When looking at the first four beatitudes, you must concede that there is a natural spiritual progression of relentless logic. Each step leads to the next. First, we are to be poor in spirit, acknowledging our complete and utter bankruptcy before God. We are then to mourn and sorrow over sin. This could include personal sins and/or the power of sin in our community and the world at large. Thirdly, we are to be ‘meek,’ humble and gentle toward others, allowing our spiritual poverty to condition our behavior toward them as well as to God. Fourthly we are to ‘hunger and thirst of righteousness.’ There is no sense in acknowledging and confessing our sin unless we pursue godliness, righteousness and justice.
Nutritionists have dramatized the importance of diet by telling us that we are what we eat. The thinking is, if we eat too many doughnuts and cream puffs, we’ll become walking pastries.
In terms of our spiritual lives the term, “you are what you eat” is more poignant. If you choose to feed on violence, excitement, erotica and materialism, you will eventually personify them. You will become what you eat.
I think it is a safe assumption that Elvis Presley never understood this principle. His life was a pitiful pursuit of materialism and sensuality. He earned between 5 and 6 million dollars a year and it is estimated that he grossed $100 million in his first two years of stardom. What did he hunger for?
He had three jets, two Cadillac’s, a Rolls Royce, a Lincoln Continental, Buick and Chrysler station wagons, a Jeep, a dune buggy, a converted bus and three motorcycles. His favorite car was a 1960 Cadillac limousine. The top was covered with pearl-white Naugahyde. The body was sprayed with forty coats of a specially prepared paint that included crushed diamonds and fish scales. Nearly all the metal trim was plated with eighteen-karat gold.
Inside the car there were two gold-flake telephones, a gold vanity case containing a gold electric razor and gold hair clippers an electric shoe buffer, a gold plated television, a record player, an amplifier, air conditioning and a refrigerator capable of making ice in two minutes. He had everything.
His sensuality is also legendary. Elvis became in the end a victim of his own appetites.
Jesus is teaching that the appetite and menu for spiritual well-being is summed up as spiritual hunger.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (justice), for they will be satisfied. Matthew 5:6
Jesus declares that spiritual hunger for righteousness or justice is essential for spiritual health and satisfaction. Because of this we should seek to know exactly what this means. What kind of righteousness is he talking about?
Some have supposed this righteousness to be that of the righteousness that comes from God. This (imputed righteousness) righteousness is foundational to every Christ followers salvation but I don’t believe that is the only thing that is meant here. Some have confined the meaning to social righteousness or the righteous treatment of the poor and oppressed. Jesus taught in Matthew 4:12-17 that social justice will result from the coming of Messiah’s reign. Christians are commanded and should be committed to seeking justice for the oppressed, civil rights, justice in the courts, integrity in the workplace, and honor in home and families. But I don’t think we can stop there.
There is a deeper and even more profound meaning. The root meaning is determined by the seven occurrences of “righteousness” in the Sermon on the Mount that indicate is means an inner righteousness that works itself out in one’s living in conformity to God’s will—righteous living.
Those who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness,’ long to live righteously, and for righteousness to prevail in the world. Authentic Christ followers will possess a passionate desire, which will begin with one’s own life. This desire is that all things will be lived in line with God’s will.
This desire to live in compliance with God’s will is expansive. It includes an increasing sense of a need for God – a desire to be like Him. To hunger and thirst for this righteousness means longing after the practical righteousness that the Beatitudes represent both personally and in the world. Those who hunger and thirst want the character of the kingdom. Those who hunger and thirst pant after the fruit of the Spirit. Those who sign up for Christ’s agenda allow Him to invade possess and control every area of their lives.
To hunger and thirst: 
1. This hunger has a sense of desperation attached to it.
The call found in this fourth beatitude is to pursue conformity to God’s will and it is stated in the most extreme of terms. The intensity of the expression that is used is very difficult for us to feel because if we are thirsty today, all we need to do is turn on the tap and water flows freely. Cold, refreshing water is at our fingertips. If we are hungry, most of us can go to a refrigerator, food pantry or find food with relative ease.
