Zealous for Righteousness
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
Life isn’t fair. I once said that to a group of four-year-olds, probably in answer to the cry of “it’s not fair.” But I was surprised to hear the phrase repeated all day as if they had never heard such astonishing news. After class, one little girl greeted her mother with the information, and I had to explain.
Fairness, justice, righteousness—do I hunger and thirst for these things? Jesus did. One day as He entered the temple, He was overwhelmed with righteous indignation. The temple courts were full of vendors.
The people had come to the temple to make sacrifices and give offerings. They needed to buy items if they had traveled too far to bring their own. But the vendors occupied the courts of the temple that had been designated for the common people to come for prayer. How could anyone pray with all the commotion of bleating sheep, cooing doves, and people haggling over prices with moneychangers?
The Gospel of John records Jesus’ zealous response: “So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables” (John 2:15).
The Greek word John used for hunger was peinaō, which means “to be hungry, to crave ardently, and to seek with eager desire.”* Such hungering and thirsting is the kind of desperate craving someone in the desert experiences when they can’t find water or the single-mindedness of refugees seeking food, water, and shelter.
What Jesus spoke of in the Beatitudes is not craving for things of this world. It is a “spiritual famine” as someone called it. We long for things to be right, and they’re not. We have to wait. “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).
Are you zealously yearning for the day when we will see heaven and earth full of God’s righteousness? While you wait, ask God to show you something you can do to bring righteousness to a situation that is unrighteous.
DIG DEEPER:
Jesus said we would be filled with His righteousness, and we are—but not completely. When will His righteousness be complete in us? See Romans 3:20-26 and Revelation 22:17.
According to Ephesians 4:17-24 and 6:11-14, what is the part we play in living righteously?
Read 2 Timothy 3:17-24. Even as baby Christians, how can we receive “training in righteousness”?
What is more satisfying than eating and drinking according to Isaiah 55:1-3 and Romans 14:17?
Bonus: Check out the Beatitudes Word Search on our Free Resources page.
Nancy J. Baker
* Dictionary and Word Search for peinaō (Strong’s 3983). Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2013. 10 Jun 2013. < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3983 >