THE PRIVILEGE OF THE FAMISHED

Matthew 5:6

 

INTRODUCTION:   

Do you know what costs $2.7 million every 30 seconds?  A Super Bowl ad.

 

I want to suggest to you that these commercials give us a contemporary illustration of how Jesus taught spiritual lessons. Advertisers pay millions to put their slogans and images before us. They believe it is worth it.  Why?  Because it works.  They know if they can get their slogan and image into our head it will influence our choices.  It’s called buying real estate in our mind.  They don’t have to present a persuasive case for why we need to buy their product.  They just have to get their image into our minds.

 

You see, the advertisers have learned what Jesus knew 2,000 years ago: an image connected with an idea is a powerful means of influencing our view of the world.  Madison Avenue has two deliberate actions as a part of their strategy.  First, they suggest our world is incomplete without their product.  Second, they give us that image over and over.  Nike knows we won’t buy a pair of their sneakers after one commercial, but after a thousand the idea begins to influence our choice.

Jesus understood the power of an image connected with an idea.  The cross, a mustard seed, a lamp on a stand, a pearl, and hunger and thirst are not only realities, they are also powerful images that reveal something about Christ and His purposes for our life.  Like the advertisers, to get the full impact of the wealth of their meaning they need to be brought before us again and again. 

 

Of all the images Christ used to teach about himself the one that is brought before us most often is hunger and thirst.  We experience hunger and thirst every day.  Because those feelings are so familiar, Jesus’ word picture has impact.  In fact, all of us will act on this image immediately after this service. 

 

This is the fourth of the characteristics of the Kingdom that Jesus gave in the introduction to his Sermon on the Mount.  We usually call them “beatitudes.”

 

Most of the other beatitudes seem obscure at first but obvious once we have studied them.  This one seems pretty obvious at first but I think we will find it to be very profound when we study it.

I.    WHAT IT IS TO BE HUNGRY?

The dictionary definition of “hunger” is:

1 a: a craving or urgent need for food or a specific nutrient b: an uneasy sensation occasioned by the lack of food c: a weakened condition brought about by prolonged lack of food

2: a strong desire: craving “a hunger for success”

Have you ever been hungry?  I’m not asking if you’ve ever had the munchies.  I’m not asking if your stomach ever growled.  I’m asking if you’ve ever been hungry.

 

That dictionary definition included the phrase “an urgent need for food.”  It spoke of “an uneasy sensation occasioned by the lack of food” and “a weakened condition brought about by prolonged lack of food.”  Have you ever been that kind of hungry?  The kind of hungry that makes you feel sick, weak and faint?

 

You see, we hunger for what we must have in order to survive.  I get a craving for popcorn several times a week.  I’ve been known to get a hankering for lamb or for chili.  But I can’t describe any of those as a “hunger” because I don’t need them to survive.  I could live without popcorn, I just choose not to.

 

What Jesus is describing is a hunger that is more than a desire: it is an urgent need. 

 

Let me try to paint a word picture of what Jesus is talking about:

A homeless man, shuffling past a restaurant with al fresco dining, sees diners at outdoor tables.  He can hear the steaks still sizzling on the plates, see the steam rise from the twice-baked potatoes, smell the fragrance of the rosemary reduction sauce on the side, hear the crunch of the salad greens as diners feast on their meal.  Necessity has reduced him to dumpster-diving for whatever morsels he can find and he can’t even remember when he last had a full meal.  How would he feel?  That’s how the King wants us to feel about righteousness: ravenous for it; craving it.

 

Please permit me to make a little flight into the air of linguistics.  Normally the word used for “hunger” is used in the genitive case.  The genitive is translated “hunger of”.  Quite unusually, here Jesus uses the accusative form of the word “hunger” meaning to “hunger for”.  The significance is that if we “hunger of” something, we want some of it. 

 

I fix a pot of chili for Sandy and me and as it is cooking, it smells really good and it looks pretty appetizing and I want a little bowl of it before lunch because, in the genitive use of the word, I hunger of the soup: I want some of it.

 

But if I am making a pot of chili and it smells really good and looks pretty appetizing and I decide to feed Sandy a peanut butter sandwich because I want all the chili, that is a picture of the accusative of “hunger”, I hunger for the chili: I crave all of it.

 

To hunger for righteousness is to have an absolutely insatiable appetite for righteousness.  It is to want all of it you can get.  That is what it means “to hunger for”.

II.    WHAT IS IT FOR WHICH WE HUNGER?

Today, with reference to football, is Super Bowl Sunday.  Tuesday, with reference to politics is Super Tuesday.  Before today is over, there will be one team that is the winner and one that is the loser.  Quite often, in the post-game analysis, some sports commentator will say that one team was more hungry for the win than the other team was.  Or he will say that a player who played one of his best games ever was hungry for the victory.  By that, we mean that the team or the player had an insatiable craving for victory and nothing less, nothing else, would satisfy.

 

During the Tuesday evening analysis, someone may observe that one candidate is more hungry for the presidency than the others.  By that we mean that a particular candidate has a craving to be the President and nothing less will satisfy.

 

We are all hungry.  You are hungry.  There is something you need to survive.  What is it?  What is it that you know in your heart you just can’t live without?

 

Jesus used fictional stories to teach eternal truth.  One of my favorites of the stories he told is the story we typically call the Story of the Prodigal Son.  You are familiar with the story.  This son of his father asked for his share of the inheritance immediately…even before his father had died.  He took the money, went to a far country and wasted it all.  Eventually, he was reduced to feeding pigs (unthinkable for a good Jewish boy!) and wishing that he could eat some of the husks the hogs were eating just to satisfy his gnawing hunger.  Eventually, he came to his senses, then he went to his father and he was welcomed home.

