We are continuing today in this series preaching from the Beatitudes. Many commentators and biblical scholars see these Beatitudes of Jesus as operating principles of the kingdom of God. I certainly believe they are correct. This means that Jesus desires those who are his disciples will have these traits or qualities as part of their day to day living. But we are also discovering that these principles of the kingdom of God are very often in direct opposition to the ideologies, the thought process, or the mentality of the world around us. Last week we looked at the Beatitude, “Blessed are the meek”. And in opposition we shared how the culture around us often displays the expression, “Just Win Baby.” It is not just winning but winning at all costs. But it is those who are humble in heart and spirit that Jesus said would be blessed here. It parallels other statements Jesus made like, “It’s in losing our life that we save it. And trying to save our life we end up losing it”. It is power yielded to serve God versus power wielded to satisfy our own desires.
In this beatitude today, we are looking at those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. And again, this statement is the opposite of our culture. I thought of some common expressions of our day, particularly in the food industry which will often asks would you like to, “Supersize it!” Show picture of supersize French fries.
As a matter of fact, speaking of the phrase, “Supersize it!” Back in 2004 there was a documentary movie that came out starring and directed by Morgan Spurlock. He did a little experiment. He ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days. This included three meals a day. Whenever they asked him if he would like to, “Supersize it”, he would say “Yes”. He would not supersize it unless they asked him. But, as you might imagine, they asked him a lot. So, at the end of those 30 days what happened to Morgan Spurlock? He averaged about 5,000 calories a day which is equivalent to 9.26 Big Macs. He was 32 years old. At the end of 30 days, he had gained 24.5 pounds. He had an increase in his body mass index of 13%. His cholesterol level was well over 200, it was 230. He experienced, as you might imagine, a lot of mood swings. His physical as well as emotional and spiritual life were all impacted by that experiment, the Supersize Me Experiment. Now I know that is an extreme example. Obviously not every one of us is going to take every meal from McDonald’s. I think they mentioned that some of their best customers only frequent McDonald’s twice a week. It is an extreme example, but it points to the reality of our culture and experiences within our world. And it is apparent our world is dominated by an emphasis on physical appetite. But against our culture and the emphasis on our physical appetite. Jesus is moving us in a more SPIRITUAL direction with the words, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The question raised would be, “Do we hunger and thirst over spiritual things as we do our physical food?
Now to be sure, hunger and thirst are natural, normal human drives. Let’s face it, without food and drink we will die. It is not an optional thing, but it is a necessity of life. We must have food and drink to survive. Food, shelter and clothing are among the necessities of life.
I am amazed every time I watch the Animal Planet or other nature documentaries looking at gazelles or wildebeests or other wild animals who come to the watering hole or to a river to drink. They are driven by a powerful thirst! But they know if they go there that they may be prey to crocodiles or other predators. But their drive for thirst is so powerful and that instinct to survive wherein they are driven as if to say, “If I do not go and quench my thirst, I will die”. And indeed, without water they will die. So, they take the risk in the most vulnerable circumstances and go to drink and satisfy their thirst. It is a powerful drive that must be satisfied, not matter the risk involved.
I was reminded of Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for the water, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God. When shall I come and appear before you, my God?” Many of you know the little chorus that was produced from this Psalm. But David is taking his physical appetite of hunger and thirst and is overlying it with SPIRITUAL hunger and thirst in this wonderful analogy. As the deer longs for the waters, as the deer even goes through vulnerable circumstances and puts its life at risk to take a drink from this water, so, he says, “My soul pants for the Living God”. Again, the primary point here is about our spiritual lives and the intense desire of worshipping God in private or public but particularly in public worship as we describe praise and glory to our awesome God.
As I thought further about this hunger and thirst, I thought about Jesus’ life. I thought about moments in Jesus’ life when he was hungry or thirsty and what he did in those circumstances as a clue to give greater insight concerning those who hunger and thirst after righteousness being filled.
