Hungering and Thirsting

Happy Sunday. It is so good to get back to the Sermon on the Mount. Today we've made it to verse 6 of Matthew chapter 5. There Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

To put this in a nutshell, I might say if you seek God, you will be satisfied. Jesus wisely chose the words hunger and thirst. It's doubtful that any of us today understand hunger and thirst like those who lived 2,000 years ago. We're likely always close to fresh water and food's not far away.

Not so 2,000 years ago. Wells would run dry and famines and wars would come and wipe out the food supply. Jesus chose hunger and thirst to exhibit true longing. As you likely know, we're not to just casually follow Christ.

We're to seek him with all of our being every day. In our society, people hunger and thirst for all sorts of things. Some hunger and thirst for money, others power, others pleasure. The list is really endless.

Sadly, many people put God and his righteousness low on their list. God deserves first place, doesn't he? Remember the story of the prodigal son found in Luke chapter 15. At the end of the story, after the son had hungered and thirsted for money and pleasure, he was broke and hungering for food and water now.

He needed to get back to his father. We live in times when many need to get back to their heavenly father. It's sad the number of people that I meet that used to have a connection, but have drifted away. We should hunger and thirst daily for God.

Jesus used the word righteousness. Let me define that in a way that you will remember. One theologian's definition of righteousness is righteousness is a pattern of life in conformity to God's will. A pattern of life in conformity to God's will.

Now, it isn't likely that you'll remember that one. But in college years ago, I heard a friend say that righteousness or holiness is anything that makes God smile. Anything that makes God smile. I like that one, and I will always remember that one.

If your life is causing God to smile, then way to go. If your life makes God frown or even turn away, then there must be change. As I have thought about biblical examples of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, my mind kept going back to Zacchaeus. I'll just read the first part of the story of Zacchaeus's life found in Luke chapter 19.

There we are told, "Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich." Let me stop there for a moment.

It's obvious that Zacchaeus had been hungering and thirsting for money up to this point in his life. He was very rich. It's likely that Zacchaeus was a disloyal Israelite who worked for the Romans. He would be viewed by the Jews as the worst type of a person, a traitor and a heathen.

But I love what happens in that story that day. We don't know why Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but it's obvious that he was hungry and thirsty for something different in his life. He went out of his way to find Jesus. I pick up the story in verse 3 of Luke 19.

There we are told he tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So, he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. Luke tells us when Jesus came by, he looked. He looked up at Zacchaeus and he called him by name.

"Zacchaeus," he said, "quick, come down. I must be a guest in your home today." If you read more into the story, you will see that many in the crowd were furious because Jesus was going to the home of Zacchaeus, a notorious sinner, they said. You know, I would have loved to have seen the face of Zacchaeus when Jesus told him he was going home with him.

I bet he was beaming with joy. That is what happens to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They are filled. They are content.

They are satisfied. And for the first time in his life, that happened to Zacchaeus. The most satisfied people that I know are those who have chosen to follow God. Jesus was so right when he said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."

Pray with me. Father God, thank you for those that pursue you day in and day out, year after year, decade after decade. I love the examples that I have seen and that I have known. Help us to be those examples to the generations behind us.

So they see our faithfulness and our hunger and our thirst. And thank you that you promise we will be filled. We will be satisfied. In Jesus name we thank you.

Amen. God bless. Thank you for joining me today.