Blog

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

We have all been in those awkward moments when the room is quiet, and our stomachs start to growl and ache for food. We lose focus and our mood becomes grumpy. How many couples have driven around hungry and unable to decide on a restaurant only to become the ill-fated, “Hangry?” Our appetites are inexorable and relentless.  

We read of Christ fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. The Scriptures say, “afterward he was hungry” (Matt. 4:2). Can you imagine the spiritual discipline required to deny your most basic of appetites for that long? Yet, Christ was not ruled by his natural instincts. He was able to withstand even through great temptation from the Devil himself.

The natural instincts of hunger, thirst, sleep, and breathing are necessities of life. We must have them to survive or else. Christ spoke of a deeper need, an unfathomable spiritual hunger and thirst for righteousness that only He can gratify. Jesus uses the word filled (χορτασθησοντα), which means to feed and fatten with grass. Jesus alludes to a farming scene reminiscent of the Shepherd. The Psalmist proclaimed, “I shall not want” with the Lord leading and shepherding. 

Our physical appetites can get the best of us and consume us if we are not spiritually centered in Christ. How can we forget the cautionary story of Esau? He came home hungry and weary from the field. He traded his birthright for a pot of stew from his shrewd brother Jacob. Esau lost his very identity, as the first born which came with great blessing through custom and law. As first born, He was to receive a double portion of the inheritance and recognized as the leader of the family. But it was “despised” because his appetite for food overcame him. Not only did he miss out on so many earthly blessings, He also, loses his place as the heir and ancestor to Israel and the Messiah. It was all for a pot of stew.

There is an appetite for so much more than this world has to offer. God has set eternity within our heart (Eccl. 3:11). It is only in Him that we can find true fulfillment, but we must be hungry and thirsty for righteousness. 

The disciples urged Jesus to eat in Samaria to which He replied, “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (Jn. 4:32). The disciples soon learned that He was the “bread of life” and the “living water” (Jn. 6: 48, 4: 10). The greatest yearning of the heart is the spiritual needs for truth, purpose, worship, forgiveness, and love which are found in relationship to the Savior. The Psalmist of old wrote, “As a deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for you, O God” (Ps. 42:1).

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
The saga over the throne of Israel finds no greater drama than the story of Saul and David. It is a history filled with victories, defeat, jealousies, friendship, violence, and surprisingly- mercy.  We find David introduced to King Saul as a musician. David plays his harp to mercifully relieve the distressing spirit within King Saul. Over time, the relationship becomes strained with David’s amazing victory over Goliath and his reputation as warrior eclipsing Saul’s. It becomes apparent that God and the people of Israel are with David in his ascendancy to the throne. King Saul attempts to kill David many times, but his acts of violence are always returned in mercy. David says, “I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.”

We find the apex of David’s mercy to Saul’s house in his treatment of Mephibosheth. He was the son of Jonathan and lame since the age of five and the last heir of King Saul. He was dropped by his nurse as she fled upon hearing the news of Jonathan and King Saul deaths (II Sam. 4:4). 

King David asks, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness” (II Sam. 9:1). Monarchs would normally dispose of heirs and scions of previous courts to prevent any regal claim or possibility of uprising. King David remembered his covenant with Jonathan and showed mercy to Mephibosheth (I Sam. 18:3, 20:14-17). 

King David expressed the “kindness of God” to the house of Saul and gave Mephibosheth a permanent place at his table. The Hebrew word for kindness is hesed, which is sometimes translated as lovingkindness or mercy. Hesed was demonstrated by King David. It represents God’s eternal goodness and covenantal faithfulness (Ex. 34:6,7). God’s people are required to live this mercy out in our daily lives, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy (hesed), and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah. 6:8).

God has proclaimed his perfect hesed or mercy in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul state, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4,5). God showed his mercy not to people who were merely lame but spiritually dead and invites us to the table of King Jesus. God has called us to extraordinary lives of mercy to friend and foe alike. James writes, “For judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement” (James 2: 13). Albert Barnes was correct when he profoundly wrote, “Nowhere do we imitate God more than in showing mercy.” 

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God
Oscar Wilde tells the haunting story of Dorian Gray. A young man whose outer appearance does not fade or diminish with age but a painting of him bears all the sinful blemishes of his heart and soul. The portrait grows hideous as he lives a life of depravity and hedonism. He hides the painting away but eventually Dorian Grey must face his real self and his sinful repugnance. 

Christ commends and commands an inner beauty, purity of the heart to his followers. 

