Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled (Matt. 5:6)

There are I think, two aspects of righteousness that we are admonished to hunger and thirst for. The first has to do with the root of the Greek word translated here as righteousness. It is about justice. Isaiah could speak of the coming Messiah that He “will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1). So with our Lord, we too are to seek and desire justice, the righting of wrongs, the just reward of the wicked etc., etc. Our attitude here is important, see below!

It is right that we should not only long for justice, for a just world, but that we should also do our part in bringing it about. I can’t help thinking of William Wilberforce this morning, who spent his entire life dedicated to the abolition of slavery. But there are so many worthy causes, and lest we become overwhelmed, the serenity prayer comes to mind again. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

The second aspect of righteousness that we are admonished to earnestly desire, has to do with the escape from our own fallen human nature. In particular we must not hunger and thirst for the justice in self righteousness! Our righteousness starts of course, with embracing the legal righteousness (before God) given to us in and through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross (1 Peter 3:18). But it must not end there. He calls us saints, and we are to hunger and thirst to be saintly. In the end it’s all about becoming more and more like Jesus. There is such beauty there!

Father, I thank You for Your promise that in the final analysis we will be satisfied with both of these aspects of righteousness. When You admonish us to hunger and thirst after these things, there is a sense in which, like hunger and thirst, they will return again and again. So Lord I am aware that in this life that we will never fully attain these things. So Father I need Your serenity, courage and wisdom as day by day I come to You to know what You would have me to do. Lord there is so much wrong in the world and in me, that the only way these things can ever be accomplished is in and through You. But Lord You will do it, because You are God, and there is no other. My hope is in You Lord, and I praise and bless You again this morning in Jesus Name Amen.