Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Have you ever been hungry? No I don't mean, have you ever felt like you needed food because it had been 12 hours since you last ate. Have you ever been hungry? Have you ever had your intestines gnawing on your backbone and trying to fry up your kidneys and boil your liver because you had not had sustenance in a while? Have you ever experienced true hunger where all you can think about is food, you dream food, you can taste food, it becomes one of the soul focuses of your day. I'm not talking about wanting to eat, I am talking about going without and not having enough to satisfy.

This last week, I was sitting in the company truck out on the ramp in front of the airport. I was waiting for a plane to land and taxi in that was going through some operational tests due to engine work that we had done on it. When it landed, I was supposed to go out and get the crew and take them back to the maintenance base, while the airplane (assuming that it passed all the tests) would be loaded with passengers and would fly to Dallas. Its 6am in the morning and foggy. I cant see more than 500-600 feet in front of me. I have my blinkers on and my flashers going, when I see the silhouette of my plane, I will flash my headlamps at them so they see where I am. The last thing I had eaten was a bowl of rice at lunch (1am) and for breakfast, since I was out of eggs, butter, milk, and orange juice, I had a slice of toast (now out of bread) and a bowl of cereal. When I get home from work, I am typically too tired to do much more than clean off the grease and grime in the shower, and then fall asleep as soon as possible in bed. So I had not eaten anything then either. My stomach was no longer silent, or even just grumbling quietly at me, It was yelling and screaming and begging. I could only think about food. The first thing I would do when I got the crew back to the base was to grab some food from the vending machines or so I thought. Nope. I didn't get back to the base until it was time to leave. I grabbed my keys, clocked out, and with my stomach throwing a tantrum (at a volume to which the guys I work with were staring at me) I got into my car and drove. I stopped at a small greasy spoon cafe in my town and ordered myself the four egg cheese omelet special with a side of pancakes. It took them a while to make my order, I had to wait some more with my stomach still pitching it's hissyfit. The food was delicious when it arrived 30 minutes later.

We can hunger after anything. We can hunger after food, we can hunger after power, after love, after money, after cars, after grades, after influence, after popularity, and even after knowledge! I could have gone to the McDonald's just down the street and had myself some greasy fastfood and it would have filled my stomach and quieted down the noise, but it would only last so long. The nutritional value is negligent and that is what I truly needed, not just more stuff in my stomach, but I needed the stuff that my stomach and body need (not just want), Many things will satisfy us for the time being, for a moment, for a second. But there is only one thing that we can hunger after, yearn for, and desire that will completely satisfy us. Righteousness. We not only need to seek after it with every fiber of our being, despite the jeers of our coworkers, despite the derision of society, despite our own wants for instant gratification. We need to seek after it, and we need to wait for it.

I am God the Lord Who saved thee,
And from cruel bondage freed;
Open wide thy mouth of longing;
I will satisfy thy need.

Matthew 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Izaak Walton once wrote “God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart.” Meekness is a hard concept to swallow, an ideal that we would rather not prefer. Meekness as we see it is weakness. We see the mild mannered, bashful, Clark Kent who can barely get up the courage to tell his boss “no” and we much prefer seeing superman who is strong, mighty, proud, yet just and soothing.

We are called to be meek, but what is meekness? Meekness comes from the root meccea (Old Anglo-Saxon) which actually means “companions or an equal” As Adam Clarke says “...because he who is of a meek or gentle spirit, is ever ready to associate with the meanest of those who fear God, feeling himself superior to none; and well knowing that he has nothing of spiritual or temporal good but what he has received from the mere bounty of God, having never deserved any favor from His hand.”

Meekness is a condition of the heart. We who are called by His name are called to be changed and to become more like Him. Thus our heart is to be more like His. We are to be an ever ready companion of all. Thus we must change from our desires of power, of acceptance, of might, of our being right, and of being influential into Christs desire for us to be humble, to help the worst-off, to care for them and to not think of ourselves better than them.

One of my friends alerted me to a quote in the New Yorker. “The people Jesus loved were shopping at the Star Market yesterday. An old lead-colored man standing next to me at the checkout breathed so heavily I had to step back a few steps. Even after his bags were packed he still stood, breathing hard and hawking into his hand. The feeble, the lame, I could hardly look at them: shuffling through the aisles, they smelled of decay, as if the Star Market had declared a day off for the able-bodied, and I had wandered in with the rest of them...” (Marie Howe) We are just like the rest of them, and we are to show them God. Christ came not to the proud and the well kept, He came to the dirty and the poor, the humble. He came meekly. Dorothy Day said “As for ourselves, yes, we must be meek, bear injustice, malice, rash judgment. We must turn the other cheek, give up our cloak, go a second mile.” Even Havel spoke on the topic “The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.”

