GodSprings - 03, March, 2017

What Do I Hunger And Thirst For?

Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

It is an unwritten law in our house that you are not to waste your food. Our daughter is choosy about food. She doesn’t eat everything. One of her favourites is green peas. One night we had vegetable stew curry and chapatti. My wife, Saumya put in about 20 to 30 peas in her plate. We finished our dinner and when we looked at our daughter Nanma’s plate she was left with about 6-8 peas. Seeing us keep the plates she too said she was done. Saumya insisted she had to finish. We usually play games checking her stomach to see if she is full. This time she put our hands on her stomach and said, Vayar naranju (stomach is full). She is fond of Kulfi and I asked if she wants Kulfi. She responded affirmatively. To which I said how can she eat when her stomach is full. In her ignorance she said appa ivide aannu thottathu. Ee sideil sthalam undu (Father you touched this side of the stomach but this side still has some space in it to be filled with Kulfi). The saying is true what we eat reveals what we hunger for.

This beatitude speaks of a very strong desire. Food and water are basic necessities. But Jesus says, so is righteousness. Our physical life depends upon food and water. Our spiritual life depends upon righteousness.

Our society and we chase all the wrong things. We chase money, materialism, fame, popularity, pleasure. And we chase all these things because of greed and not need. The world says money, pleasure and having material things is happiness. But Jesus says brokenness, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting after righteousness.

The original Greek words used for hunger and thirst is more powerful than we understand today. The force with which Christ says that we have to hunger and thirst is much more than what we today understand in our culture. For us being thirsty is when we have gone out and run around a little. We never know what it is to be in the midst of drought where we have no water for days and months. For us being hungry is that if our usual time to have lunch is 12.30 and if for a day, we had to wait till 1.30 then we are hungry. What Christ is telling us is about desperation. It has the idea of deep hunger and genuine thirst.

Jesus shows this beautifully in the parable of The lost son (Luke 15). The lost son hungered. But what did he hunger for? He took the inheritance his father had given him, left home, and went to a far-off country where he squandered his inheritance money on riotous living, on things that would not satisfy. He was far too easily pleased and fooled into thinking that this was what life was all about, only to fall short. When he had a lot of money, he had a lot of friends and parties. But when the money was gone, so were his friends. At this point in time, he begins to “go downhill” in a major way, to the point of living with pigs and eating the slop they ate. When the lost son was hungry he went to feed upon the food of the pigs but when he was starving he turned to his father.

This lent can we have a greater appetite for the Word of God? This lent can our hunger and thirst be unconditional?