Eight blessings (4):
The blessing of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
[Matthew 5:6]
Are you living with a sense of satisfaction right now? Are you happy now? There is a quiz developed by Dr. Ed Dinner in the United States to measure happiness (Internet). There are 5 questions in the quiz, and you have to score them when you answer them. Answer 1 is “definitely not”, answer 2 is “no”, answer 3 is “somewhat not”, and answer 4 is “Neither this nor that”, answer 5 is “slightly yes”, answer 6 is “yes” and answer 7 is “strongly yes.” After answering each of the five questions from 1 to 7 in this way, if the total score is 31-35, “extremely satisfied”, 26-30 is “very satisfied”, 21-25 is “slightly satisfied”, 20 is considered “moderate”, 15-19 is “slightly dissatisfied”, 10-14 is “very dissatisfied”, and 5-9 is “extremely dissatisfied”. Then I am asking you those five questions:
- Overall, my life is close to my ideal. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- My life’s conditions are very good 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- I already got the important things I want in life 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Even if I am born again, there is little I want to change 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- I have no intention of changing the frame of my life in the future 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
When I asked myself these five questions for measuring happiness, I scored them on a scale of 1 to 7, and when I added all the scores on the five items, I got 30. It was “very satisfied” (26-30). But it was not “extremely satisfied” (31-35). Of course, I don't think this five-question quiz is truly a measure of my own happiness. But I think it can be measured to some extent. The reason is because the answers to those five questions are focused on Jesus for me. For example, when the first question, “Overall, my life is close to my ideal,” the “ideal” for me is Jesus. And the second question, “My life’s conditions are very good” and the third question, “I already got the important things I want in life,” I have to confess that my life’s conditions are very good because I have already received all the spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ. The point I want to tell you here is that those who are satisfied with Jesus alone are the happiest people in this world. I am reminded of the gospel song “Only with Jesus”: “I'll praise the Lord, Jesus You are my everything And I feel satisfaction only with Jesus I'll praise the Lord, and I'll lift my voice aloud 'Cause Jesus gave me eternal life . I'll praise you, I'll praise your greatest love You are my strength and power, Jesus. My life has changed because of you I'll praise your greatest love”(Internet).
In today's text, Matthew 5:6, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” The fourth happiness that Jesus teaches us is that “they shall be satisfied’. Here, ‘to be satisfied’ means ‘to be content’ in other words. The fourth happiness that Jesus teaches us today is contentment or satisfaction. A study on mental health conducted by Harvard Mental Health found that people are more satisfied with their lives as they get older. So the older you get, the happier you tend to be. In a 2008 telephone answering survey of 340,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 85, researchers asked respondents to rate their life satisfaction with respect to age, interpersonal relationships, health, and income on a scale of 1 to 10. Respondents were also asked about their emotional experiences, such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and worry, the day before the interview. In the study, researchers found that middle-aged people (especially people between the ages of 50 and 53) face a psychological turning point in their lives. In other words, the older people get, the less anger or stress they feel. It has also been shown that by the age of 50, people are less concerned about things and experience increased happiness and joy. Overall life satisfaction declines between the ages of 18 and 50, but starts to increase thereafter. In fact, people between the ages of 82 and 85 were found to be more satisfied with life than those between the ages of 18 and 21. Researchers have not been able to pinpoint why the age of 50 to 53 is a turning point in life satisfaction. But people tend to remember more positive things than negative ones as they get older, such as higher emotional intelligence and a more blunt acceptance of big things. It is speculated that this is because they tend to remember more positive things than negative ones (Internet). What do you think of the results of this survey? Do you also think that the older you get, the more satisfied you are with life and the happier you are?
I personally agree with some of the findings of this study, but also with others I don't. The part that I don't agree with is because I think that life satisfaction may not increase as you get older. And the reason that satisfaction may not increase is because there is greed (possessiveness, etc.). A good example of this is the Israelites who escaped from Egypt and lived in the wilderness for 40 years in order to enter the land of Canaan in the time of Moses in the Old Testament. This is because they often blamed God and Moses. Why did they blame God and Moses so much? Didn't they do it because they were dissatisfied in their hearts? Why were the Israelites dissatisfied? The Bible says in Numbers 11:4 – “The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat?” The reason the Israelites grumbled in the wilderness was dissatisfaction, and the cause of their dissatisfaction was greedy desires. Because they were greedy in the wilderness (Ps.106:14), they often complained to God and Moses. That's it. If we have greed in our hearts, we will never be satisfied. Rather, if we have greed in our hearts, we will live in dissatisfaction, complaining and resentment. As a result, we can never live with feeling happy. Although the older I get, the more I should throw away this greed and have to live my life with contentment and gratitude, in my personal opinion, even among the grown-ups who have grown old, there seem to be people who still live without giving up on this covetousness and greed in their hearts. How unfortunate is this man? A life unsatisfied is indeed a pitiful life.
