Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Beatitudes, Part 28 of 50
TEXT: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).
IDEA: Righteousness is not a “thing”; it is a relationship.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand what Jesus promised in the fourth beatitude.
Do you think that there are many people in the Western world who have almost died of hunger? How about the rest of the world?
Have you ever died of thirst? Do you think that there are many people in the United States and Canada who are in danger of dying of thirst? How about the rest of the world?
I. What is Jesus saying in the fourth beatitude: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”?
Do you think that Jesus’ metaphor about hunger and thirst for righteousness is overstating the case?
Is he urging us to work up a hunger or a thirst for righteousness?
Matthew 13:44-46 gives us two parables that get at this desire another way.
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who discovers a treasure in the field and sells everything he has and buys the field.
Second, the kingdom of heaven is about a merchant searching for a magnificent pearl.
Notice that the kingdom is not compared to the pearl, but the merchant searching for it. The merchant hungers and thirsts for it.
Do you think it’s possible that some people may feel a bit put off by this beatitude? They have trouble hungering or thirsting for what they think is righteousness.
What happens if we think of “righteousness” in terms of negatives? What if we regard righteousness as a series of rules that dampen life and quench its joys?
An Anglican scholar reviewed a book on the moral authority of the church and wrote “There isn’t much in this book . . . that makes the reader want to be good.”
Mark Twain commented “Having spent considerable time with good people, I can understand why Jesus liked to be with tax collectors and sinners.”
Jesus did not say, “Blessed are those who are righteous.” We are blessed if we hunger and thirst for it. It is as important as food or drink to our bodies.
II. A. Righteousness in the Scriptures is basically a relationship.
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament sums up its fifty-page article on the subject of “righteousness” by saying, “The word does not refer to an ideal ethical norm but it is out and out a term denoting a relationship.”
When in Genesis 15:6 it is said that Abraham believed a promise from God and it was “counted to him as righteousness,” what do you think that means?