One of the events in Jesus’ life was during the time of his temptation. This is found in Matthew 4. Before the temptation the scripture teaches us, that Jesus fasted for 40 days. So, without question he was hungry! We use the expression, “I’m nearly starved to death!” But I doubt anyone in this room today has ever faced a time in your life when you were literally starving to death or whenever you were thirsting to death without food or some water or fluid. But Jesus was literally at that brink in his life. He needed something to eat and to drink to sustain his life. And so, the temptation was oriented toward his physical appetite. Satan said, “Turn these stones to bread”. Now I’m sure that was a very real temptation. If we place ourselves in Jesus’s sandals we might have been tempted to say, “Well just get a big stone, Jesus! Supersize it! I’m really hungry!” But what did Jesus say? “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. (Matthew 4:4)
Well, what was this temptation about? What do we learn from it? I think Jesus is teaching us that it is more important, even more important than physical food to sustain our life, that we are accomplishing what God wants us to do here. That is the priority of the Christian life. Spiritual life takes precedent over my physical life, even more than my daily bread. I must receive the manna from heaven first. This would equate to the statement of Jesus, “What would it profit a person if they gained the whole world and lose their soul?” (Mark 8:36)
This means Jesus was hungering first for the bread of heaven and accomplishing God’s purpose for his life. I want to be quick to say here that this does not mean that we are to go without food or literal bread. Jesus was sustained after this temptation. But Jesus is teaching us that we are not living to satisfy our desires but to fulfill God’s purpose for us first. When we try to sustain our lives with physical things around us it leaves us empty and unsatisfied. Johnny Cash made popular the song entitled, “Hurt”, prior to his passing that contained the lines…you can have it all… my empire of dirt. It will cause you pain. It will make you hurt. Make sure you are hungering and thirsting for things that will not perish here. Build your life on things eternal. Hunger and thirst after righteousness and placing yourself in right relationship with God. Jesus put it very simply, “Seek the kingdom first and then all the other things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)
Next, I thought about an event in Jesus’ life when he was thirsty. In John 4, he met the woman at the well. In that dry and arid place, she came to draw water in Jacob’s well. And Jesus looked at her and he said, “Give me something to drink.” He was thirsty. And then he said, “If you knew who it was you were talking to (to that woman) you would have asked me and I would give you water, such water that you would never thirst again.”(John 4:14)
Now what’s so astounding about this passage is Jesus, the Water of Life, the One who gives everlasting life, is thirsty. He’s thirsty! The conversation goes on. The lady is confronted by Jesus about the sins in her life. She goes back to the village to tell everyone what Jesus has done. To this point, Jesus never did get a drink of water! And then the disciples come back to Jesus, and they see him there nearly famished. They said, “Jesus you need to get something to eat! You need some food! You need something to drink, you’re famished! We need to get something quickly!” And then Jesus said, “My food, my meat, my drink is to do the will of the Father and to accomplish, to complete what he has sent me to do.” (John 4:34) Jesus was hungry and thirsty. Probably unlike any of us will ever experience in our physical lives. Yet his real food was doing God’s will.
Let’s review quickly from these scenes. Jesus was hungry yet in the midst of that temptation when he could have turned the stones to bread, he said, “We don’t live by bread alone.” Jesus was thirsty and he could have satisfied himself with that water, but He, the Water of Life said, “My meat and drink is to do the will of my Father in heaven”.
So this brings a real question of application for us today. “In your life right now, what are you hungering and thirsting for?” What might be consuming your life right now? Is it all oriented around the physical world? Or is it that we are waiting for that manna from heaven? Are we truly fulfilling the will of God in our lives as best we understand it?
I find it quite amazing that thousands of years ago, Jeremiah the prophet in the Old Testament says, “Has the nation changed its God which are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. “Be astonished O heavens at this and horrified. Be very desolate,” says the people. For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of Living Waters and have dug out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13) Are we so preoccupied with the physical world around us that we have missed the true fountain of living water. We like the woman at the well, put masterfully in the song which says, I was, “thirsting for the things in life that could not satisfy”.
