Matthew 5:6

‘“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled.”’
(Matthew 5:6)

Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount begins with a poetic sketch of His mission, people and kingdom. Its emphasis, repeated at the start of every line, is the word ‘“Blessed”’(Matthew 5:3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10&11), a heavenly blessedness, which can be tasted now, but will find complete fulfilment in the things that ‘“shall be”’, in the future. For now, as His people, we might experience ‘“all kinds”’(Matthew 5:11) of difficulties, but can be encouraged by this blessed taste in our mouths, as we follow Jesus’ recipe for finding complete fulfilment in ‘“the Kingdom of Heaven”’(Matthew 5:3&10) to ‘“come”’(Matthew 6:10), which in some respects ‘“is”’(Matthew 5:3&10) ours already, if we’ve started to listen and be drawn in.

This particular line: ‘“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled”’ is rich filling from the middle of His poem, and central to forming a right understanding of Jesus’ mission, and how to be part of it.

We should note the ‘“hunger and thirst”’, and that it’s ‘“for righteousness”’, which can also be translated justice or justness. This represents everything that’s right in God sight and approved of by Him, in His perfect, divine judgement and assessment of things. We’re to hunger and thirst to be seen as righteous in God’s sight, alongside desiring to truly be righteous in all our ways, whilst longing to live in a world that’s characterised by perfect divine justice and righteousness. The good news is that these desires can be fully satisfied or ‘“filled”’ – true fulfilment, through the ‘“Good News of the Kingdom”’(Matthew 24:14), i.e. gospel.

And so to the first sense in which we can be filled with righteousness, related to the next line of the poem, about obtaining ‘“mercy”’(Matthew 5:7). We can approach God’s ‘throne of grace, that we may receive mercy’(Hebrews 4:16) and ‘the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ’(Romans 3:22). All of us ‘have sinned’(Romans 3:23), so by definition are unrighteous. However, we can be seen as righteous in God’s sight ‘freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice’(Romans 3:24-25) for our sins. God the ‘Son’(John 1:14), i.e. Jesus, ‘who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God’(2 Corinthians 5:21) – ‘“righteousness”… accounted’(Romans 4:22-24) to us, on account of His ‘obedience’(Romans 5:19), as a gracious ‘gift’(Romans 5:17), through ‘faith’(Romans 1:17) – a perfectly blessed, full, satisfying righteousness.

However, our ‘“hunger and thirst for righteousness”’ mustn’t stop there, otherwise it could be called into question. Jesus ‘bore our sins… that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness’(1 Peter 2:24). Those who truly see, desire and receive God’s gracious gift above will long to truly be righteous in all their ways as well. This ‘“hunger and thirst”’ is satisfied through the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said on another occasion, ‘“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water”… He said this about the Spirit’(John 7:37-39), and as Paul explained later, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth’(Ephesians 5:9). So true Christians will crave ‘righteousness’(2 Timothy 2:22), seek training and ‘instruction in righteousness’(2 Timothy 3:16) and thereby yield the ‘fruit of righteousness’(Hebrews 12:11), through the satisfying rising sap of ‘the Spirit’(Galatians 5:22) within. Evidence of this spiritual life at work in us can encouragingly reassure us regarding our true ‘calling… into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord’(2 Peter 1:10-11).

Even so, as Paul would acknowledge, until we reach this ‘eternal Kingdom’ we will never find ourselves completely ‘perfect; but [we] press on’(Philippians 3:12) as imperfect people in a world that’s also far from characterised by perfect divine justice and righteousness. However, the good news includes the fact that this corrupt world of ‘decay… that… groans’(Romans 8:21-22), in which we ‘groan’(Romans 8:23) too, ‘is passing away… but he who does God’s will remains forever…’(1 John 2:17).

And so to the final way in which God’s people ‘“shall be filled”’, and fully satisfied: living in perfect righteousness, in God’s eternal Kingdom of justice and righteousness, forever! There we’ll find ourselves numbered amongst ‘the spirits of just men made perfect’(Hebrews 12:23), as Isaiah prophesied: ‘the days of your mourning will end… your people will all be righteous… forever’(Isaiah 60:20-21), living in ‘a new heaven and a new earth’(Revelation 21:1ff.) ‘in which righteousness dwells’(2 Peter 3:13). So, ‘He who is thirsty, let him come…’(Revelation 22:17).

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