Meekness is hard but once we have realized our depths of depravity and the poorness of our spirit, once we have wept for our sins and the sins of our friends, what choice do we have but to continue on, learning meekness from the Creator's hand? “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.” (Psalm 25:9 KJV) For Christ needs a meek and willing heart to do His great work in. Our frailty and the ineptitude of our hands bring glory to Him when He accomplishes everything we are unable to do, but He does it through us! “The Saviour reigned in all their hearts, and they successfully copied the pattern of meekness and gentleness, which he had left them.” (John Strachan)

Plant in us Thy humble mind;
Patient, pitiful, and kind,
Meek and lowly let us be,
Full of goodness, full of Thee.

Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

We all have at some point experienced grief. Some of our grief has been fleeting, and some has stuck around. We have been upset over bad grades in school, and we have wept over the loss of a loved one. Christ offers comfort for our grief, whatever it may be. The thing we need to understand is that our grief and our comforting are two-fold. We are grieved over our physical and earthly problems, and we receive material comfort. God will send someone to hug us, or He will provide a respite from the suffering, and we will learn from it.

The secondary, and more important aspect that we see here is about our understanding of our sin. When we understand our spiritual impoverishment, then we will most assuredly be distressed about it. Christ offers comfort. Christ offers the answer for us. He gives us the sanctuary and he gives us salvation.

Comfort, however, is given to us, not only to make us feel better, but also so that we in turn can take what we learned through our ordeal and help and comfort others. We know, because of what we went through, how best to show other people the answer, the reason, the advice so that they can avoid what we went through. We have the answer to the question of “Is there more?” We have the remedy to sin, to selfishness, to the bitterness of transgressions and how it seems that there is no way to atone for it. Dr. Jowett said that God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but rather to make us and comforters.

How can I comfort someone this week? How can I take my experiences and help someone else. How best can I serve the people around me? How best can I get through my own problems? Christ has all the solutions. Let Him show you.

Go tell it to Jesus, He knoweth thy grief;

Go tell it to Jesus, He’ll send thee relief;

Go gather the sunshine He sheds on the way:

He’ll lighten thy burden—Go, weary one, pray.

Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

How often do we realize our insignificance? How frequently do we understand our limitations? We all have struggled with pride and hubris at times. We have all had our good days and our bad days, yet it is in that moment when we relearn anew our reliance on God that things work out. We love to quote Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Yet we often ignore the previous verse where Paul begins “I have learned how to be brought low, and I know how to abound” Paul speaks of having both nothing and everything. He speaks of being exalted and humbled, abased and adored. In all things he was learning to be content, satisfied, and saturated with God in every aspect of his life.

I like the way the New Century Version translates this passage “They are blessed who realize their spiritual poverty for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.”

Christ came to preach to the poor and to heal the broken hearted (Isaiah 61:1). In response to the pharisees' question, Jesus stated that the healthy have no need of a doctor, but those who are sick need him (Mark 2:17) and why should the wedding guests be sad when the groom is present (Matthew 9:15).

When we relearn complete reliance on God, when we are at our worst, He is most significant in our lives. When we find that we have nothing left, He shows us everything we need. Blessed are the poor in spirit, Fortunate are those who have nothing of themselves left to use and must rely completely on God's strength. This is when they, when we shall see the expansion of God's kingdom. The only way to get through the mud and muck and grime of daily life to the green grass, the shade-giving trees, and the wonderful feast awaiting us is to slog through it, to push through it, and when all our strength is gone and we have barely budged an inch, to let God's gentle, calloused, pierced, and strong hand grab ours, and let his stout legs push through the mud while he holds us close and pulls us through. At the end, we might say “We made it” but in actuality God did it, we were just there for the ride.

The poor in spirit have nothing of themselves left, and they realize this. It brings about a complete and utter reliance on God. The results of such is spectacular. Unlearned men, frightened and ashamed from the death of Christ, speak out and preach to multitudes. Even though death follows them one by one, they speak until the speak no more but instead see the face of their master. Men and women who have nothing but God left have changed the world: Dwight Moody, Oswald Chambers, Livingston, Watts, Foxe, Wesley, and the rest.

Chanina, a Rabbi and revered teacher once said “Why are the words of the Law compared to water? Because as waters flow from heights, and settle in low places, so the words of the Law rest only with him who is of an humble heart.”

I would paraphrase this verse “The poor in spirit will be blessed because they will see the coming of God's kingdom.” How is our spirit: receptive, poor, humble? Or are we instead dogmatic, superior, or overbearing?

I need Thee, precious Jesus, for I am very poor;
A stranger and a pilgrim, I have no earthly store.
I need the love of Jesus to cheer me on my way,
To guide my doubting footsteps, to be my strength and stay.