Another important thing to note here is that this parallels our physical hunger.
Hungering and thirsting are both continual. Now on Monday at about 11:30 am my stomach will start growling. And it’s telling me that I need to get something to eat. I’m sure that many of you probably follow that same clock. And we might go out to a restaurant close by and prepare a good meal at home. That’s on Monday. And we’re filled. And it’s good! But you know on Tuesday at about 11:30, my stomach starts growling again! It’s time to eat again! It’s going to happen again on Wednesday and Thursday and all through the week. This hungering business is continual. So, we must continue to find food to sustain our physical bodies. What Jesus is talking about here is hungering and thirsting after the things of God do not cease either!
There is a great danger as Christians that we come on Sunday and receive of the Lord, and we’re sustained this day. And then we’re satisfied. But then we’re not spiritually hungry on Monday! And then we’re not spiritually hungry on Tuesday. We’re not spiritually hungry on Wednesday. Listen…What Jesus is teaching here is…Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, who hunger as a starving person, who thirst as a desperate person for the Living God. As the deer pants for the water! Which means I must have this, or I will not survive. There is a desperation in this hunger and thirst. So often, as one pastor said, we may be empty but we’re not thirsty. We are very satisfied with the things around us and the physical world. We are so filled with the world’s crumbs that we miss the real manna from heaven!
One other note on this that I thought was particularly meaningful, the way this is put in the original Greek language is quite fascinating. Most of the time if I say, I’m hungry or if I have a craving for something, let’s say, chocolate pie, right in the midst of Lent! And I say, “I’m hungry for some chocolate pie.” And what that means is that I would like to have a slice or a piece of chocolate pie. Or if I say, “I’m thirsty” this means I would like to have a drink or cup of water. But what Jesus is talking about here as it is written in the original language means, “We want all of it!” “I want the whole pie, not just a slice of it. I want a whole pitcher of water, not just a cup of water! Jesus is saying that we are hungering and thirsting for a complete righteousness, not just a partial righteousness.
Let’s put it another way. John Wesley described righteousness as our being renewed in the image of God and to love God and to love our neighbor. This is the essence of righteousness. One of the great commandments of Jesus cited was, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) This means that we are loving God with the entirety of our being, not just part of yourself. But this involves everything that you are and have. You are to love God completely. Well, might we settle with just part of that? It fits beautifully into this to say that when we worship, we’re giving to the Lord, our heart, our soul. We are worshipping in spirit and in truth. When we’re studying, we’re giving God our mind. When we’re serving, we are giving God our strength. So, there is a totality or completeness in how we worship and serve God.
I like how commentator William Barclay concluded this. In the final translation of this he says, “Oh the bliss of the person who longs for total righteousness as a starving man longs for food. As a man perishing of thirst longs for water, for that man will be truly satisfied. (Barclay)
So again, “What are you hungering for, thirsting for in your life?” I like what the prophet Isaiah said in the 55th chapter. He asks, “Why do you purchase things that cannot satisfy? Why do you spend money for what is not bread in 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 55:2)
As I close this time, I recognize that we are all in different areas in our lives and on different spiritual planes. Some of you today may be focused only with the physical things in this world and there is an emptiness that only God can satisfy. Perhaps others of you are settling for only partial righteousness. You may give to God your heart, but he doesn’t have your mind or your strength. We will never be fully satisfied until we are fully surrendered and that continual hungering and thirsting that Jesus is talking about here. If you have a need in your life for prayer or if God has spoken to you in some way through this message today, I invite you to respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting in your life. As we sing this closing hymn the altar is open for you for prayer for whatever need you may have as God is speaking to you.
Let us pray.
Lord, I ask now that you would impart to us the strength and the faith to respond to your word today. Give us open hearts to receive from you Lord and if there is any who have never fully and finally surrendered themselves to you, I pray that they will do that today. I ask it in the name and for the sake of Christ. Amen.