the Bible and go to church, we are filled. “Filled,” Jesus says. There is no emptiness left in our hearts. We need to add nothing, for if we try, we replace His righteousness for our “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
Praise be to You, O God, for continually satisfying our hunger and thirst with the Bread and Water of Life (John 6:35; 4:13). Amen.