Every day when we tune in for the news we are inundated by
stories of corruption, deception, crime, war and injustice. Occasional beams of light break through the
dark clouds of gloom: stories of heroism and self-sacrifice. But the shadows
are dark and difficult to dispel.
Into the midst of this darkness, Jesus introduced the fourth
Beatitude. “Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” What a great promise!
Jesus must have had in mind the kind of righteousness that
is associated with justice. There is
just too much in the Scripture related to God’s passion for righteousness and
justice to think that Jesus was not referring to this.
We are not to lose heart in this world when the powerful and
the rich subjugate the weak and the poor, when graft and greed are
rampant. God will bring justice and
righteousness upon the earth. As Martin
Luther King, Jr. said, “we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like
waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’” (Amos 5:24).
I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s stand against the Nazi onslaught. On October 29, 1941, when Great Britain faced
isolation and possible defeat, Churchill challenged his generation to persevere
for righteousness. In that speech he
said, “You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes
imagination makes things out far worse than they are … never give in,
never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or
petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never
yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
Jesus must have referred also to another righteousness, the
righteousness that overcomes sin. We are all sinners. No one disputes this fact. We all sin. Self-righteousness will not save us. The prophet Isaiah stated the truth we all
should know, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away,” (Isaiah 64:6).
Righteousness
deals with our relationship to God. More
often than not, the prophets link this word with salvation rather than
justice. “I bring near My righteousness,
it is not far off, and My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion and my
glory for Israel.” (Isaiah 46:13). “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin
on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The
Apostle Paul wrote, “ I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord … not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith,” (Philippians 3:8-9).
He is
your righteousness and your salvation.
He has become sin for you so that your sin might be removed as the east
is from the west. Hunger for Him and you
will be satisfied.
