Hunger And Thirst Series

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

TRAIAN CALDARAR OF TRANSYLVANIA

In February of 2002, a man named Manolescu Ioan, a shepherd in central Romania, had to walk through a forest after his car broke down. On the way, he came across a large cardboard box—and found a small boy huddled inside. The boy was naked, malnourished, and looked to be about 3 or 4 years old. Manolescu called the police, and the boy was taken to the hospital. News of this “wild boy” who couldn’t speak, growled like a dog, and walked on all fours—was broadcast around the country. A short time later, a 23-year-old woman named Lina Caldarar burst into the hospital: The boy she had seen on TV was her son. They allowed her into the room—at which point the boy spoke his first words since being found: “Lina mom.”

Lina said the boy’s name was Traian and that he was actually seven years old. Lina had run away from her abusive husband three years earlier leaving Traian behind because her husband wouldn’t allow her to take him. Traian ran away not long after this and hadn’t been seen since. Doctors and psychologists said Traian could not have survived alone in the woods for three years. His chimpanzee-like manner of walking, the way he sniffed his food before eating it, and the way he growled if someone approached him while he was eating were all indications that he was probably taken in by stray dogs know to roam those Transylvanian forests. Traian was treated for malnourishment and rickets, and has since attended school and is by all reports a “normal” kid today.

This boy became like those who he spent time with and raised him—dogs and he was hungry and brought home and was given more than what he needed to survive, but was filled and satisfied. That has a lot to do with our beatitude this morning.

Let’s read it together.

MATTHEW 5:6

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

I want us to look at this beatitude and then we are going to examine it from the perspective of the main character of one of Jesus’ parables.

HUNGER AND THIRST

Those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness are the blessed ones because those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. The hunger and thirst that Jesus is talking about here is not food or drink.

The hunger and thirst is a desire for something that is missing in the seeker’s life. It is seeking and desire for the things they most eagerly want and long for. The things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened.

It is a painful desire for the good things that encourage and lift up a burdened soul.

We mentioned this last week a couple of times. It is what Jesus is referring to in Matthew 11. We are going to read a few verses further in Matthew 11:28-30:

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

People who are laboring and heavy-laden want rest from that burden. This is what Jesus offers to those who are hungering and thirsting: his yoke is easy and his burden is light. That doesn’t mean life is peaches and cream under Jesus. Yes, the burden to carry is easy because Jesus is there helping us along the way, but the world is going to make this burden seem more difficult. But our souls will find rest. We rest easy knowing we are doing what is right and good and pleasing to Jesus.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

Those that hunger and thirst that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 5 are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness. More broadly, the righteous are defined as the state of being of him who is as he ought to be.

This hunger and thirst is the feeling that this person is not currently as they should be. That hunger and thirst is in a deep, heart-felt need of being made right. If we narrow this sense down, it is truly the need for God’s justice to be done in my own life to build me back to the mindset I need to be in. For someone hungry and thirsty for righteousness, they want the virtue that gives each person their due. It’s a deep want of justice done in my life so that I no longer have the weight of guilt on my shoulders.

We are not who we ought to be. The way we get there is by God’s justice where each person gets their due.