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.
That doesn’t sound very encouraging. In fact, it sounds like in the short term, I am going to experience the pain of God’s swift justice as He brings me to the place I need to be in order to serve Him with all holiness and righteousness.
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER
It reminds me of an episode of Leave it to Beaver I saw recently. Yes, if you know me, I don’t watch a lot of current television shows—I watch the old shows. I have seen a few new shows, but can’t even tell you what is currently on television. If you told me about a bunch of new pilot episodes on television, I couldn’t tell you anything about them because I haven’t seen them. The only new shows I have watched in the last few years all got cancelled. I watch these old shows because I like the positive messages in them and how they aren’t catering to the culture like shows do today. There is something that was really special about the old television shows.
Anyway, back to Leave it to Beaver. In this particular episode, Beaver was with his friend Larry Mondello. I was commenting to Derek that every episode Larry is in makes me mad because Larry knows he is going to get in trouble and always drags Beaver into it.
Larry and Beaver were told not to be late walking to school. They had been late the previous two days and if they did it again they were going to be in big trouble.
Well, they got to watching some workers using a giant drill to cut into the ground and by the time they got to school, they were so late everyone was already off the playground and in their classrooms. Instead of taking that punishment right then and moving on with their day, they decided it was better to skip school entirely and delay the punishment rather than to just get in trouble and get it over with.
I won’t tell you what happens…spoiler alert! You might want to go watch this episode and see what happens to Larry and the Beav.
Well, the same way we don’t like being punished and we would rather delay the consequences. This hunger and thirst says, no, I want to get this over with now so I can move forward and be the man or woman of God that He wants me to be now.
Worldly people say I want my fun now. I will take the consequences later.
THEY SHALL BE SATISFIED
Okay, so blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Why? Why are they blessed? Jesus says they will be satisfied.
The word here in the original Greek is chortazo. This word refers to feeding animals with herbs, grass, or hay. This feeding would fill the animal to satisfaction. Animals will eat whatever you give them. Many animals don’t stop eating until the food isn’t available to them anymore. Animals eat out of hunger, but it is also out of compulsion and ritual. Many animals don’t have the drive to stop when they have had enough. They will eat until it isn’t there anymore. When we hear of fattened animals in Scripture, these animals have eaten more than they need to survive, but have eaten more to gain weight so they will be even more savory for the offering and the meal later.
When Jesus used this word satisfied, it means that if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will get more blessing of righteousness than we know what to do with it. We will be filled up and fattened.
How would you like to be fattened with righteousness?
THE LOST SON
That’s where we are going with this parable that Jesus would later tell. Let’s step away from the beatitude of hunger and thirst and go over to this parable Jesus tells in Luke 15.
The Pharisees and keepers of the law and scribes were continuing to grumble at Jesus for eating with sinners. “He is receiving them and eating with them,” they complained. So Jesus tells a few parables in response but it is this one that many are familiar with that I found quite interesting.
We aren’t going to read word for word the entire passage. But I want to exegete it with you in real time. So turn in your Bible to Luke 15:11 and follow along with me.
THE LOST SON
Jesus tells the Pharisees There was a man who had two sons. The younger son said to his father, ‘Give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ He wanted his inheritance now. He told his dad that basically he couldn’t wait until he died to gain his inheritance. His father gives it to him. This son took all he had and lived a reckless life of partying and spending time with women and drink. It was also likely that he gambled away a large portion of his wealth because he ran out quickly. Wouldn’t you know it, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. Everyone was struggling and even begging was out of the question. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He was so destitute that he saw what he was feeding the pigs and was willing to eat it. If you’ve seen what pigs eat on farms, it’s not good. Let’s pick this up in verse 17 and read the text together:
LUKE 15:17-32
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
APPLICATION
In this story we see a young man who wanted to live today as though he couldn’t enjoy life unless he were to live in this reckless way. He takes everything and squanders it. And because of the situation in the land, when he ran out, there was no one to help him when times were tough. He took a job that didn’t pay well—feeding pigs. It wasn’t enough money to even eat with. He was so hungry he wanted the food the pigs were eating.
When he realized his situation, he remembered what it was like before when he lived at home. As the younger son, he did not get as large a portion as the older son would get. He knows his father was still very wealthy with servants…if he goes back, he can at least get a real job and have food to eat and a place to sleep.
He longed to be satisfied. Even if it were as an animal to eat the herbs, grass, hay, and other scraps. He wanted to be fattened again. To be filled and satisfied. So he goes back to his father. He is going to tell his dad that it wasn’t his dad’s fault. This son was the sinner. Unworthy to be called a son…he wanted his dad to die to give his inheritance. Just make me a servant.
I want that old life. That righteousness that I had before. This younger son hungered and thirsts for righteousness. He wants the old state of being that he ought to be in. He wanted to be who he ought to be. But he knows that there will be justice. He squandered all his money and was reckless with it. The father surely will give justice to me. It will be painful, but in the long run it will be better than what I am experiencing now. Unlike the Beaver and Larry, this son is going to take his lumps now.
It's going to hurt.
But…what does the Father in this story do? Scream and yell at the son for doing the wrong thing? Throw him off the property? Shun him? Make him a servant to work hard and earn his food? No. He received his son as his son that he thought was dead. He received his son as though he had been lost and missing much like Traian Caldarar of Transylvania.
This father knew his son. He knew he needed his family and would return. This father ran to his son. He embraced him. Took him in as if he had never left…even better. He was gone…but now he is back! They threw a feast in his honor. He took his own robe and ring and put them on the son. This would signify that he is a full-fledged member of the family. All the father has is now the son’s again.
This is truly who he ought to be. Did the son get his due? I think he did. This is who we are in Christ. We are that lost son who should have been rejected. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be filled and satisfied…not with the animal scraps. But with more than we deserve. The grace of God brings us into a right relationship with him.
This son went to be satisfied like the pigs but was given satisfaction and dignity as an heir. His father took him as he ought to be.
Augustine once said, “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
These Pharisees were the older brother who couldn’t fathom treating this other son with such love and acceptance. He had wasted money and his time and life. Why should we treat people like this and eat with them? Because God does that every day with all of us.
Jesus is easy to love. What is hard about that? We are not easy to love. We make it hard with the way we treat others and the way we sin and disobey God. But guess what? He loved us anyway. Jesus is easy to love and we are not. But he loved us so much, he gave his life for us. For me.
I like how Paul Washer recently said it:
“A lot of people think that Christianity is you doing all the righteous things you hate and avoiding all the wicked things you love in order to avoid hell and go to heaven someday. No, that’s a lost man with religion. A Christian is a person whose heart has changed. They have new affections.”
If we are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, it is because we want what God has promised. We are not satisfied with the old. The past is like dung as Paul writes in Philippians 3:8-9
8 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 skybalon (your translation may say rubbish, but it really means dung, excrement), in order that I may gain Christ 9 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…
This righteousness isn’t from our own effort and ability to keep everything right. It is the power of Christ in our lives in our faith of him.
I pray we can be like the son who hungered for his father’s affection again and gained so much more. I want us to be people who hunger and thirst for righteousness and we seek to find it in Christ. He will give us more than we can handle! He will satisfy us and fatten us with more righteousness than we need. Isn’t this great news! Let’s pray.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
PRAYER
INVITATION
