Matthew 5:3-13
This week we again continue with considering the individual Beatitudes as characteristics of the savour of a believer's salt:
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Do you - and do I - hunger and thirst after righteousness?
Do we have a need and a longing for God that cannot be satisfied with anything else?
This characteristic of the Christian believer means that they will be searching.
Before they 'are filled' they may not know what they are searching for. This person may just know that they have a restlessness and an emptiness inside them.
Perhaps they try to fill it with all sorts of exciting holidays, adventures, new hobbies, new jobs, hard work, or spending time giving of themselves to others.
This person might appear to others to be very active in enjoying all that life can offer, or in contrast they may always seem unhappy and dissatisfied, complaining about their life.
But you might not be like this at all. You might just know that you have heard about God, you feel drawn to him and want to find him.
The essential point that Jesus is demonstrating here is that there is a need or a seeking for God. Just as you are hungry and thirsty for physical food, so you are hungry and thirsty in your need for God.
Eventually the seeking soul will be led by the Holy Spirit working in their heart and to look for him through prayer, reading his Word, being attracted to talk with other Christians and to listening to Christian ministry.
And Jesus tells us that those who seek will find.
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These hungry and thirsty ones will be filled with the spiritual food that they need: Jesus, who says, 'I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst' (John 6:36).
Mary sings in Luke 1:53, 'He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away'.
Those who are rich in themselves, who don't need God, won't be filled with that which is vital - spiritual life. They, when they come to die will dreadfully realise they have nothing. No hope of eternal life. Nothing from God, but judgement and eternal misery in hell.
Isaiah 55:1 beautifully encourages those who are hungry and thirsty after righteousness, 'Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye buy, and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price'.
Hear the invitation of the Lord to come to him and eat and drink - freely! You don't need to pay Jesus to give you spiritual life - you can't! Nothing you can do can earn his love and gift of salvation.
The Christian believer is one who hears this call and invitation, and who comes to Jesus in prayer and is given the faith to truly believe he is the Son of God, and he has died for their sins.
Giving our hearts to the Lord and trusting totally in him brings with it a sense of completion and satisfaction in our hearts that is like a hunger or thirst emptiness being filled. And it continues on and off through the Christian life.
As with natural hunger and thirst we have times when we are more hungry/thirsty than others, times when it feels more urgent and we will faint without food/drink; times when we have eaten or drunk so well that we enjoy the feeling of fullness for longer than usual and don't need a further meal/drink.
Similarly it is like in the believers life as they have lesser and greater consciousness of their need for their Lord. But they will be like David, who often at the beginnings of his Psalms speaks of his need for God, but by the end of them has been encouraged and comforted and 'filled'.
So when we consider this characteristic as part of the savour of salt in a Christian, does it not refer to their evident spiritual desires after the things of God?
Will their salt savour the lives of those around them as their soul feasting on the things of God is satisfied and their behaviour happy and contented as they look and trust to God for all they need?
Will they be seen to attend worship services regularly and their love of the Lord Jesus and the things of God be evident from the places they go and the things that they say?
This person will not be satisfied with all the pleasures they can get from this life. Their job will not be the ultimate end in their life, neither their family, although these both test us.
No, their ultimate priority and need for satisfaction will only be found in Jesus - it will enable them to 'hold all things loosely' as they realise that all they experience in this life is only temporary, but the joys of righteousness are for eternity.
This will affect their perspective, and although we are to do all things to the best of our ability as unto God, there will at the same time be a realisation that they are passing through this life, travelling to a better country.
How does our savour measure up to this?
Are we only hungry and thirsty for the things of this life, or does our conversation, attitude and behaviour demonstrate that we have an inner joy, fed and satisfied by righteousness, the Lord Jesus?
Let us praise God for the hunger and thirst after him which he gives us and for satisfying our souls with the knowledge of him; and if we feel our appetite for spiritual things has waned, let us pray that he will stir us up in our hearts make us long for him, hunger for him, so that like the Psalmist we say,
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