The people that first heard these words of Jesus lived dangerously close to the possibility of starvation and dehydration. This Beatitude is not a comfortable picture for those who first heard this. This is not some subtle sense of hunger that you might feel right before you eat one of your three meals a day. This is an intense hunger and starvation for righteousness or a desperate hungering to be conformed to God’s will.
The healthy Christ follower is never satisfied. You and I should never be far from a feeling of desperation for more of God in our lives.
The great Scottish Bible expositor Alexander MacLaren once wrote: ‘we may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the gold bullion vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with one penny, whose fault is it that he is poor?”
In their devotional guide, Experiencing God Day-By-Day, Henry and Richard Blackaby ask the question, “Are you satisfied with merely knowing the acts of God or do you also want to know His ways? This is a question that requires an answer and the answer that we give determines the depth and stability of our relationship with God
Are you desperate to know God today? Are you hungering and thirsting for His righteousness to be a part of your life? Do you want victory in your life over some sin that is destroying your life, your marriage, or even your effectiveness at work? Get desperate before God. Allow yourself the luxury of spiritual hunger. Allow yourself to feel the hunger for God and let it drive you to your knees. Take as long as it takes. Stay in a position of hunger. Tell God about it and see if He doesn’t respond. 
2. This hunger either repulses or draws us.
Oscar Wilde, once wrote, “There are two tragedies in this life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” In a way, Mr. Wilde recognized one of the most challenging aspects of being human. We want so much. We measure our lives by how much we get or do not get. Often we are not even sure about what we want. We are only sure of one thing: we want.
The way this Beatitude is worded doesn’t make sense to the modern ear. It may even be too strong for some modern Christians. Kent Hughes says, “It rules out sleek, self-satisfied, half-hearted religion. In fact, hungering and thirsting for righteousness is the only approach the Beatitude accepts.
Does this uncover buried, almost forgotten glimmers of a time in your past when you first came to Christ and you were so hungry for everything you could learn about Him? You couldn’t get enough or Him or His word. You were filled with joyful desperation for the things of God. You cared about the world and it spiritual famine. You welcomed opportunities for self-sacrifice and were willing to go for it all.
But time blunted your desires, “the realities of life,” took over, and that delectable hunger ceased. Now you are content with a life of lesser and limited devotion.
Jesus is calling you out today with this Beatitude. He is reminding some of you that you need to take some time and evaluate your relationship with Him.
What is it that has taken the place of God in your life? What things crowd out his voice and influence on your daily choices? What is keeping you from hungering and thirsting for God? Why do you find the very thought of it repulsive?
John Piper summed up our problem well with his statement: ‘The weakness of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavory, but because we “keep ourselves stuffed with other things”’ He was talking about the subject of fasting or not eating for a time. . . He wrote “If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry and to say with some simple fast “This much O God I want YOU”
Today we are giving you a chance to reconnect with God and tell Him how much you want Him in your life. 
3. Hungering people know Christ.
Jesus said that the spiritually famished would be blessed and filled. Why is that or how could that be? Those who hunger and thirst for Christ know Him and when you know Him you will want more of Him. You will never get completely over you hunger and thirsting.
This is such a penetrating warning for us today. Concern for righteousness in on such a decline among “Christians” that it is startling when you really take time to consider it. Many of us watch more murders and adulteries on television in one week than our grandparents read about in a lifetime – and we have no twinge of conscience. Our causal viewing habits is a tacit approval of evil. Pollsters are pointing out in ever increasing numbers that the gap is narrowing between the church and the world or culture. The plight of the world and its injustice and unrighteousness never crosses the mind of a majority of professing Christians.
There are some of you today who are probably going to think this message is a little fanatical or odd and out of touch. If you have no longing for righteousness I would encourage you today to initiate a careful analysis and inventory of your soul.
