The Hunger and The Thirst for Righteousness

In the most famous “sermon” in Christian history, Jesus says;

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).

Most would recognize this as a section from the Beatitudes, or the introduction of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, as we have labeled in our Bibles. I have always been intrigued by the Beatitudes and as a result have spent time contemplating them. It seems to me that this specific verse, about the mysterious “hunger or thirst for righteousness,” says much more than may have originally been thought.

Traditionally, at least in my experience, churches and pastors have taught that Jesus is telling of a promise God makes to us. The promise consists of not cause and effect, but rather of an assuredness in our attitude. The idea is that God is saying “Rest assured in your hunger or thirst for righteousness, because I am promising you that eventually it will come. At some point in time, I will restore creation and all humans by bringing you my righteousness. Your thirst will be quenched at that time; your hunger will then be satisfied.” The underlying tone of this message is to be patient. Be patient in hunger or thirsting, because God will fulfill it at some predetermined time that is unbeknownst to humanity.

This understanding I find lacking. Jesus is not giving a “pie in the sky” promise about some time in the future when our hunger and thirst shall be met by God’s fulfillment. He is talking cause and effect here; he is talking about the hunger creating the fulfillment.

Think about this: If one hungers for cake, or thirsts for soda, they may say things like, “I would do anything for cake right now” or “I want a soda so bad.” Already, this desire has manifested itself in their speech. They have acknowledged the reality of their desire. Soon, if the resources are available, their actions will fall in line with their words and they will ACT in a certain way to attain their goals. If they want cake bad enough, and the ingredients are in the house, they will take time from their day and they will make it. If a soda machine is available, they will take time and money and sacrifice them in the interest of fulfilling that desire for themselves. The truth of reality is that if the hunger or thirst is great enough, it will cause us to CREATE the fulfillment of them.

It might be argued that clearly there are people in the world hungry and thirsty for things that they don’t receive. Indeed, many people are dying of hunger or thirst today because the resources are NOT available to them. From this devastating truth, we can realize more of the meaning from Christ’s words: the resources for achieving righteousness are always available to us. If they were not, Christ would be lying in his statement.

If this is the case then, Jesus is not giving a promise, but rather a prediction. He is making a cause and effect statement that would be as simple as me saying, “If I am hungry enough for bread, and there is bread available, I will make sacrifices and change my actions to satisfy this hunger.” Jesus is saying that if we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, we will change our actions in order to see it fulfilled.

This is akin to Jesus’ strange statement, “ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you. For everyone who asks, receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) Jesus is not promising arbitrary fulfillment of desires. He is promising that if we want something bad enough, we will do what is necessary to get it. Better yet, if what we are hungry or thirsty for is righteousness, we have all the resources we need for fulfillment, within us and around us. Do we hunger and thirst enough?
Are we willing to change our actions in order to create the Kingdom of God?

The TEA Party Express

Being in Ecuador right now, I have not kept up on world events as much as I should have simply because of a lack of resources. I don’t have a television here, I don’t use the Internet that often, and all the periodicals are in Spanish (which I am not fluent in.)

However, I recently had the delightful experience of watching the BBC World News Report. I heard things about the British Airways strike, massacres in the D R Congo by the Lord’s Resistance Army, and of course United States healthcare.

It seems that like any other new reform, people are either thrilled or disgusted. On the BBC, they choose to show some of the disgusted population, attending a rally with keynote speaker Sarah Palin.

This rally was put on by a Republican organization called Tea Party Express. I am sure that the historical connection offered them some rhetorical leverage, but in reality the situation surrounding the Boston Tea Party and this healthcare reform are profoundly different. During the Boston Tea Party, angered citizens were boycotting the tea that had been imported from England. This was a nonviolent way to put economic pressure on the tea trade between England and its colony in the New World. The main concern of the Boston protesters though was one of taxation without representation. Without representatives from the colonies serving in the Parliament of England, they had no say on what they were paying taxes for.

In this present day “Tea Party”, with Sarah Palin leading the charge, the sentiment might be similar. If I am a Republican opposed to this healthcare, it is probably because I feel unrepresented in Congress and therefore that I am paying taxes to something that I not only disagree with, but have no say in. I am not sure this is the case though. It seems that the major idea discussed at this rally was not taxation without representation, but simply too much tax. Republicans might feel under-represented, but that is because they are, and no Republican politician is going to bring that up because they know that it is the nature of Congress right now.

So, if it is boiled down to the bottom of the issue, the problem is not enough representation, it is simply a disagreement of where the taxes should be going. One man at this rally donned a sign that read “Taxed Enough Already.” In addition to enjoying his clever acronym, I agree with him. We are taxed enough already. No citizens want to see taxes go up. If we don’t want to see a raise in taxes though, we must communicate more than that to our government. Representatives already know that voters don’t like raised taxes. What they seem to be ignorant of is what we WANT to pay taxes for.

I don’t know what the man with the “Taxed Enough Already” sign really values other than his own money. He doesn’t want taxes to go up. It is true that we could cut this healthcare reform and decrease government spending in the healthcare area. But we are only directing our focus there because it is the most recent legislation. The Republican Party as a bloc is against raised taxes for healthcare, but sees no issue with funding the military.

So, what if we cut spending in other areas? What if we cut funding for our overseas military excursions? What if we cut back on nuclear arms and military bases? Every time an American soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan pulls the trigger and kills a Muslim, it costs our taxpayers money. We are paying to kill people. We are paying for helicopters, missiles, bombs, grenades, airplanes, tanks and guns. The worst part is, once a bullet is fired, its value has been spent. Once a tank is destroyed, another one must be built. If the tools of warfare do their job, they are rarely reusable. We certainly are taxed enough, and it is invested poorly.

Basically I see a choice. We can say “Taxed Enough Already,” and decide not to accept the addition of taxes, or we can redirect the taxes we are already paying. Can we tell our representatives not only that we want to cut government spending, but also that we want to cut it in specific areas? Can we invest our money in hospital beds, medical equipment and hiring nurses and doctors rather than investing it in bullets, bombs, and soldiers?

Can our taxes be directed towards preserving life rather than ending it?

Thanks, Republicans for showing us the reality of the situation. Taxes are too high. Now together let’s decide where to cut. Healthcare or warfare? Would we still be opposed to healthcare reform if it didn’t cost so much? Because if the answer is ‘no,’ I have a deal. Let’s remove the immense costs of war, and the medical cost won’t seem so daunting.