A SERIES OF DEVOTIONS BASED ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW     

HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS   

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

As God’s Law does its work in your heart, it drives you to recognize you are the “poor miserable sinner” you confess yourself to be. Simply looking into the mirror of God’s Law condemns you as unworthy of anything good. You deserve punishment for your repeated disobedience of your almighty Father. 

This recognition of your sins and the terrible consequence of eternal separation from God and condemnation to hell leaves you as spiritually parched as a person aimlessly wandering in a desert with no water in sight. As the last beatitude said, in your sinfulness you are helpless and destitute.   

With today’s beatitude, Jesus speaks to you in your hunger and thirsting for forgiveness. Do not despair! There is an answer for your needed spiritual sustenance and hydration. The gospel offers the promise that on the last day you will be satisfied. You hunger for righteousness and holiness will be fulfilled.   

God sent Jesus into the world to earn for you pardon of your sins so that you receive peace with God and the sure and certain hope of everlasting life. “You will,” as today’s devotional verse says, “be filled.” In the faith the Holy Spirit has worked in your heart you already have in this present world “the blessing of righteousness and the promise of God’s future, complete and final saving deeds of righteousness.” (Gibbs Commentary on Matthew’s Gospel)   Gibbs wrote, “The two pairs of Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-4 and Matthew 5:5-6) include a strong emphasis on your inability, need, and powerlessness. Jesus’ blessing is for “the poor in spirit,” those who “are mourning” over their own sin and the evil they suffer, “the lowly” who “are hungering and thirsting” for God to act.” (Gibbs, Matthew Commentary) Through these Beatitudes you receive God’s blessings through Jesus even now but on the last day you will receive “all things.” 

Prayer: As I hunger and thirst for righteousness, Dear Father, grant me by the power of Your Spirit through the Means of Grace (Word and the Sacraments) the assurance my sins are forgiven by your gracious gift to me of faith in Your Son. In His holy name. Amen. 

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness   
My beauty are, my glorious dress;  
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,  
With joy shall I lift up my head. 

Bold shall I stand in that great day,  
Cleansed and redeemed, no debt to pay;  
Fully absolved through these I am  
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. 

Lord, I believe thy precious blood,   
Which at the mercy seat of God  
Pleads for the captives’ liberty,  
Was also shed in love for me. 

Lord, I believe, were sinners more  
Than sands upon the ocean shore,  
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,   
For all a full atonement made.  

When from the dust of death I rise  
To claim my mansion in the skies,  
This then shall be my only plea;  
Jesus hath lived and died for me. 

Jesus, be endless praise to Thee,  
Whose boundless mercy hath for me,  
For me, and all Thy hands have made,  
An everlasting ransom paid.  (LSB 563)