“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) Jesus teaches the fourth blessing to his disciples. In the 3rd Nephi version Jesus adds a few words:
“Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.”
This Beatitude seems to be pretty clear in its intent. But to understand its message to us we need to understand what the Savior means by “hunger and thirst” and “righteousness”. There are a number of scriptures Jesus was aware of, in fact most Jews were aware of at the time.
“O God, You are my God earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for you; my body yearns for you in a dry and weary land without water.” (Psalms 63:1)
“For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” (Psalms 107:9)
“He who pursues righteousness and loving devotion finds life, righteousness, and honor.” (Proverbs 21:21)
“Come all of you who thirst, come to the water; and you without money come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why spend money on that which is not bread, and you labor on that which does not satisfy: Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)
Christ teaches these same concepts when He is quoted by John:
“But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
In The Confessions, St. Augustine writes, “Thou has made us for thyself, and our heart is restless until it rest in thee.” There is an emptiness in our soul that beckons to us to fill. It is an emptiness that exist in our spirits because of our separation from God. This emptiness prompts us to seek the Lord or substitute God, constantly acting out in ways sometimes that are destructive. The Lord placed this void in our hearts so that we would seek Him and have him fill the void with His love, but most of humanity seeks to fill that void with worldly pursuits; seeking for money, fame, drugs, alcohol, sex, power, entertainment, sports, shopping. These pursuits bring a momentary relief, but the feeling of satiation is only temporary and a mere wisp compared to God’s love. As one author put it, “People seek for cheap and easy ways to get back to the garden of Eden.” (M.Scott Peck, Further Along the Road Less Traveled). None of those pursuits will satisfactorily fill the emptiness we have because of our separation from God. C.S. Lewis said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.ā
What then will fill this void? What does it mean to hunger and thirst? When you are hungry or thirsty the only thing you can think about is something that will satisfying that urge. When you hunger or thirst after righteousness, it becomes the focus of your life. Perhaps instead of seeking for entertainment to relax you might be more disposed to study, read scriptures, or pray.
What does it mean to seek righteousness? Whose righteousness? It seems there are two types of righteousness; there is God’s righteousness and there is man’s righteousness. There are the authorities in churches, modern Pharisees if you will, who have very clear rules regarding what righteousness is. But their righteousness is based on outward ordinances and works that display their holiness. Men tend to make rules in order to exercise dominion and to be able to display their righteousness. They judge others by their perceived observance of how well others keep the commandments. The problem is it is easier to pretend righteousness by outward actions and ordinances then it is to govern the state of ones mind. That is why the Pharisee’s had so many rules. They could measure their own righteousness against those who could not perfectly keep the maze of rules they had created, otherwise they had no way to stratify their concept of levels of status. They created their elaborate codex of laws because they couldn’t judge the state of a man’s heart. That is why Christ practically cursed the 99 sheep who considered themselves righteous (Luke 15: 2-7). He left them because they could not be saved, to search for one who separated himself from the “righteous” flock.
So, who does the Lord consider to be righteousness? McConkie in Mormon Doctrine gives this definition of righteousness: “…righteousness is the quality and type of living that results from obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.” He is partly correct. His emphasis is on appearances. If a man and woman obtain a temple recommend and attend the temple they are considered righteous. In human terms, the only way to measure righteousness is by the outward evidences. And so people tend base their behavior on what others can observe them doing. It is easier to look at a person and judge them by how wealthy they are, how big a house they have, how knowledgeable, how persuasive, how successful they are and the position they hold in the community or church, whether they pay tithing and obtain a temple recommend. Usually the logic extends also to this: successful people tend to be blessed by the Lord because they are doing something right. He wants His people to succeed and they are rewarded for their obedience. But in reality, the Lord judges a man’s heart, not by outward appearances (1 Sam. 16:7). Man judges by outward appearances.
“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.” (Psalms 15)
In the first four beatitudes we discover the attributes that righteous seekers of light will be required to obtain in order to become servants of the Lord. These beatitudes constitute the preliminary states of the righteous seeker. Christ teaches His disciples using sacred symbolism and mystical (mystery) terminology. He teaches this way for the same reason that he teaches in parables. If you are an honest seeker of truth and the focus of your life is to come to Christ and follow Him, then you will begin to understand the sacred metaphors. The beatitudes are the road map to entering the kingdom of God and the first four chart the way through repentance and the sincere seeking of light and truth. The last four beatitudes will ramp up to a greater level of sacrifice required. The last four beatitudes bespeak of activities that involve interaction with others. This fourth beatitude is nothing more than receiving the baptism of fire; having your soul burned and refined from the inside out. This step is absolutely required for the next four steps.