“Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, for They Shall Be Satisfied” — Matthew 5:6
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Remember that film 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.
Jesus gave food to the hungry and water to the thirsty.
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, and grueling.
Dehydrated and exhausted, he collapses on the side of the road, and then 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:
“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
Jesus supplies all who call on him for salvation with the spiritual food and drink that will satisfy them for eternity.
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 that nourish our souls and his crucified body that takes away the punishment of our sin (John 6:53-58).
When we turn from our sin and ask Jesus to be our Savior, he floods us with water that 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 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 Savior. “They will be satisfied.” Are you hungry? Thirsty? Reach out to Jesus today.
This article is adapted from “Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, for They Shall Be Filled” at campbellmarkham.substack.com.
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Campbell Markham is pastor of Scots’ Presbyterian Church in Fremantle, Western Australia. He is married to Amanda-Sue and they have four adult children. Campbell holds an M.Div. from Christ College in Sydney and a Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia. His dissertation centered on a translation and theological analysis of the letters of Marie Durand (1711–1776), a French Protestant woman imprisoned for her faith for thirty-eight years. Besides his passion for languages and church history, Campbell enjoys playing the piano and daily swims in the Indian Ocean. You can read more of Campbell’s content at campbellmarkham.substack.com.
