“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

Beloved,

At the beginning of the beatitudes, Jesus shows how he values one who mourns over their sin and recognizes their poverty of spirit. He wants us to see our desperate need so that we would hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus gives the picture of how we are to pursue righteousness. We are to pursue righteousness as a starving man pursues food. We are to pursue righteousness as a parched man runs after water. We all have experienced hunger and thirst. And we all know what we are willing to do to end our hunger and thirst. But are we even see our need for righteousness?

If we cannot see our need for righteousness, we will never strive to attain it.  And yet, God does not only want us to see our need for righteousness, but he wants us to pursue it through his Son. We need an “alien” righteousness that comes from outside of us. Philippians 3:7-10,

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

We hunger and thirst for righteousness by hungering and thirsting to know Jesus Christ.

     If were starving, we would do all that we could to find food. Beloved, we should recognize that we are starving for righteousness and hunger to know Jesus Christ for, “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”