During the past few weeks at Voice Fellowship, David Ramer has been going through the Sermon on the Mount. This past week, we studied the concept of spiritual hunger and thirsting after righteousness and mercy. Every week at the House of Prayer, we have a meditation team where we take the verse from Sunday and study it for an hour and see what we get out of it. Here are my thoughts:
Matthew 5:6-7 (NLT) says, “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” The Message puts it like this: “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.” Young’s Literal says, “Happy those hungering and thirsting for righteousness — because they shall be filled. Happy the kind — because they shall find kindness.”
Our body needs food to fuel our functions. The food it takes in is broken down into nutrients that are necessary for the body to gain the energy needed to breathe, to circulate blood, to move, see, smell, or sing. So when there is a lack of fuel, our body begins to crave the fuel. It knows it is running out of energy and so it says, hey, I need food! That’s hunger. It’s the same with thirst. Our bodies are pretty marvelous. They can actually go longer without food than they can without water. Water is essential to life. When we get dehydrated for an extended period of time, our bodies start to shut down. So, Jesus uses this example of how we crave food when we are hungry, or the way we desperately thirst for water is how we need to be when we are seeking righteousness or justice. Greek : dikaiosýnē (dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay) — the approval of God — refers to what is deemed right by the Lord or what is approved in His eyes. Essentially, what we are seeking is Christ-likeness. To be like Christ is to do that which is approved in His eyes. Strong’s says that Christ is called δικαιοσύνη, as being the one without whom there is no righteousness, as the author of righteousness — 1 Cor. 1:30. There is no righteousness without Christ, thus when we crave righteousness as if we are starving and parched, Jesus says we will be satisfied. We will be filled. The funny thing is that the word for this in the Greek literally means to be filled or fattened like cattle. To be gorged. It reminds me of how God says if we give will be given back – in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38). And in Malachi 3:10 it states that the blessings of God will pour out so much that we will not be possibly able to contain them! Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” So this quest for seeking His righteousness – seeking to be like him and to do those things that He approves will not return void. It yields such a reward! Satisfaction. Fullness. That’s blessing right there!
I posted this earlier, but it bears repeating. “To be merciful consistently is often very difficult. We are called to be tender toward those who mistreat us and complain against us, who annoy us, who are different, who are less committed to God than we are, who make mistakes, who stumble in scandalous sins, and especially those who suffer and are in great need due to poverty, sickness, oppression, persecution or other trials. We are to help people in these areas to feel accepted and valued by God and His people. We must remember that all of the people we show mercy toward are Gods inheritance (Eph 1:17).”
What’s mercy? Mercy starts with compassion. Mercy is acting by the moving of the heart with pity or compassion. I love how Strong’s puts it: eleḗmōn – merciful, acting consistently with the revelation of God’s covenant. Isn’t that awesome? When I am merciful, I am consistently acting with the revelation of God’s covenant! It is also defined as active compassion. To be merciful does not mean you feel bad about something, or have pity toward someone but don’t do anything about it, but that you are demonstrating active compassion toward them! Jesus’ illustration of the good Samaritan immediately comes to my mind. This man saw a need, compassion filled his heart, and immediately he stopped, took action, and helped a man in need. That is a clear demonstration of being merciful. Strong’s also defines mercy as “kindness or good will toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them.” Coupled with our desire to become righteous, acting in mercy toward others helps us understanding the mercy given to us by Jesus Christ at the Cross. We were miserable and afflicted by sin, and Christ was the only one who could relieve that. He offered His active compassion by sacrificing His life and paying for our sin. This act should continually remind us that because we have been extended such great mercy, we should also extend active compassion to others. And that is what Dave Ramer was saying on Sunday. It is not always easy. We get mistreated, annoyed, or see people’s hypocritical behavior. We feel used or walked on. We see people in sin or dealing with poverty or sickness. So how does mercy come into play. Some of these things are not things we are even able to really do anything about. But extending a hand or mercy does not mean we make everything alright. What it means is that we stand and pray in a hospital room when someone is dying. We give an arm of compassion and love toward the family of someone who just passed away. We bring a meal to a home of a single mother and her children. We give encouragement to someone struggling in a certain sin when they want to talk to use. We listen and don’t condemn. Isn’t that acting consistently with revelation of God’s covenant? I say that it is, because it is how Jesus lived.
These verses are so powerful because they touch on two very significant areas in Christian living and both of them have to do with Christ-likeness. Seeking righteousness with everything we have and demonstrating the righteousness of God in us to others by doing what He did for us. And the reward for us when we give mercy? We shall be given mercy. We shall be shown kindness. When we care for others, we will be cared for. It’s all reciprocal! When we bless, we are blessed.