You might not be familiar with the name Victor Lindlahr, but you are probably familiar with a French saying that he popularized in the English language, “You are what you eat.” He was a dietician in the early 20th Century who used it to say that if you eat only donuts and pastries, you’ll turn into a walking creampuff. This saying has only gained popularity in the 100 years since he first wrote about it, with its popularity peaking in the 2010s. The funny thing is that this highly popular phrase’s true meaning was lost in translation when Victor first began to use it. The original saying came from an early 19th century French lawyer and food connoisseur named Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin who originally said “Tell me what you hunger for and I will tell you what you are”. This phrase was meant to be understood much differently than the phrase we have come to know. The original author seems to be saying that there is a lot you can tell about a person about what they hunger after. While he meant this just in the realm of the culinary arts, this is a truth that carries over into other areas of our lives as well. If someone hungers for approval, they might find themselves trying to be a people pleaser. If someone hungers for order they might find themselves being a planner. If someone hungers for control they might find themselves as a micromanager. This hunger for things in life can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing in our lives. When Jesus speaks of this type of hunger, we know it’s a good hunger because it’s a hunger that God approves of.
Matthew 5:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Jesus begins a shift that we saw last week. Shifting from internal and God focused attitudes and behaviors that are earmarks of the Christian to a more outward expression of the Christian life that we will see through the end of this sermon series. This beatitude starts with the statement that God’s approval is upon those who hunger and thirst. Jesus used this statement because it is very relatable for everyone. We all have been hungry and thirsty at some point in our lives and have sought after things in order to appease those desires. In order for us to understand the intensity of this statement we need to understand it in the context they would have in the first century. When a majority of Americans experience hunger or a thirst, we can turn on the faucet or open a pantry to satisfy it. In a more extreme circumstance, we can find a water fountain or come to a community dinner (like we have here at FBC Bloomfield each Monday). However, neither of these were a reality for those who were listening to Jesus that day. There was a very certain reality that hung over everyone's head in the first century that they were never far from starvation or from dying of thirst especially in that arid environment. However this expression would come with an understanding that this hunger and thirst was a very desperate desire. Without obtaining it, it would lead to their ultimate demise. The desperate desire that Jesus is speaking about is not a desire for water or food that will sustain the hearer, but it is a desire for righteousness. Righteousness would have been a concept that all of those there that day would have been very familiar with. It was spoken of many times in both the Old Testament as well as in the current day. Jesus speaks of it seven times in this sermon alone. It was a righteousness that was synonymous with justice. When Jesus spoke of righteousness it would have been understood as righteousness and justice instead of just one. When Jesus says “blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness” from His audience’s understanding, there would have been three specific places that righteousness would have played out in their lives — in a legal sense, in a moral sense, and in a social sense. Let’s briefly look at each of these ways.
Legal Righteousness
Many of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day had been deceived and had adopted a view of Mosaic Law that was never meant to be. They held on and taught that the law was a legalistic means of obtaining a legally right standing with God, or being justified in God’s sight. They believed they could fulfill all 613 burdensome points of the Mosaic law and obtain a right standing partly through their actions before a perfectly Holy God. We see this attitude portrayed in many places throughout the Gospels, but my favorite is when Jesus shares the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. It’s in this parable that we see the Pharisee pray and thank God that he is not like any of these “lesser” sinners that are around him. He bragged to God about the laws that he kept perfectly. The problem is, if you remember from last week, this type of pridefulness has no place in the Kingdom of God. This parable showed the main problem was the legalistic interpretation of righteousness. It was relying on self-righteousness to make you right before men and that’s a type of righteousness that would be judged by other men. That’s not the type of righteousness that Jesus was speaking about. He is speaking of a righteousness that comes from God alone and is judged by God alone. We have seen that our own righteousness or self-righteousness is like filthy rags and cannot pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus called out this attitude toward righteousness many times, going as far as calling the Religious Leaders “cups”. What Jesus meant was that the outside was spotlessly clean. They could fool any other man or woman with their cleaning of their outside, but you can’t fool God. God knows what is on the inside and all of us are stained with the filth of sin. So what was this law for if not for following perfectly so we could legally be justified before God? Romans 3:20 tells us that “no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” It’s with this we start to see how this beatitude, especially concerning legal righteousness, requires us to embrace the first beatitude. In order to desperately desire God’s righteousness, we have to first come to the realization that we bring nothing of value concerning righteousness. We must rely upon Jesus alone for the righteousness required to be justified with God. Paul goes on to tell us how we can obtain the righteousness that we should desperately hunger and thirst for in Romans 3:21-22, “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” This is the Gospel message, that if you are hungering after a legally right standing before God (which everyone should when we realize our poorness of spirit). The only way you can obtain it is not by following all the rules and then God accepting you, but by putting your faith in Jesus Christ alone and being credited with His perfect righteousness. This is the first step that is necessary for either of the other forms of righteousness to be lived out the way Jesus meant for to.
