Matthew 5:6 - Hunger & Thirst, Part 3
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
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How does God satisfy this hunger?
This last of the three parts of Matthew 5:6 is inexhaustibly rich.
Within it, there’s a series of cumulative movements.
The first is that God satisfies us by giving us Himself.
Upon this foundation, it’s not as if God gives us righteousness as an object, but rather He gives us Himself.
For example, Psalm 16:11 -
“You have made known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy.”
And Psalm 63:1 -
“My soul thirsts for you.”
Notice that the object is God.
Holiness is satisfying because it is participation in God’s own life.
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Secondly, Christ becomes our food.
This is where Matthew flows naturally into John 6.
“hunger…for righteousness.”
John 6:35 -
“I am the Bread of Life.”
Jesus becomes bread.
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Thirdly, satisfaction becomes communion.
Normally, we eat food, and the food becomes us.
The Eucharist reverses this.
We receive Christ, we become like Him.
as“Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” - John 6:35
“You are what you eat” as the saying goes.
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While every earthly meal removes hunger, communing with the divine increases it.
In the 4th century, St. Gregory of Nyssa described this idea of epektasis, an eternal, unending straining forward of the soul toward God.
Based on Philippians 3:13, it describes heaven and spiritual growth as an unending journey of growing closer to (and becoming more like) God.
Since God is infinite, the soul can never exhaust its communion with Him.
That is to say, heaven isn’t static satisfaction.
It’s endless discovery.
Like a “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
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The pattern of this satisfaction is cruciform.
Jesus’s thirst on the Cross precedes our satisfaction in Him, for it was purchased by His deprivation and the shedding of His blood.
He experienced abandonment so we could experience communion.
His hunger becomes our feast.
And so, across the narrative arc of salvation history, we have three meals.
In Eden, Adam and Eve reach for forbidden fruit as their appetite became disordered.
The Fall began with eating.
In the Upper Room, Christ gives Himself as food, and the appetite begins to be healed.
The New Creation begins with eating.
With the Wedding Feast in Revelation, history itself ends around the marriage supper of the Lamb.
His story - our story - begins in a garden…
moves through wilderness manna…
culminates in the Eucharist…
and ends at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb,
where in another garden “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” - Rev 22:2
Onward and Upward,
Ted
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