THE HUNGER THAT WILL BE SATISFIED...
MATTHEW 5:1-10
Introduction:
There are very few memories of my childhood that are as vivid to me as those made in my grandmother’s kitchen – and I suspect that all of us who have had the privilege of spending time in our grandmothers’ kitchens would all agree that this is indeed a commonly cherished storehouse of fond memories. Nothing got me more excited than waking up early in the morning and smelling the scent of freshly baked bread coming from the kitchen, or the sound of bacon and sausage frying in the pan. Now, my grandmother had this terrible, yet wonderful, habit of baking quite often – and it was to our tremendous delight that she did so, because we would always be invited to sit at the table, watch her work, and at the end of it all to clean out the mixing bowl by running our fingers through it and licking it all up. You know what I’m talking about; we’ve all done it... And sho, I’ll tell you what, not a drop of mixture would remain... my brother and I would clean out that bowl so well my gran wouldn’t even need to wash it afterwards! And man were we satisfied after each bowl, bellies filled with all sorts of goodness!
Now before I have us all running out of here to the bakery upstairs I’d best tone down the language a bit – my intention is certainly not to have everybody’s mouth watering with desire for baked goodies, or maybe it is, but we’ll have to get back to that later – for now I want to simply point out that what makes those early memories of sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen so vivid is the fact that after each bowl I was thoroughly satisfied. Having watched her work, mixing the ingredients, anticipating the wonderfully sweet taste of it all, imagining the sensation of it – I was never disappointed, always satisfied. And this is the crux of it all, that is precisely why I remember those days so fondly, I was satisfied.
And isn’t that ultimately what we all look for through life and work and everyday being? To be satisfied? To find fulfilment, meaning and purpose? To be able to look back at a day, or a month, or a year (and hopefully even our lives) and say that we were truly satisfied? Surely this is what we all desire to some extent? Of course it is! In fact, our lives show it so clearly. Our desire for a healthy family, working for that next promotion, striving for all manner of achievement and fulfilment is – at its best – an illustration of that fact that we all have a burning desire for more fulfilment, a fuller enjoyment of life, and a more profound sense of purpose and meaning; ultimately... satisfaction! Our lives are lived in the pursuit of it, is it not?
It is! Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, and we need to just point this out quickly... As Christians we often tend to feel a little guilty about our strong desire for satisfaction, we imagine that it’s almost improper for us to have such desires – I mean, isn’t it a little self-interested to want a strong, healthy family above all else? We know what Jesus has to say about those who love fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters more than him... Or is it really ok for me to want this new job so desperately that I’m working 12hour days just to prove my worth? We know what the New Testament teaches us about working for the things of this world, where moth and rust destroy... Is all my striving for finding satisfaction not actually a bad thing and illustrative of just how human I am?
Well, the honest truth is, friends, that “yes”, it might be – but the comfort for us is also that it doesn’t have to be – and this is where we begin to draw nearer to the heart of today’s message: A desire for satisfaction can be reduced to that for a bowl of sweet baking mixture, fancy homes, new jobs and frequent pay-raises (and that would make it shallow and sinful); or our desire for satisfaction can be aimed at truth and godliness, kindness, virtue and integrity (and that would make it holy and altogether a gift from God).
And by now we have stumbled upon the first step to liberating our desire for satisfaction from our selfish abuse of it, this is the point at which we begin to redeem our thinking and speaking about the desire we have for satisfaction; realizing that it is not something we ought to feel guilty about, that it is something that can well be a gift of God, that it is an inherent part of who God created us to be and that we are only to direct it and use according to his will.
The truth of this matter is a simple one: we as human beings have an ingrained, inherent sense of desire for satisfaction, a hunger and a thirst for it. This might be shallow and wrong and selfish, or it can be what God intended for it to be, what God created it to be. A hunger and a thirst for “the kingdom of God” or the “things of heaven” or, as it is stated so emphatically in our gospel reading for this morning: a “hunger and thirst for righteousness...”
You will remember that the text we read earlier was taken from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 and that in this very well-known passage we encounter the so-called beatitudes of Jesus, those wonderfully thought provoking statements of Jesus that deal with the nature of blessedness and what it means to be truly blessed. Now there are a multitude of glorious truths contained in these short ten verses, but we don’t have time to look at each one, so we’ll limit our reflection to the only concept that appears twice in that text, and therefore also forms the main focus of the message for today, that of righteousness.
In both verses 6 and 10 we read of righteousness, in one case we are told to hunger and thirst for it, and in the other we are told we should consider it a blessing to be persecuted because of it – both very powerful verses with a great deal to teach us – and this morning we will focus on the first of these verse where we read: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
And it is on this point that we will focus this morning: If we are all created by God with this sense of desire for satisfaction, if we are simply to direct it according to his will for righteousness, if I am to cultivate a hunger and a thirst for righteousness in my life, then how am I to do so? What does this text from Matthew chapter 5 have to tell us about all of this?