God cannot be seen with physical eyes. In fact, it is certain death, even for the eminent prophet Moses (Ex. 33:20). It is the heart which perceives God and not merely the senses. The word heart occurs in the Bible around 955 times. The heart spiritually represents the whole of man’s inner life combining the emotions, imagination, intellect, volition, memory, and consciousness. It is through this collective and comprehensive lens that God is experienced. Jesus says that the requisite for this experience is a pure and clean heart. This is because of God’s unyielding holiness and transcendence. The Psalmist echoed this truth by detailing, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God” (Ps. 14:1). We become blinded to God from the inside out.
Jesus came to cure the heart’s blindness to God. Christ encountered a man “blind from birth.” He not only heals him of the physical malady but also illuminates the darkness of his very being. Jesus commands him to “wash in the pool of Siloam” (Jn. 9:7). He came back seeing! But then something amazing happens after the Pharisees fail to believe and see Jesus for who he was.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him? And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. (Jn. 9:35-38)

The formerly blind man sees beyond his eyes by having faith. His belief is the “evidence of things not seen.” He sees Jesus for who He truly was, the Son of God. His pure heart sees God! Our hearts must be cleansed of sin to have this experience of God or otherwise, we are hopeless and drowning in the gloom of unbelief.

Wilde’s Dorian Grey becomes so hardened of heart that he can find no forgiveness. He laments, “There was purification in punishment. Not 'Forgive us our sins,' but 'Smite us for our iniquities' should be the prayer of a man to a most just God." He confronts the hideous portrait and stabs it through and dies. The picture is restored to its youthful luster while the mortal remains bears the true ugly marks of his recalcitrance. 

The Bible gives us the assurance of forgiveness and fellowship with God. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”  (Ps. 51:5-12a). The pure in heart will realize a vision of God never imagined when united in eternity. We will “see his face” and faith will be transformed into everlasting light (Rev. 22:4).

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Can you imagine, if on the 5 o’clock news, the story was that violence had stopped and there was peace on earth? Oh, how we yearn for such a world! We can hardly fathom a reality of such harmony and accord. But, even if it were true, would we be at peace within ourselves? 

It is only from this inner life that true serenity and peace can originate. The book of James declares, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?  You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war” (James 4:1,2). The battle for peace must first be won in our hearts. 

The Greek word for peacemaker is ειρηνοποιος. It is obscure and only found in the New Testament. The word connotes not just a passive avoidance of conflict but one who is actively working and promoting peace. The follower of Christ is an agent of peace in a world riddled with strife. Our peacemaking is not born out of our own powers of arbitration but tied to the very character of Christ. 

The way to peace is through Jesus. He promised His disciples, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (Jn. 14:27). The earliest description of the church depicts a peace and fraternity universally praised but rarely emulated:

“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divide them among all, as anyone had need. So, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:44-47).

Christians are to work for a world free of barriers of distinction which harm and hurt. Paul boldly declared, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal.3:28). Our sole identity as individuals and collectively is Christ which brings peace. We will be called “sons of God!”

Will you live out this peace? The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi displays the way of Christ and peace. Pray with me.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Bonhoeffer strikingly observed, “The fellowship of the beatitudes is the fellowship of the Crucified.”  It is the last beatitude which is the most confounding and perplexing. Yet, just as the others, exactly personified in the person and work of Christ. Jesus pronounces blessing on those who are rejected and persecuted for righteousness. It is interesting to note that within this beatitude that Jesus changes from third person and directly addresses the disciples in declaring, “Blessed are you.” The disciples had entered the fellowship of the crucified in following Jesus even to Golgotha. When the Apostle Paul was called, Jesus explicitly foretold, “For I will show him how many things he must suffer for name’s sake” (Acts 9:16).

This beatitude challenges our natural inclinations of avoiding pain and desiring acceptance from others. It focuses our lives in a profound way on the primacy of the spiritual over the physical and the pleasing of God rather than men.

The Apostles’ chief mission was to “witness” to the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:21,22). The Apostles were credentialed through miraculous signs but also in astonishing suffering. In fact, the Greek word μάρτυς (martus) for “witness” is the same transliteration for the word martyr. To become a witness of Jesus Christ is to become a martyr. The Apostles remarkable faith in the risen Lord was validated by not only how they lived but in how they died.

Jesus confronts us to the existential truth of the Gospel. To suffer for righteousness is find blessing and that to die for Christ is to live. There is no greater reality than the eternal truth found in Jesus Christ which eclipses all earthly concerns which includes bodily health and societal acceptance.

We find this exceptional beatific vision lived out so vividly in the Apostles ministry. After being forbidden to speak Jesus and beaten, “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts. 5:41,42).

Let us join the “fellowship of the Crucified” which began with the prophets and furthered endured by the apostles. “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name” (I Pet. 4:16). Jesus bookends the eight beatitudes with the phrase, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” buttressing the Messianic promise of eternal life. Soren Kierkegaard explained, “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”