The prolific writer Kurt Vonnegut once said that “for some reason the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But often, with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.” The Beatitudes, like so much of Jesus’ teachings, are powerful and countercultural and demanding and complicated. They are something we wrestle with and pray for our entire lives. The blessings described in them are not something we can achieve with our efforts or check off on a to-do list. Maybe that is why this particular Beatitude this week is so important: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6).
It is the hunger and the desire and the empty spaces within us that Jesus blesses; not the attainment of anything. None of us have arrived. We are all on a journey, and all that God asks of us is to seek Him and know that we need Him. This week, let’s think together about what it looks like to hunger for what can truly fill us and so be truly blessed.