If
you look up the word righteousness in your dictionary it will in all
likelihood say “to be right.” My college
English professor, Mrs. Bemarkt, would say, “You don’t define a word by using
the same word.” I agree, righteousness
means to be on the level to be morally and legally just. God loves righteousness, moral and legal
justice. In the Beattitudes in Matthew
5:6 we are told, “Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after
righteousness.”
In
the Antarctic summer of 1908-9, Sir Ernest Shackleton and three companions
attempted to travel to the South Pole from their winter quarters. They set off
with four ponies to help carry the load. Weeks later, their ponies dead,
rations all but exhausted, they turned back toward their base, their goal not
accomplished.
Altogether,
they trekked 127 days. On the return journey, as Shackleton records in The
Heart of the Antarctic, the time was spent talking about food—elaborate
feasts, gourmet delights, sumptuous menus. As they staggered along, suffering
from dysentery, not knowing whether they would survive, every waking hour was
occupied with thoughts of eating.
Jesus,
who also knew the ravages of food deprivation, said, “Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS.” We can understand Shackleton’s
obsession with food, which offers a glimpse of the passion Jesus intends for
our quest for righteousness.
✞ Love what God loves and hungers and thirsts after: righteousness.
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