I love to eat.  It is a rare type of food that I will not eat.  I especially like bread.   I love to get the buttered rolls at Texas Roadhouse or the cheddar biscuits at Red Lobster or the huge biscuit covered in gravy at Lexie’s here in Eagle River.   Throughout history, bread has been a staple of life and Jesus uses it as a metaphor for the life he offers to believers.  The theme this week is Jesus’ I AM statement from John 6:48 ‘I am the bread of life.”  Jesus is the bread without end, the ultimate source of life and today’s verse helps us unpack that a little more.    

One day, Jesus sat down on a mountain and taught his disciples.  This teaching became known as the Sermon on the Mount and today’s verse comes from that famous teaching.   Jesus teaches that people who thirst, who crave, who pursue righteousness will be filled.   What does this mean exactly?  Many people take righteousness to be moral purity.   This is partially correct, but the word as used here actually means much more.   

Barry Jones in his book, Dwell, explains that a more accurate way to translate the word righteousness in this verse is “set-right-ness.”  Our world is broken.    Natural disasters, war, depression, sorrow, death all abound in the world today.   All humans deep in their heart realize the world is not as it should be and long for a solution.   Some look to humans for solutions while others despair and seek comfort in distractions.  All these ways fail to satisfy.  

The truth is that only God can fix the world.   God does indeed have a plan to fix the world and that plan is Jesus.  Jesus came into the world and died for our sins and fixed our relationship with God, but that is only the beginning.   Jesus brings healing and restoration to the world and one day will completely ‘set right’ the world.  If we as people hunger for this righteousness, this ‘set-right-ness,’ and look to Jesus as the bread that satisfies that hunger, we will be blessed.