In today's text, Matthew 5:6, Jesus said that the fourth happiness that Jesus teaches us is, “for they will be satisfied.” What is Jesus saying who will be satisfied with what? To answer this question, we must consider today's text Matthew 5:6, the first half: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness ….” Jesus is saying that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. Here, the important question we need to ask is “What is righteousness?” This word “righteousness” occurs 500 times in the Old Testament and 225 times in the New Testament (Achtemeier). And this word “righteousness” has three broad meanings (Swanson): (1) The first meaning is “righteousness”, “what is right”, “justice”. Look at Matthew 5:10 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (2) The second meaning is, “to put in/be right with someone.” Look at Romans 1:17 – “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith.” (3) The third meaning is to perform a law or ritual required by religion. Look at Matthew 6:1 – “Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” “Righteousness” that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5:6 means “justice” in the first sense.
As we already know, the righteousness that the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus' day, sought was “self-righteousness.” So they kept all the Law of Moses, so they wanted to be saved through their own righteousness, which is the righteousness of this law. This is the greatest characteristic of legalism, self-righteousness. Here, “self-righteousness” refers to an attitude to stand before God by relying on one’s own religious conduct (Internet). In biblical terms, this is “righteousness by the works of the law.” What, then, was the religious conduct they relied on? As in Luke 18:9-14 about the prayers of the Pharisees and tax collectors who went up to the temple to pray, the Pharisees relied on their religious practices by fasting twice a week and giving tithes of their income (v. 12). In addition, according to the words of Matthew 6, the Pharisees practiced their own righteousness before them in order to be seen by them (v. 1), and one of their righteousness was giving alms. In other words, the Pharisees gave alms like a trumpet in the synagogues and streets in order to be glorified by people (v. 2). Never they secretly gave alms to the needy. Not only that, but when they prayed to God, the Pharisees loved to stand in the synagogues and at the entrance to the streets to pray like hypocrites (v. 5). Even when they fasted, they fasted to show people how sad they were like the hypocrites (v. 16). In this way, the Pharisees in Jesus' day thoroughly kept the law and were confident of their own righteousness (Lk. 18:9). And they believed that they could be saved by being justified by God by their own righteousness. This is really stupid. The reason is because we can never be justified by God and be saved by human effort or works. The Bible Romans 3:20 clearly states this: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” Look at Galatians 2:16 – “know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.” What does it mean? A person is never justified by works of the law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. After all, in today's text, Matthew 5:6, the “righteousness” Jesus is talking about is not the “self-righteousness” that the Pharisees believed and sought. “Self-righteousness” obtained by keeping the law (doing good) is by no means the “righteousness” Jesus is talking about. Then, whose righteousness is the “righteousness” Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5:6? It is not our man's righteousness, but "God's righteousness." Look at Romans 3:21-22: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference.” So, what is “the righteousness of God” here? Here, the righteousness of God is the righteousness of God that is revealed in addition to the law, which the Old Testament testifies, and is the righteousness of God based on the redemption of Jesus Christ (Chang-seh Kim). Here, “redemption” means that when Jesus bought a slave, he paid the ransom for the slave. The word “redemption” means 'paid' or 'paid the price'. Therefore, he paid the price with his life for us sinners, forgiving and saving all our sins. Therefore, God justified us who believe in Jesus freely on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ (v. 24). God forgave us all our sins on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ (v. 25) and set us free from our sins (Acts 13:38). Therefore, we have nothing to boast about like the Pharisees (v. 27). The reason is because we have never been justified before God on any grounds we have done. Rather, the reason we have no choice but to boast about the Lord is that the Lord has justified us by imputing us with the righteousness of God.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for this righteousness of God, and the blessing they will enjoy is that they will be satisfied (Mt. 5:6). I am reminded of the hymn “Come, Ye Disconsolate”: (v. 1) “Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish; Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel, Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell you're anguish. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal,” (v. 4) “All who draw nigh and take, here, of Cod's bounty Shall know a spring of Life, still to increase, Water of life shall flow up from within them, Ending all thirsting, and never to cease.” When I think of this hymn, Isaiah 55:1-2 comes to mind: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Will you not respond to this Lord's invitation? The Lord is inviting all you who thirst to come. Even those without money are invited to come. You are invited to come without money and without cost. We must no longer labor for things that are not food. We must no longer labor for the things that do not satisfy us. Jesus said, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life” (Jn. 6:27). To work for the food that endures to eternal life means to believe in Jesus, the Bread of Life. Jesus is saying this: “… I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst” (v. 35). His only begotten Son, Jesus, died on the cross to pay for all our sins. In Jesus, the Son of God, we have already received the forgiveness of sins (redemption) (Col. 1:14). So Jesus is telling you today: “… Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). As we respond to the Lord's invitation with faith, I hope and pray that we will all be satisfied with the Lord Jesus alone, receiving forgiveness of sins through the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 10:43).