Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Helen

I suppose it’s probably worth noting that at this moment that we’re reaching that second triad in the Beatitudes, aren’t we? We’ve gone from ‘blessed are those who are poor in spirit, and those who mourn and are meek’ to recognising those who already have righteousness as their goal, or maybe have a more positive outlook on their lives. The second triad sees a shift in gear.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are already looking for justice, looking for something beyond an improvement to their own immediate life circumstances, who are looking at the bigger picture.

Julie

I’m struck by the images of hunger and thirsting. It is also resonating with the first three – the poverty and the lack of something. What they lack is righteousness.

It relates back to what we said about the last Beatitude. The people Jesus was speaking to were really suffering for all kinds of reasons. They were hungry and thirsting, wanting this righteousness to be their experience, for the world to be a better place for them and their families.

I’m remembering that Jesus’s audience at the time were people who were oppressed. So what does it mean for them to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be hungry and desperate?

Craig

It is intense imagery, isn’t it? If your body is longing for something it’s not just an idea in your head. Your body cries out for food and for drink – especially water. If you have no water the only thing you’d be thinking about is your desperate thirst.

What does it feel it like to turn the tap on and gulp down water on a very hot day when you’ve been on a walk and are desperate for a drink?

Helen

And what Jesus saying is that they will be filled. Not just a little bit, it’s not a snack. I went out for dinner last night and ate too much and I came home feeling full. And that’s a very different feeling to just having a little bit of something.m

Julie

It’s an overflowing of goodness, isn’t it?

Simon

If you’re hungry, you will enjoy being filled so much more than if you’re not hungry. Because you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness – right relationships – you will enjoy it so much more than the person who is not that bothered. For those of us who claim to follow Christ, this is a big corrective: if you are hungering for rightness in a way that harms others, you are not hungering for righteousness, because that is always about right relationships.

Craig

And it is righteousness that’s the object of this hunger and thirst isn’t it? And righteousness, in a scriptural sense, is analogous to covenant faithfulness. So, once again, it’s about justice. It’s about right relationships, all the things we’ve talked about in earlier conversations.

And I think, bearing in mind what we talked about previously, it has to include economic fairness. It has to include taking care of the weak. And so it’s about a deep aching for all we yearn for. Ok, I’m not sure whether all humans are the same – do we all yearn for this? I don’t know. I do wonder sometimes.

But, yet again, it’s all in the future. And part of me cries out loudly. I think of my Dad, and how the older he got, in the years before he died, how he became increasingly angry at God. He was a convinced atheist, but he became increasingly angry at God. We’re back to the notorious ‘problem of evil’ question all over again, aren’t we?

But for those of us who wrestle with a faith in God, just as the writers of the psalms did, we surely have to ask ourselves why it is always the same people who suffer. And, for me anyway, that’s the nature of longing as if I were parched with thirst and desperately needed a drink.

Julie

It’s back to what we were saying about the last Beatitude – for some, in some situations, it’s not going to be this life that they see what they are looking for. Or, as you said earlier Helen, it may be the next generation that experiences what their parents had longed for.

Somehow this tyrant, this present man in power whoever it may be, is temporary. Presidents, powers, dominions don’t last forever. At some point there will be a filling for those who are hungering for righteousness.

And, yes, that can seem really patronising or naive. But it’s sometimes the only thing you can say.

Craig

It needs to be said because it may be the only way we can push back, but it also does sound incredibly naive because you know that those in power are going to flourish for longer than they should.

And yes, I know I’m talking from a present-world perspective rather than a first century Jewish context, but those who are making hay right now are those who are profiting from the war. And it’s them who will become the next round of leaders because of the way in which this world functions. The money made by the warmongers has an out-sized influence over who will be in power next.

And then I think about Jesus when he’s describing the kingdom of Beelzebub, and about how it is inherently unstable. And I look at America and I see something that is so inherently unstable, with growing wealth inequality and racial tensions.

Just like the fall of Soviet communism, it was inevitable. It took generations to happen, but it was inevitable. And I think it’s the reason China’s functioning as it is, not giving free speech to billions of people, because if they start doing that everybody’s going to develop their own view and, with so many alternative perspectives, the fear is that nothing would hold together in such a large country.

And democracy, as we understand it in the West, is also inherently unstable. And, of course, social media amplifies all of that. It seems to me that is why there is so much negativity in our politics at the moment. Social media can’t suggest a positive agenda, but it can give a platform and a megaphone to disaffected voices.

And that’s why maybe the best strategy to undermine Western liberal democracy is to do what the Russian bots and whatever else are doing. To allow free speech, and to allow freedom of thought, is to make chaos possible. And a strategy of undermining the very possibility that truth exists, and that those who lead us are dishonest and incapable, is going to lead to increasing fragmentation and the rise of populists with simple solutions if it is successful.

So maybe we need to hear words like the Beatitudes afresh. They point beyond the present and into the future. They help us hope for something beyond the facts we see every day. They point to values that are eternal and inherently wise.

Because it doesn’t have to be this way, and it is why our values of listening well, thinking deeply and living authentically are so vital. They represent our freedom to make life a whole lot better, which is why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Helen

So, building on what you’re saying Craig, that is exactly why Jesus needed to say these things and why these people needed to hear them. Because, even in the midst of hopelessness and oppression, and as we and others experience it today, we’ve got to have someone saying to us, ‘yes, this is where you’re living now but I promise you, there is better. It does exist.’

There are potential images of hope that encourage us to look forward. We have examples of those of us who have hungered and thirsted for righteousness in the past. They had to know that hope was real, that it did exist, whether in this life or the next. You can’t yearn for and hope for what you don’t believe exists.

And I think that’s the battle that we face – for instance, with people who are very depressed, the challenge is to help them to understand and believe that there is a better future to work towards. You’ve got to have that passion and belief that it exists. 

Julie

As you were speaking, Helen, Martin Luther King came to mind. His final speech before he was assassinated: ‘I’ve been to the mountaintop…. I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over….and I have seen the promised land’

He’s saying, don’t worry about me. I’ve been to the mountaintop and I’ve seen it.

A firm belief in something better helps us paint a picture of a world where things will be different, and can encourage people who are presently suffering injustice, who are hungry and thirsting for righteousness to keep going.

Helen

You will be filled. Have faith. It exists. And the end point is justice and shalom, I guess, isn’t it?

Craig

That certainly helps me, Julie, because it’s bringing me back from the brink of despair. Because if we can imagine a better future now, as you’ve just said with the example of Martin Luther King and the way in which he practiced his faith, it is possible to paint a coherent picture of what might change within a generation.