{"id":98751,"date":"2023-02-19T20:04:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T03:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=98751"},"modified":"2023-03-02T22:23:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T05:23:50","slug":"hungering-and-thirsting-after-righteousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2023\/02\/hungering-and-thirsting-after-righteousness.html","title":{"rendered":"Hungering and Thirsting after Righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
A view across Kinneret (the so-called \u201cSea of Galilee\u201d) from the hill on which, according to tradition, Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. The site has been beautifully landscaped and is well cared for by an order of Roman Catholic nuns.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I should have said something earlier about the physical setting<\/em> of the Matthew\u2019s account of the Sermon on the Mount, about its location<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:\u00a0 And he opened his mouth, and taught them.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 5:1-2)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, readers should rid their minds in this context of anything even remotely resembling the mountains of the American West, let alone the Canadian Rockies or the Swiss Alps.\u00a0 No such mountains exist in the relevant area.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it might be that the Savior simply climbed up a hill for reasons of acoustics, because he wanted his voice to carry to his audience.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019m confident that considerations of sound played a role.\u00a0 But there may also be significance in the fact that Jesus spoke downward from a \u201cmountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

For one thing, we should perhaps be thinking of the temple associations of \u201cthe mountain of the Lord\u201d or \u201cthe mountain of the Lord\u2019s house.\u201d<\/p>\n

For another, there may be an implicit statement here of Jesus\u2019 divinity and of his unique authority.\u00a0 Moses had ascended Mount Sinai to receive the law from the Lord.\u00a0 Centuries later, Jesus ascended a \u201cmountain\u201d and, from it, handed a new \u201claw\u201d down from on high.\u00a0 Functionally, he seems to have assumed the role of the God of Moses\u2014something that will not altogether surprise most Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n

Please notice, in this regard, the several places in Matthew 5 alone where Jesus says something along the lines of \u201cYe have heard that it was said of them of old time . . . But I say unto you\u201d (e.g., at verses 21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44).\u00a0 Jesus doesn\u2019t cite previous authorities.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t make an argument.\u00a0 He simply declares.\u00a0 The final two verses of Matthew 7, at the very conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, are worth recalling here:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:\u00a0 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 7:28-29)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bergpredigtplatz\"<\/a>
The traditional Mount of Beatitudes, as seen from Capernaum on the shore of the \u201cSea of Galilee\u201d
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,\u201d says the King James Version at Matthew 5:6, \u201cfor they shall be filled.\u201d<\/p>\n

This beatitude uses some of the most familiar, the most common, of human experiences\u2014hunger and eating, thirst and drinking, followed by satiety\u2014to make an abstract point.\u00a0 The technique is typical of Jesus\u2019 approach to teaching and is perhaps best represented by his parables.\u00a0 Shepherds, sheep, farmers, lost coins, field laborers, stone carving\u2014these and other everyday features of first-century Palestinian life recur throughout his ministry, all in the service of spiritual and ethical lessons.\u00a0 He could simply have issued declarations about faith, devotion, kindness, and the like.\u00a0 Instead, he clothed what he wanted to say in simple but memorable stories that have figured in stained glass windows and sermons and Sunday school lessons and even clich\u00e9s for two millennia, conveying his message in ways that both attract scholarly commentary and stimulate conversations among rural illiterates in the most remote areas of the globe.<\/p>\n

Mention of \u201chunger and thirst\u201d suggests much more than casual interest.\u00a0 It implies dedication.\u00a0 Devotion.\u00a0 Valiancy.\u00a0 Urgency.\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded of a tale about the great Greek philosopher Socrates that I read or heard many years ago.\u00a0 I can\u2019t recall the source\u2014and, since I\u2019m in the backseat of a car right now, with neither internet nor reference library, I think that I\u2019ll just press on.\u00a0 I\u2019ll find the source later.\u00a0 And it doesn\u2019t really matter much, for my purposes at the moment, whether the story is historically accurate or authentically ancient.<\/p>\n

It seems that Socrates used to spend a fair amount of time in and around Piraeus, which was the seaport of the relatively nearby but landlocked city-state of Athens.\u00a0 Socrates was reputedly quite homely, but he was also unusually strong.\u00a0 He had served as a soldier in one of the Athenian wars.\u00a0 One day, supposedly, a man approached him, asking to become one of his disciples.\u00a0 Socrates responded by inviting the somewhat puzzled man to walk with him out into the surf.\u00a0 Once they had reached an area that was deep enough, Socrates suddenly seized the man and pushed his head under the surface of the water.\u00a0 The man flailed and struggled, but Socrates held him down for a fairly long time.\u00a0 Finally, he released his prisoner; the poor man came to the surface gasping for oxygen.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you are as desperate for wisdom as you were for air,\u201d Socrates told him, \u201cyou will be ready to be my disciple.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I smile to think what the response of a modern collegiate dean of student life might be to Socrates\u2019 reputed teaching method.\u00a0 Fortunately, as both Socrates and the would-be disciple are both long dead, there will probably be no complaint to the university ombudsman and no negative reviews on \u201cRate My Professor.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some sort of urgent hunger and thirst for righteousness is surely required.\u00a0 Believers in the Restoration understand that our eternal goal isn\u2019t simply an unending, pain-free but rather pointless existence in a beautiful garden, or an eternity spent sitting on a fluffy cumulus cloud while plucking a harp.\u00a0 (I once asked a friend who holds a master\u2019s degree in harp performance and who regularly appears on television while pursuing her art whether it doesn\u2019t bother her that musical deadbeats such as I will, if the divine judgment goes our way, instantly become superb harpists at the moment of our deaths.)<\/p>\n

Rather, our destiny, if we follow the covenant path, is to become like our Father, to be deified, to be (in some non-trivial and real sense) Gods.\u00a0 Restored in the nineteenth century, this doctrine of human divinization finds ancient echoes in threads of early Christianity that survive not only in the Christian East but, in some regards, in the Catholic and even Protestant traditions of the West.<\/p>\n

Think of the magnitude of the goal!\u00a0 Obviously, much more is required of us than merely a vague sentiment that it would be nice to be nice someday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.\u201d\u00a0 (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finally (enough for today!), the additional phrase in the Book of Mormon\u2019s equivalent passage to Matthew 5:6 is, I think, very much worth noting:<\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 (3 Nephi 12:6)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I should have said something earlier about the physical setting of the Matthew\u2019s account of the Sermon on the Mount, about its location: \u201cAnd seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:\u00a0 And he opened his mouth, and taught them.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 5:1-2) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":17326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4096,22756,34614,4099,1369,34224,34605,34608,34611,7206,17114,34623,2625,34620,3634,34617],"class_list":["post-98751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beatitude","tag-beatitudes","tag-hunger","tag-hunger-and-thirst","tag-jesus","tag-matthew-5","tag-matthew-51","tag-matthew-52","tag-matthew-56","tag-moses","tag-mount","tag-mount-sinai","tag-new-testament","tag-righteousness","tag-sermon-on-the-mount","tag-thirst"],"yoast_head":"\nHungering and Thirsting after Righteousness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I should have said something earlier about the physical setting of the Matthew\u2019s account of the Sermon on the Mount, about its location:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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