I love cheese guy movies. Any movie where there are guns, cars, over the top action sequences, and one-liners are instant classics in my book. For years, Pastor Caleb and I have had a unique bond over “2 Fast 2 Furious.” Now, I have not seen this movie in years, so I would venture to say this would have scenes that are not the most edifying thing for believers to partake in; however, there is one line that we both love. In the movie, Roman Pearce (played by Tyrese Gibson) and his partner Brian O’ Conner (played by the late Paul Walker) are undercover agents of the FBI disguised as street racers. When Roman and Brian finally are in the bad guys’ good graces, Roman says one of my favorite lines in the movie, “Like I said, we hungry”

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). Right out of the shoot, I have always been curious about the number of people who gathered around Jesus this day. I would venture to say many of them were not rich or had immense access to food or proper drink. When we, as Americans, hear hungry we think it is time to go to the pantry and grab a snack. Jesus here is not saying to get a snack. He is saying, blessed are those who hunger for something specific. We have all opened our refrigerators and starred waiting for the proper appetite to kick in, but here Jesus tells us what we should be hungry for, righteousness.

Righteousness is not something a person being led by sin is hungry for. Righteousness is something for which every Christ-honoring Christian should hunger. In order for us to even obtain the nourishment that comes from righteousness, we have to know where to get it. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We have to understand that righteousness is not something we can just open our pantry and eat, righteousness only comes from one thing, the work of Jesus Christ. For us to be hungry for righteousness, that means that we are hungry to see God’s work transforming people from the inside out. For us to be hungry for righteousness that means we are nourished by living a life that brings the utmost amount of honor, glory, and praise to our Father in Heaven. Any of these cannot be done because we wish to will them into existence. Righteousness only comes from a humble submission to live by the Spirit of God, which brings us closer to Christ.

This should be the goal of the church. We should want to echo the sentiments of Roman Pearce, “We hungry.”

I have gotten to the point where every time I see red letters in the Bible, I instantly know the difficulty of truly understanding and applying it to my life. The difficulty is not necessarily found in my willingness or even in my understanding of what is needed to apply His words to my life. The difficulty is found in the truth that I am a sinful man. The first three beatitudes are so difficult for a person to hear. We hear that Jesus calls us to blessings in spiritual poverty, mourning, and now meekness. These are attributes that can only be found when we as sinful people come to know Jesus as Savior and choose to be ruled by the Holy Spirit, not the flesh.

When Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5 ), we have to see the almost oxymoronically charged statement Jesus left for humanity to know. Meek is not necessarily the first word that one might use to describe a group who will inherit the Earth. As with most things Jesus says, when we understand what He is actually meaning, all things fall into place.

Meek is a very fun word in which to do a word study. I feel the best definition I found was “one’s willingness to submit and work under proper authority.” When one is meek, one is exceedingly willing to disregard one’s own rights and privileges of their life to be subject to another. Meekness is a whiling submission, with a gentle attitude about it.

With that definition understood, the fastest question I feel enters my mind is, “How in the world does a gentle person inherit the world?” The world is in a constant state of chaos, rebellion, and idolatry. The world is a place where “dog eats dog” is common practice, and commonly accepted. The world is a place where it is better to have the attributes of a hungry wolf than a meek sheep. Yet Jesus says, it is the meek who shall inherit. To pull everything together I think we cannot overlook the word inherit. If we are meek, we understand we submit to the authority that is found in God. Because of our Spirit-led meekness to Jesus as our authority, we receive our inheritance from Him, who is the true ruler of this Earth.

Recently my two sons have taken up playing with blocks, more specifically making giant robots with their “Mega Blocks.” So naturally, I was recruited as the head architect for most of these builds. The one area I have put the most emphasis on teaching them is ensuring that all the blocks are fitting together, and ensuring each section of blocks helps the whole structure’s sturdiness. Ensuring that each block helps lock another block into place allows one to make a pretty sturdy robot.

Understanding the Bible is a lot like understanding how to build giant robots, each block gets its strength from the blocks with which it is connected. The same can be seen in the Sermon on the Mount, and specifically for us, within the Beatitudes. Jesus’ first statement was, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Hopefully, last week’s lesson was a blessing for you, but the overall focal point on Jesus’ statement there was that those who are poor in spirit, or spiritually bankrupt, will receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus’ revolutionary teaching to a group that God’s kingdom is there for those who are void of religiosity was mind-boggling. It was a major reinforcement that our works are not the thing that gets us to Heaven.

This brings us to Jesus’ second statement, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). I am all for the ability to pull this verse out and discuss the truth found that God brings comfort to those who are mourning a tragedy in their life, but I feel Jesus is linking these two ideas more than them just remaining separate truths. In the Beatitude before this one, Jesus discussed the idea of being spiritually poor, this is a life that is ruled by sin. When Jesus says those who mourn will be comforted, He is teaching more than just comfort from tragic events. In the original language, the Greek word used for mourn (pentheo)is closely linked to a deep degree of mourning over our sinful nature. “Pentheo” can be used in the same aspect as a lament. It is no coincidence that we have an entire book of the Bible called Lamentations. Jesus here is telling us that those who have great grief over their fallen state before God will be comforted.

We should come to a point where we see our sin and we lament over it. There is a point in our lives when we should see the toxic nature of our disobedience towards our Creator and mourn over the effects and damage that has been caused. However, Jesus does not want to leave us in a place of lamenting over the ungodly aspects of our life, Jesus wants to bring us to a place of being comforted by Him. Paul, a man who was the reason for Christians being murdered, wrote, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Our mourning over our sin should lead us to a place of repentance which then leads us to the One who comforts us.