Message:
This morning we will reflect on this single sentence from Matthew 5:6 by paying careful attention to the three main concepts we find in it; and we’ll do so in reverse order to how we find them presented in this verse; firstly, we will consider the phrase, “... will be satisfied”; secondly, we will consider the phrase, “... for righteousness”; and finally, we will consider the phrase, “... those who hunger and thirst”. In considering these three phrases we will come face to face with the reality that Jesus not only understands our desire for satisfaction, but that he wants to meet it; but that he wants our desire for satisfaction to be directed toward the right things; and what he wants our desire to look like, just how desperate he wants us to desire these right things.
1. The promise of satisfaction...
The first phrase and concept with which we must come to terms if we want to truly understand this verse is that of ‘satisfaction’ and that of the promise Jesus makes that we will be satisfied.
As with all the other sayings in the beatitudes, Jesus begins this one by saying, “blessed is...” and so we see that the entire verse, the complete principle, is built on the premise that Jesus wants us to be blessed, and he goes on in these few verses to tell us what it means to be blessed... this is very closely related to the phrase with which Jesus closes this verse when he says [we] “...will be satisfied”. Clearly the promise of satisfaction is paramount in this verse.
But this is also a rather controversial point, isn’t it? I’m sure that when you hear me claiming so boldly that Jesus wants us to be blessed and satisfied you cannot help but hear echoes of a smooth talking, fancily dressed, TV evangelist promising the world, and sun too, in the name of Jesus, because apparently he wants us to be blessed...
Well, that is precisely why I say it so boldly, because the true meaning of this phrase could not possibly be any further from that sort of interpretation, because we need to hear echoes of such bad preaching and teaching in order to grasp the true meaning of this verse, and because – at the risk of being misunderstood – we need to claim all the more boldly the truth of this text over and against those who would abuse it for selfish gain.
Friends, when I repeat the words that Jesus uses in this text... “That we are blessed and will be satisfied if...” I do so boldly because Jesus said it boldly and we must fully appreciate the weight of what Jesus is saying here if we want to know what it means to have our desire for satisfaction directed toward the right things, toward righteousness.
Jesus does not promise a new car, better job, bigger house, prettier wife, higher-achieving children, and fancier clothes or more luxurious holidays – as much as we might selfishly desire to be satisfied in all these things – Jesus does not promise us such things. But he does promise that we will be blessed and satisfied, so if not in these things, then how?
Well, in order to understand that, we must deal with the original Greek that is used in this text and translated into English as ‘blessed’, that is the word, “Makarios”, which means (almost literally) ‘the highest good’... in other words, the most virtuous, most perfectly right and true. And it is this blessedness that Jesus wants for us, not the illusion of goodness that more stuff and greater achievements might offer, no, the lasting and more meaningful higher good. In this sense, to be blessed has less to do with a state of being in plenty or in want, and more to do with who we are. And Jesus desire that we will be blessed in that sense, not with what we have, but in who we are – and it is in this way that he will satisfy us!
Again, this word ‘satisfied’ is important to understand because it means not that we will be satisfied in our selfish desires, but rather in those desires that are essential to life. The Greek at this point uses a word that is intended to be used when describing the satisfaction of a starving person through eating some food – in other words, when that person’s life is saved, and therefore he is satisfied, by feeding him. (Little wonder then that Jesus uses language of hunger and thirst to describe our desire at this point, but we’ll return to that later.)
Friends, it is true in the most fervent and bold and loud sense, that Jesus wants us to be blessed and satisfied... but it’s not the sort of blessing that comes most naturally to us selfish sinful human beings. It’s a higher good, a truer and more virtuous goodness that he intends – a satisfaction not of the earthly things we desire, but of eternal things that are essential for our spiritual life.
But this then brings us neatly to the second phrase we must reflect upon – if the Lord wants us to blessed and satisfied in our desires, but not the unhealthy selfish desires, then what is it that we should desire?
2. Desire for the right things...
Well, at the risk of falling into the trap that all us preachers often do – overstating the obvious – let me repeat simply the words we find in this single verse from Matthew chapter 5, if we “hunger and thirst for righteousness” we will be satisfied. This is the desire that Jesus will bless and meet and satisfy; a desire for righteousness.
But let’s be honest friends, if we were to do a spot survey here this morning... if we were to ask for opinions on what the term ‘righteousness’ means... we would probably uncover as many different views as there are people here. It seems wonderfully faithful to say that Jesus wants to bless us and satisfy us in our desire for righteousness, but it also seems terribly vague and almost “christianeze” to say so; to the point where we don’t really know what we mean when we say that we should ‘desire righteousness’, right?
Well, let’s consider it more carefully then. I mean, if this is a desire that Jesus wants to satisfy, and we all have this inherent desire for satisfaction, then we surely we would do well to reflect on what it means and develop a fuller understanding of it.
Are you ready for another quick language lesson? Here goes... the Greek word which we translate here as righteousness is, “dikaiosune” and refers to ‘whatever conforms to the revealed will of God and whatever has been appointed by God’. It does not mean to always be right or never make mistakes or even to be without sin, we know that this is impossible for all of us – none of us are always right, never make mistakes or are sinless.
