Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6
The way I want this beatitude to read is “Blessed are the righteous,” meaning, “Blessed are those in right relationship with God and others.”
But that is exactly not what Jesus said.
We do not hunger for what we have.
So, in essence, this beatitude is telling us, “blessed are those who want what they do not have,” and I want to imagine that I’ve been training for this my whole life.
Except I think we have no idea what we don’t have.
Every experience of pain should point to things not being the way they were meant to be, of the promise of the coming renewal of the world. We are told that all of creation is groaning for the earth to be redeemed, to be redeemed into the beauty intended from the beginning.
I get excited when my kids sleep in a half hour. I do not live with a serious idea of what I don’t have.
But this is why it’s such an astounding Grace that Christ closed the gap anyway and, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, became righteousness to us.
May you be given awareness of your need, of your failings, of your weakness, of the brokenness of this world so that you may be hungry, because “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.