The really good news is this. People who hunger and thirst for God really do find Him. You will be satisfied yet hunger on.
The reward:
a. Satisfaction: A paradox.
The more one conforms to God’s will, the more fulfilled and content one becomes. But that will in turn create a greater discontent. Our spiritual hunger increases and intensifies in the very act of being satisfied.
Paul wrote to the Timothy, ‘I know whom I have believed.’ (2 Timothy 1:12) But he also wrote to the Philippians and expressed a profound longing for Christ – ‘to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” (Philippians 3:10)
Bernard of Clairvaux sang of this cycle many centuries ago:
We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, The Fountainhead,
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
b. Satisfaction: complete
The world offers us empty cups. This Beatitude emphasizes the “they alone (those who hunger and thirst) will be filled.” No one can know anything of this level of satisfaction but an authentic Christ follower.
14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” John 4:14
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35
8 Let them praise the LORD for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them. 9 For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:8-9
c. Satisfaction: eternal
Jesus uses the image of a divine feast often in the scriptures.
29 And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right 30 to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Luke 22:29-30
1 “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free! 2 Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. Isaiah 55:1-2
33 Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33
“You are what you eat” is not as simple as it may first appear. The tragedy of our time is that the world is hungering and thirsting after sex and wealth violence and excitement. The church’s tragedy is that many in her are seeking the same thing – and their diets are making them as empty and pathetic as the world.
Jesus has provided us with both an appetite and a menu. The main course is righteousness – conformity to His will, and the method is desperation. We are called to hunger for righteousness and to pursue it with everything that is in us.
Raquel Welch was one of Hollywood’s most famous beauties. She said:
I’d acquired everything I wanted yet I was totally miserable. I thought it peculiar that I’d obtained everything I wanted as a child: wealth, fame, accomplishment in my career. I had beautiful children, a lifestyle that seemed terrific, yet I was totally miserably unhappy. I found it frightening that one could acquire all these things and still be so miserable.
She got what she hungered for and was not blessed or satisfied. Unfortunately are TV screens are full of the story of a person this past week who hungered and thirsted and received all the things that this life has to offer. She wasn’t happy. She wasn’t satisfied. She wasn’t content. She wasn’t full.
Jesus comes along side us today with these words: God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (justice), for they will be satisfied. Matthew 5:6
“Mommy I’m so thirsty. I want a drink.” Susanna Petroysan heard her daughter’s pleas, but there was nothing she could do. She and four-year-old Gayaney were trapped beneath tons of collapsed concrete and steel. Beside them in the darkness lay the body of Susanna’s sister-in-law, Karine, one of the fifty-five thousand victims of the worst earthquake in the history of Armenia.
Calamity never knocks before it enters, and this time, it had torn down the door. Susanna had gone to Karine’s house to try on a dress. It was December 7,1988, at 11:30 A.M. The quake hit at 11:41. She had just removed the dress and was clad in stockings and a slip when the fifth-floor apartment began to shake. Susanna grabbed her daughter but had taken only a few steps before the floor opened up and they tumbled in. Susanna, Gayaney, and Karine fell into the basement with the nine-story apartment house crumbling around them.
“Mommy, I need a drink. Please give me something.” There was nothing for Susanna to give. She was trapped flat on her back. A concrete panel eighteen inches above her head and a crumpled water pipe above her shoulders kept her from standing. Feeling around in the darkness, she found a twenty-four-once jar of blackberry jam that had fallen into the basement. She gave the entire jar to her daughter to eat. It was gone by the second day.
“Mommy, I’m so thirsty.”
Susanna knew she would die, but she wanted her daughter to live. She found a dress, perhaps the one she had come to try on, and made a bed for Gayaney. Though it was bitter cold, she took off her stockings and wrapped them around the child to keep her warm.
The two were trapped for eight days. Because of the darkness, Susanna lost track of time. Because of the cold, she lost the feeling in her fingers and toes. Because of her inability to move, she lost hope. “I was just waiting for death.”