And Jesus knew that too, so for him to expect as much of us would be unreasonable and unrealistic, which is why he doesn’t, instead he expects us to desire “righteousness” – in other words, the Lord wants us to desire conformity to his will and a willingness to be faithful to the things he has appointed for us – this is the righteousness we are to do desire and this is the desire that Jesus promises he will bless and satisfy.
But this note of impossibility attached to our popular understanding of righteousness, this realization that none of us can fully achieve anything even remotely righteous on our own, is also central to a right understanding of this verse. See, the righteousness that we are urged to desire is a righteousness that we cannot attain ourselves and can only be found in Christ – in fact it is the gift of God to us through faith in Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read that, “God made him who had no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And this is brought to fruition through faith in Christ.
So when we say that we ought to desire righteousness, and that this desire will surely be blessed in and satisfied by Jesus, we must always remember that we are not desiring some mere outward form, or a state of being sinless, attainable by obedience or deserved by our own merit, no, what we are desiring when we cultivate a desire for righteousness in our lives is none other than Jesus himself – who is the fullest revelation of the will of God and the very One whom God has appointed for us as the one who will impart righteousness. When we desire righteousness we desire Jesus, and no one else!
It is little wonder then that Jesus promises to meet that desire, to satisfy it, and so to bless us with the highest and truest form of all good, which is he himself.
And this brings us neatly to the third and final phrase from Matthew 5:6 that we will reflect on.
3. The severity of our desire...
If the Lord promises that our desire will be satisfied and we will be blessed through it, provided that desire is for nothing less than righteousness, which we have come to see is nothing less than he himself, then it becomes imperative for us to reflect on the nature of our desire, the extent of it, the desperation (or lack thereof) we have for it.
This is captured for us in the phrase, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...”
But this is not just any hunger, as I knew in my grandmother’s kitchen when I watched her bake, or any type of thirst, such as what we know when we go for a long walk or just finished a tough game of rugby. No, this is a very real hunger and thirst, known only by those who have ever gone to bed hungry or gone days without water – this is a desperate hunger and thirst for the very food and drink that will restore life.
We will do well to remember here that when we considered the issue of blessing, and that the Lord promises we will be satisfied, we made clear that it was not for the next luxury or comfort, but for those very things that are essential to life. Likewise, we must understand the hunger and thirst Jesus is calling for in this verse, not merely as that which we experience after a long day, but as that upon which our very lives depended...
Thus we are brought to the point where we realize that to desire righteousness, to desire Jesus himself, can only be done by those who are so desperate for it that they will describe their desire as that of a hunger brought about by a sense of starvation and a thirst one can only know in the most dry places. It is a desire defined by life, determined by the sense that if it is not met I will surely die; it is a desire of utter and absolute desperation. This is the shape of the desire we should have for the righteousness of God, which Jesus promises to satisfy and bless.
Now I know that this might be a rather abstract concept, difficult for us to fully appreciate, so perhaps a story would serve us well in illustrating just how desperately we should desire the righteousness of God, which is Jesus, in order for it to be true desire.
One day there was a young man, highly successful, good looking, intelligent, beautiful wife, wonderful family – he had everything going for him. Yet he sensed that there was more to life and he was never truly satisfied.... so he goes to an older, wiser man...
Conclusion:
Friends, we have noted today that we are all wired with an inherent desire for satisfaction, we were created with that desire and there is a reason why God did so – he wants us to desire righteousness, his righteousness, which is not earned or achieved, but is found only in Jesus Christ. Often we go through life in search of satisfaction, yet we never quite find it, the question is: Where is true satisfaction found?
• Not in unbelief - Voltaire was an atheist of the most pronounced type and he once wrote: “I wish that I had never been born.”
• Not in money - Jay Gould, the American millionaire, on his death bed, said: “I suppose I am the most miserable devil on earth.”
• Not in freedom from God’s law - Thomas Paine, a founding father of America and self-professed opponent to the Church and Christianity cried out during his last moments: “O Lord, help me! God, help me! Jesus Christ, help me!”
• Not found in pleasure - Lord Byron, who revelled in pleasure all his days, wrote on his last birthday: "My days are in the yellow leaf. The flowers and fruits of life are gone. The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone!"... He was twenty five years old when he wrote that!
These men all exemplify the things and places in which we are continually tempted to find true satisfaction; the world tells us that we will find it in money or freedom or pleasure or power, but we see from these lives that it is not found there. No, true satisfaction is found only in the hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus compels us to cultivate in our lives.
Friends, Jesus wants us to be satisfied eternally, and he urges us to therefore search for that which is eternal – for him and his righteousness, and to do so with every last bit of our energy and strength, with a desperate hunger and thirst for him and his righteousness.
Let us go from here with that hunger and thirst fully acknowledged in our lives, but also with the comforting assurance that if we desire righteousness, with a desperate hunger and thirst, Jesus promises that he will satisfy us, and we will be blessed.
AMEN
