Hunger and Thirst

What is it today that we hunger and thirst for in our lives? To the Galilean on that Judean mount it was righteousness.

Not power.

Not riches.

Not fame.

Not adulation.

Righteousness: Here is exactly what he had to say:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 NIV)

Righteousness: What does it mean? In everyday life, the definition is:

1.     Characterized by uprightness or morality,

2.     Morally right or justifiable, or

3.     Acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous.

This may sound like a check-off list. Other early writers would link it to salvation, even claiming that it came through faith alone. We are left to ponder what exactly the Galilean meant by it.

It’s interesting that he didn’t simply say “seek righteousness.” He said, “Hunger and thirst for it.” That adds another dimension, doesn’t it? Those fail the test, it would seem, who simply display the Bible for all to see without sacrificing one “jot or tittle” of earthly fame or fortune. To hunger or thirst removes all hypocrisy and self-aggrandizement.

I like to think the Galilean was referring to what we yearn to feast upon. He refers, in other places, to what we feed ourselves and what it produces. I like to think that to “hunger and thirst” for something, righteousness included, forms our daily habits and controls our very demeanor.

Such hungering doesn’t bring much in today’s market. To understand this, we might latch onto the words of a more modern writer, John Steinbeck. He said this of a character, based no doubt on his fried Ed Rickles:

“The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success.”

Equally unnerving in modern American society is the lack of positive role-models who would teach us to hunger and thirst for righteousness. They exist but are outmaneuvered and out-shouted by the anti-righteous cadres. In fact, some seem to worship evil because it sounds bold and trend setting. This bodes poorly for our youth. We read this dire warning from another writer of the last century:

“How shall the love of God be understood by those who have been nurtured in sight only of the greed of man?” - Quoted from an unnamed source in “How the Other Half Lives” by Jacob Riis.