Are you thirsty?
I imagine that few of us have come close to dying of hunger or thirst. If anything, most of us have far too much available to eat and drink. It can, then, be difficult to identify with what Jesus means when he says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6. NIV). When have we really hungered or thirsted for anything?
Kenneth Bailey describes almost dying of thirst in the Sahara Desert. For a day and a half they had no water. When he swallowed, it felt like rubbing together two pieces of sandpaper, so eating was impossible. In addition. his vision became blurred. As he staggered on, his mind turned to these words of Jesus, and he says: “l knew that I had never sought righteousness with the same single-minded passion that I now gave to the quest for water.” I guess most of us would have to say the same.
Jesus isn’t commending those who are already righteous. but those who want to be us. Indeed, it is a mark of the righteous, those who are rightly related to God, that they perceive their own lock of righteousness and long to be more like him. At the same time, he is saying that such people are already blessed, not only that they will be. To be Striving for righteousness is a happy place to be — not least because we are promised what We most want. Are we thirsty?