She began to hallucinate. Her thoughts wandered. A merciful sleep occasionally freed her from the horror of her entombment, but the sleep would be brief. Something always awakened her: the cold, the hunger, or most often the voice of her daughter.
“Mommy, I’m thirsty.”
At some point in that eternal night, Susanna had an idea. She remembered a television program about an explorer in the Arctic who was dying of thirst. His comrade slashed open his hand and gave his friend his blood.
Her groping fingers, numb from the cold, found a piece of shattered glass. She sliced open her left index finger and gave it to her daughter to suck. The drops of blood weren’t enough. “Please Mommy, some more. Cut another finger.” Susanna has no idea how many times she cut herself. She only knows that if she hadn’t, Gayaney would have died. Her blood was her daughter’s only hope.
Beneath the rubble of a fallen world, Jesus pierced His hands. In the wreckage of a collapsed humanity, He ripped open His side. His children were trapped, so He gave His blood. It was all He had, His friends were gone. His strength was waning. His possessions had been gambled away at His feet. Even His Father had turned His head. His blood was all He had. But His blood was all it took.
Jesus not only invites us on a daily basis to hunger and thirst for Him but He also instructed us to come to His table. As we planned this service this week it seemed to be a natural response. To share together in communion, to come forward to His table today is you responding to the words you have heard in this service.
Don’t come unless you mean it. This is probably not a response that everyone in this room should participate in. If you are serious about wanting God and conforming your life to His will then He invites you to the table.
27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 1 Corinthians 11:17-29
Jesus says come. You don’t have to be perfect but you do need to be genuine in your hunger and thirst for Christ today.
Prayer before communion:
Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but trusting in your loving kindness I approach your altar; sick I come to the Physician of life, blind to the Light of eternal brightness, poor to the Lord of heaven and earth, naked to the King of glory, a sheep to the Shepherd, a thing formed to him that formed it, desolate to the kind Comforter, miserable to the pitiful, guilty to the Bestower of pardon, unholy to One that justifies, hardened to the Infuser of grace; imploring the abundance of your boundless mercy that you would vouchsafe to heal my infirmity, to wash my foulness, to enlighten my blindness, to enrich my poverty, to clothe my nakedness, to bring back the wandering, to console the desolate, to reconcile the guilty, to give pardon to the sinner, forgiveness to the wretched, life to the accused, justification to the dead; that I may be deemed worthy to receive you, the Bread of angels, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, with such chastity of body and purity of mind, such contrition of heart and flow of tears, such spiritual happiness and heavenly joy, such fear and trembling, such reverence and honor, such faith and humility, such determination and love, such prayer and thanksgiving, as are becoming and your due, so that I may profitably obtain eternal life; and the remission of all my sins. Amen. (Sarum Missal)
Prayer after communion:
O Lord my God, I thank you for not rejecting me, a sinner, and for deeming me worthy to be a partaker of your Holy Mysteries. I thank you for having allowed me, unworthy though I am, to be a partaker of your most pure and heavenly Gifts. 0 Lord and Lover of Mankind, you died and rose again for our sake, and gave us these awesome and life-giving Mysteries for the good of our body and the sanctification of our soul. Grant that they serve to heal my body and soul, and that they set to flight every foe. Enlighten the eyes of my heart, give peace to the powers of my mind, inspire me with faith, with a sincere love and deep wisdom, and with obedience to Your commandments. May these Mysteries increase your divine grace in me and make me an inhabitant of your kingdom. Being preserved in your holiness by them, I will remember your love at all times. From now on, I will not live for myself, but for you, my Lord and Benefactor. Thus, having spent my earthly life in the hope of life without end, I will one day reach eternal rest where the sound of rejoicing never ceases, and where the delight of those who look upon the beauty of your Face has no bounds. For you, Christ our God, are truly the object of our desire and the inexpressible joy of those who love you, and all creatures glorify you, now and ever and forever. Amen. (St Basil the Great)