Hunger and thirst for righteousness
From a book by Kenneth E. Bailey
Kenneth E. Bailey was an author, professor of theology, and linguist. He spent 40 years teaching in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus. He had a degree in Arabic and literature, systematic theology.
In his book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, he writes about hunger and thirst:
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5v6 NIV
To talk about those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness" is to use words rooted in physical needs to describe spiritual realities. The vast majority in the developed world have more than enough food and water to satisfy their bodies. Among the poor, hunger sadly remains and food security is an even greater problem.
But across the developed world, serious sustained thirst is almost non-existent. This has been true for so long that complacency has set in, and both of these precious gifts of God are wasted. By contrast, many in Jesus' world would have personally known both unrelenting hunger and life-threatening thirst.
Once in my life I nearly died of thirst. While living in the south of Egypt, a group of friends and I travelled deep into the Sahara Desert by camel. As our trek began, the temperature soared to above 110F (43C) in the shade, and there was no shade. On our way, one goat-skin water bag leaked all of its precious contents.
With consumption high due to the heat, we ran out of water, and for a day and a half we pressed on while enduring intense thirst….
As I staggered on, my mind turned to this verse and I knew that I had never sought righteousness with the same single-minded passion that I now gave to the quest for water.
Yes, we managed to stagger to the well, and it was full of "the wine of God," as water is named by desert tribesmen in the Middle East. In the process I learned something of the power of Jesus' language. In a world where water was scarce and travel arduous, his listeners would have known what it meant to "hunger and thirst" after food and water, and thus could understand what Jesus was saying about an all-consuming passion for righteousness.
But Jesus does not say, "Blessed are those who live righteously and maintain a righteous lifestyle." Rather he affirms, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness." The statement presupposes that righteousness is something the faithful continuously strive after.
Scripture often uses the same imagery:
Psalm 42:1-2: “As the deer pants for streams of water…”
Isaiah 55:1-2 invites the thirsty to come without cost.
Psalm 107:9: “For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”
To hunger and thirst after righteousness means to have a deep, spiritual longing for a right relationship with God and others, seeking justice, love, and moral integrity in all aspects of life. Our English term “righteousness” comes from the Hebrew word tzedakah and the Greek word dikaiosune. Both terms carry weighty ideas like justice, generosity, and honesty, which all describe ways of right relating with others and with God.
For non-believers, this is not about self-righteousness like that of the Pharisees - thinking that by their actions they are gaining righteousness and doing right in the eyes of God. Jesus is presenting to the crowd that He is that true Righteousness; He is the One they have been hungering and thirsting after, and the only One who can fill that emptiness inside them. He is saying He is the good news, the gospel. The gospel has come, and it has come in Him. He is presenting Himself as the means to satisfaction.
Think about the Woman at the Well, "Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’" John 4:13-14 NIV.
Jesus Christ is the only one who can satisfy. God’s favour could only be met in Christ’s righteousness. Only by hungering and thirsting after Christ can that void, that emptiness, be filled.
For believers, it is easy for us to see that we are filled and satisfied when we accept the free gift of salvation, but too often that is where hungering and thirsting stops. Do we as believers continue to hunger and thirst after righteousness - a deep, spiritual longing for a right relationship with God and others, seeking justice, love, and moral integrity in all aspects of life?
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From a book by Kenneth E. Bailey, 28/04/2026