 

While the boy was in the pigpen, he would have settled for husks.  I suspect some of Mom’s pot roast would have been preferred but he would have settled for husks just to stifle the gnawing hunger.

 

All of us are hungry.  We all yearn for something to satisfy the ache in our souls.  The fact is: we all have a hunger for God.  Now I want to ask you: what are some of the husks that people turn to in an effort to quiet the hunger pangs that gnaw at them?  Recognition or status?  Money or material goods?  Power or influence?  I want to suggest to you that all of these are husks…just husks.  They may briefly stop the gnawing but they will not satisfy the hunger.

 

In John chapter 4 you can read the account of a woman who came to a well to draw water and who had a surprise encounter with Jesus as well.  Jesus talked with her (which surprised her) and then asked her to go get her husband and bring him to the well-side, too.  The woman said she didn’t have a husband and Jesus said she was telling the truth because she had had five husbands and she wasn’t married to the man she was living with at that time.

 

Husbands were husks for that woman.  None of the first five must have satisfied her so she was still looking for Mr. Right who could satisfy her hunger for love, for belonging and for security.  She was hungry and settling for husks.

 

Believe it or not, that for which the woman at the well hungered was righteousness.  But not just any righteousness, she hungered for his righteousness.  Did you know there is more than one kind of righteousness?  There is.

 

Jesus spoke about the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.  Just a few verses after the beatitudes, Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.  They were conscientious, scrupulous, meticulous, fastidious about keeping all the details of the Law.  But Jesus said their righteousness wasn’t good enough. 

 

Later in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:33, Jesus told us to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” The righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law was inadequate and his righteousness was to be sought.  So what is his righteousness?

 

Jesus’ kind of righteousness is having our lives in tune with the heart, mind and will of God.  He said we had to be ravenous, craving, insatiable. to have our lives calibrated to the heart, mind and will of God.  And believe it or not, that is what you crave.  Even if you have not yet recognized it, that is what you crave: to be right with God.

III.    WHAT IS IT WHICH CAUSES OUR HUNGER?

Ultimately, what causes us to be hungry for his righteousness is a proper understanding of the purpose of the Law of God.  The purpose of the Law is to break us, not to make us righteous.  The Law cannot make anyone righteous.  It can make us guilty.  It can make us frustrated.  It can make us very, very tired.  But it cannot make us righteous.

 

To this day, there are people who are trying to get right with God by keeping a list of laws or a regimen of rules.  They think if they can just be good enough, they will be righteous and God will be pleased with them.  But no one can be good enough to pay the debt of his own sin.

 

For those who think they can, starting in Matthew 5:21, Jesus begins to tick off some of the rules and then show that even if you keep the rules perfectly, that’s not enough. 

·         The Law says “Don’t murder” so you say, “Whew!  At least I haven’t committed that sin.”  And Jesus says, “That’s not good enough.  You can’t even be angry with anyone.”  OUCH!!

·         The Law says “Don’t commit adultery” so you say, “Well, at least I’m in the clear on that one.”  And Jesus says, “That’s not good enough.  You can’t look at another person lustfully.”  Ouch again!

·         The Law says no just to kick your wife out with no legal protection, at least give her a certificate of divorce.  And Jesus says, “That’s not good enough.  Don’t divorce.”

·         The Law says not to break your oath and Jesus says, “That’s not good enough.  Be such a person of your word that you don’t even need to take an oath.”

·         The Law says and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and no more than that.  Whatever someone does to you, you cannot escalate the paybacks.  And Jesus says, “That’s not good enough.  No paybacks at all.  None.”

 

See what he was saying about his kind of righteousness exceeding that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law?  Keeping the rules is not enough.  Our hearts have to be in it, too.

 

So how do we get hungry for his kind of righteousness?  By trying to keep all the Laws in the power of the flesh.  And if you are sincere, pretty soon you will realize that you can’t do it.  You will be very tired, very frustrated and very ashamed.  When you get to that place, you will cry out to your Father in heaven and say, “I can’t do it.  I’ve tried to keep you rules.  I’ve tried to abide by all your regulations.  I’ve tried to obey all of your laws and I just can’t do it any more.  I’m tired and I still come up feeling empty.”  And when you get to that point, God says, “Good!  Now come home to me and let me feed you on the Bread of Life.  Let me fill you with my Spirit.

CONCLUSION:           

If I put out food for my dog and the next day it was still there, I’d worry about her.  If I continued to put out food for her for a few days and it was never eaten, I’d be checking on her.  And if she went for a week without eating, I’d know for sure that something was seriously wrong.

 

The same with people.  People who are alive hunger.  People who are not hungry for the things of the spirit are probably spiritually dead.  It is probably futile to talk to them about spiritual hunger.  There is no use begging them to feast on the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually dead and they can’t do it. 

 

But those who are spiritually alive know they are famished for something to nourish their soul and spirit: and his name is Jesus.

 

If you are eating husks and enjoying it, go right ahead and keep on eating them.  I hope you get lots of them.  I hope you have your fill of them.  I hope you get so many husks that you can’t stand the husks any more and you recognize your craving for his kingdom and his righteousness.

 

If you are already there.  If you already know that “the things this world gave you – Leave hungers that won’t pass away” then come to Jesus and ask him to fill you up with his righteousness.

 

INVITATION:              #180 – “Fill My Cup, Lord”