Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled
The fourth of the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3–10
Remember that scene where Jesus gives the parched Ben Hur (played by Charlton Heston) a bowl of cool water?
It is the greatest moment in one of the world's great movies.
Judah Ben Hur had been condemned to row as a slave in a Roman galley until death. He is taken to the port in chains, the journey is long, hot, gruelling.
Dehydrated and exhausted, collapsed on the side of the road, a kind man comes to him with a wooden bowl full of cold clear water. He holds it to Ben Hur’s lips, who gulps it greedily.
The Roman guard is angry and yells at the kind man: “You there! Get away from that slave!” The man turns to look at the guard, and though we don’t see his face the guard obviously does. He is overcome with the majesty of that gaze, turns away in confusion and shame, and allows the prisoner to drink.
The kind man with the bowl of water was Jesus Christ.
Though Ben Hur is fiction it is entirely true that Jesus Christ gave food to the hungry, and water to the thirsty.
He multiplied five small barely loaves and two small fish to feed the five thousand (John 6).
He assured the woman at the well that he can give people a kind of water which means that they will never thirst again:
John 4:14 “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
When we turn from our sin and ask Jesus to save us, he supplies us with all the food we need: his life-giving words which nourish our souls; his crucified body which takes away the punishment of our sin (John 6:53-58).
When we turn from our sin and ask Jesus to be our Saviour he floods us with water which washes away the guilt of our sin. He becomes a fountain of life within us that will carry us safely through our physical death, and will refresh our souls with life and joy for all eternity.
That is why Jesus said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” In other words: the happy ones are those who crave a righteousness that they know they don’t have. Why? Because they’re the ones who will reach out to the Saviour. “They will be satisfied.”
Are you hungry? Thirsty? Reach out to Him today.