Sermon On The Mount IV: Blessed Are They That Hunger & Thirst

by Lawrence Kelley

Everyone wants to be happy and we learn in this beatitude why most people are not. Jesus does not say "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after blessedness . . . " Because we want to be happy we are tempted to make happiness our goal. But the spiritual irony is that such blessings are reserved for those who want something else more. And right here Jesus tells us that something else is righteousness. When we are filled with righteousness, we mysteriously find ourselves overcome by happiness.

How Is Your Appetite? Jesus requires us to be hungry. He wants us to recognize and acknowledge our sense of need and not to pretend that those ravenous hunger pains aren't really there. The goal of eastern religions is to transcend all desires; to want nothing. But Jesus does not teach this at all. In fact, His complaint is not that our desires are too great, but that they are either too weak or else misplaced. Jesus tells us here to stay hungry and keep focused on the food God sets before you.

What Are You Hungry For? The thing we are to hunger for is righteousness. Righteousness is spoken of in two ways and both are necessary and both go together like hunger and thirst. First, we must desire the righteousness of relationship with God. This is man's deepest need. Augustin put it well, "Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee." The second is a righteousness of conduct before God. This is the working out of what God has worked in. At our Baptism, God declared us righteous in His sight on the basis of Christ's work on the cross. From that moment forward we must desire to realize that declaration of righteousness in the way we live (1 Cor 6:20; Phil 1:11). This is the ongoing and progressive sanctification that occurs in the life of those who hunger not only to be with God, but like God.

Who Needs Who? I want to conclude by connecting our theme to public worship in general and the Lord's supper in particular. Two problems are at work in American religion today. First, is the problem of the "felt needs" "market driven" approach to worship that is prominent in evangelical churches. We need to guard ourselves against this influence. We do not begin by asking, "what do I feel hungry for?" and then crafting a worship service around our appetite. This view is fundamentally wrongheaded. It places man at the center and views God as an infinitely malleable entertainer and or therapist who will gladly accommodate my every whim. But the second problem that is equally deadly is the idea that this assembly isn't about us at all. I would submit to you that we have been summoned here by God our maker to receive from Him the things HE knows we need (not necessarily the things we think we need). We are here to receive these gifts from His hand and respond with praise and thanksgiving. God doesn't invite us here each week, because He needs us. We are here because we need Him and we need each other (Acts 17:25; Heb. 10:24-25).

Open Wide. In pagan religion, man provides food for the gods. This goes back all the way to the ancient creation myth, where the Acadian god Marduk created man to labor and feed the gods so that they could relax and enjoy the fruits of man's hard labor. In the Bible we find the opposite. God created man and at the end of the first chapter of Genesis God presents Adam with a menu of food He has provided for man. It is the same with us. Here we are and the table is set before us. We did not provide this food. It was not earned by the sweat of your brow, but by the bloody sweat that flowed from the brow of Jesus. In our pride we keep wanting to come up with some way to justify our participation in this feast of kings. But you are here because you have been bought, and you have been brought. So here the word of your Shepherd, I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of bondage; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it (Ps 81:10).

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Sermon On The Mount
Beattitudes

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This page was last modified on January 5, 2007