Moral Righteousness
This is probably the type of righteousness that requires the least explanation because it simply is doing what is right and it also examines the motive behind that action. For the world, this again is a form of self-righteousness that starts with identifying what one wants or hungers for in life. Then the morally right actions in the world's mind would be whatever actions that make sure you obtain what you hunger for, no matter what it is or what it costs — the ends justifying the means. Do you see the problem in this type of morality? This is moral relativism and it is extremely dangerous because it removes God from the equation and from our everyday lives and gives God’s right of determining what is right and wrong to man. This idea of righteousness means that as long as someone thinks something is right, then it must be right because who has the power to say otherwise? Many times we see this type of morality play out. It is shaped by the people who have the most power. However, that leads to even more problems when people are doing whatever they think will get them that type of power. They have control over morality in society and do what they say is right instead of what God says is. This is not the type of mortality that Jesus is speaking of nor is it a type of morality that a Christian should ever embrace. Instead, the righteousness we are to hunger and thirst for is defined by the perfect morality of God and this needs to be our #1 priority as we live out our lives. It’s not seeking after the things we sometimes selfishly hunger for in life. It’s seeking after God’s righteousness in a moral sense. Jesus commands this in the very same sermon in Matthew 6 in verse 33 when He says “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” What are the things that will be given to us? It’s all the things that the world worries about. It will do anything to get food, drink, clothing, or whatever God promises to provide all of these NEEDS (not always wants) according to His riches in glory. We seek His righteousness by doing what God defined as right. He is the standard that all actions are judged by as moral or immoral. He is the only one who has the authority to declare because He is God Almighty. So it's in obedience that we seek the righteousness of God, but isn’t that just what we spoke against, legalistically following rules? No, not at all! Jesus tells us in 1 John 4:19 & John 14:15 that it’s not the obedience that comes first. Our love for Him comes from the fact that He loved us first and because of our love for Him we obey His commands. This type of righteousness comes from love. not an obligation. It's knowing God and trusting God and following through with how He has called all of us to live our lives. This love and obedience is how the world knows we are different because we are walking with Christ and not with our own righteousness.
Social Righteousness
Before we dive into the final way righteousness would have been understood by Jesus’ audience that day, I need to make sure I am very clear on something. As we said before, righteousness and justice are synonymous so it would also be appropriate to use the term social justice as well as social righteousness here. We need to understand the world has defined social justice in a very very different way than God’s Word does. Basically a man-centered view of social justice depends on the government to play the role of savior and brings about a utopia through the government's laws concerning wealth, opportunities, and privilege. God’s social righteousness is all dependent on the work of Jesus Christ and Him as the only Savior for any society. At His return perfect justice will be revealed against all mankind and perfect righteousness will be present once and for all (2 Peter 3:13). If I am to misspeak and ever use the term “Social Justice”, I am not speaking of it in a political sense as this world has embraced, but I’m speaking of it in the sense in which God’s Word does.
Christians are a blessed people. God has trusted us all with many things that we are called to steward properly — our giftedness, our passions, and our possessions. These things are to be used to edify and build up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12), They are also to be used to help the less fortunate in our communities in a variety of ways — with the Gospel of Jesus leading the way and always on our lips and in our actions. We see this in places like Proverbs 31:8-9 where we are told to “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” There are many people in our communities that either don’t have a voice because of their age or because the society doesn’t value them enough to listen, and sometimes both. These are situations in which Christians should speak life and speak truth into their situations to make sure they are valued in our society the way they are valued to God. Everyone is made in the image of God, and as image bearers of God they should be treated as such. All life is valuable. This is not just a Proverb, it’s also a command over and over again in places like Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.” Jesus even spoke of this in Matthew 25:34-40, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ The Christian life is a life that cannot be lived in hiding. It must be lived out in the marketplace where real life takes place and people are hurting because of the sin that stains our communities. We must meet the less fortunate there. In their hurt, help them and tell them about the hope we have in Jesus Christ. These are the types of righteousness that a Christian is called to be desperate for, but remember there is a promise and what a wonderful promise it is.
The promise is that they will be filled. This is the same word that is used to describe one of Jesus’ miracles and should give us the same picture here. If you remember there was a time that Jesus fed 5,000 with just 5 loaves and 2 fishes and it said not only did they have 12 baskets of food left over once Jesus performed the miracle but everyone there ate until they were stuffed. That’s the same word Jesus used here and there is a wonderful promise when we look at each of these variations of righteousness. When we look to Jesus for the righteousness we need to stand before God, He doesn’t just give us exactly what we need He gives us everything He has. When we look to Jesus as the moral standard to bring moral righteousness into our lives, Jesus fills us up with what we want. Here is a wonderful truth — Jesus will always give us as much of Himself as we want and He will never hold back or be stingy. When it comes to social righteousness, we will never fix all the problems in this broken world until Jesus Himself returns and fixes them all Himself. He will provide for those who are looked down upon in society according to His riches in glory and guess what His riches in glory are? They are blood bought, Bible believing, followers of Jesus walking daily in obedience to Him. So what is filling up your hunger and thirst in this world? Is it something lesser that this world offers, or is it something greater that only God can satisfy with? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.
