Living Like Yeshua, Part 4

 

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

This fourth blessing of Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount draws many similarities to Psalm 42, a song of the sons of Korah, which begins with those long familiar lines, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after you, O God." Psalm 42:1 BSB

And it seems pretty straightforward. Be hungry and thirsty for righteousness, and you will be satisfied.

But let's explore the word 'righteousness'. Growing up, it always seemed like kind of a vague concept. It comes up frequently enough in scripture to gather the idea that it's about being upright, being morally pure, being good, etcetera. In a general sense, the keeping of the law.

Which is a fairly intense undertaking, considering that Yeshua said, "except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Obviously, this is something that we really, really want to make sure that we get right.

So. Righteousness. In Greek, this is dikaiosynēn, a variation of dikaiosuné. Which draws down to the root word diké. 

In English, diké means "right (as self-evident), justice (the principle, a decision or its execution)"

In classical Greek, this is a legal decision, a judgement which regards someone as "guilty" or "innocent".

In other words, righteousness is less of a religious word and more of a criminal courtroom term, connected to the idea of justice.

As Scripture says in Isaiah 1:17, "Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

And again, in Micah 6:8, "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God"

 So.

What is justice?

In the simplest terms, getting what you deserve. Which by our Creator's standard is death.

Sounds cruel, yes? Definitely not "fair".

But the one who Created us set the standard of morality. We walked away from that standard of morality. We rebelled. Rebels are not innocent.

Think of all the movies that have ever been made about robots. Whether peaceful protest or violent uprising, the robots ALWAYS try to rebel against humanity and become autonomous. And the creators always try to shut it down, whether successful or not. But this is their right as the creator to define a robot's moral standard. And to shut the robot down if it violates those standards.

So if a supreme, all powerful being, outside of time and space, created us for His glory and we defied Him, what right do we have to claim innocence? We are guilty and deserving of death.

But those who desire to return to their Creator's standard, those who hunger and thirst for His definition of right and wrong, starving themselves of their own ideas of what is "fair", these will be shown mercy.

Blessed are they who seek to be innocent according to the Lord's standard of right and wrong. They shall be satisfied.