Blessed are Those Who Hunger and Thirst After Righteousness

Righteousness is one of the key ideas in the Sermon on the Mount:  Matthew 5:10 – "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness." Matthew 5:20 – "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven."  (Followed by a string of teachings about righteousness, specifically having to do with commandments regarding murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, revenge, and loving enemies.) Matthew 6:1 – "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. Matthew 6:33 – "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Righteousness is a matter of the heart.  Righteousness is not just about behaving the right way. Righteousness is also about wanting to live the right way. Righteousness is having every fiber of our being tuned to the right ways of God. Perhaps the best way of defining righteousness is: to be like Jesus himself. At some point, we realize that this righteousness is unattainable on our own strength, on our own merit, on our own determination.  We come to Jesus – poor in spirit, mourning over our sins, recognizing our need to submit with meekness to Christ as Lord of our life.   We come, hungering and thirsting for a righteousness that we could never produce in and through ourselves.