A lot of foods were
off-limits for Jesus’ people as well. Animals
that had both cloven hooves and “chewed the cud” could be eaten, but if an
animal met one qualification but not the other (like the pig), it was verboten. Slaughter had to be performed in a certain
way, and the meat prepared according to precise specifications. Birds that eat meat were off the menu as well. The only fish that could be eaten were the
kinds with scales and fins. Dairy
products had to come from kosher animals and must be prepared and served with
implements that prevent meat and dairy from touching. Neither could they be served on the same table
or eaten at the same time. All fruits
and vegetables are kosher but may not come from fields planted with multiple
kinds of seeds. Also, fruit trees had to
wait three years before they could be harvested. And hybridization was not allowed. Wine also had strict laws for how it was
produced and bottled.[i] For observant Jews, the list of prohibited
foods and beverages is quite long. If I
found myself in that setting, I would get myself in a lot of trouble, because
there is just about nothing that I won’t eat!
Now, I don’t know how
strictly Jesus kept kosher, but I do know that he often got himself in trouble
over food and drink. There was the time
his disciples were picking wheat kernels and crushing it in their fingers, blowing
off the chaff and eating the grain. They
got in trouble because the legalistic Pharisees said they were “milling” on the
Sabbath.[ii] Then there was the time he multiplied loaves
and fish to feed a crowd. Instead of
owning him as master, they just kept trying to make him do what they wanted.[iii] So it’s not surprising that he might be
misunderstood when in the Beatitudes he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
will be filled (Matthew 5:6 NIV).”
What do you suppose Jesus meant by hungering and thirsting after
righteousness?
When Jesus puts the
concept of food and drink together with the idea of righteousness, certainly
his hearers could have thought he was talking about kosher foods. But I think he was talking about being
sustained by more than dills, lox, and bagels.
In fact, Jesus once said that a person “shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the
mouth of God."[iv] When God’s thoughts and word sustain you, you
end up craving more than food. You crave
true righteousness, which has nothing to do with what you put in your
mouth. In Matthew 15:11 (NIV), Jesus
says, “What goes into someone's mouth
does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles
them." Jesus was saying there’s
a bigger picture than simply eating the right things or refusing the wrong
things. It’s how you live and how you
love that honors or dishonors a person.
You see, Jesus hungered
and thirsted after righteousness. He
gained nourishment from doing the right thing.
Even when it seemed like it was religiously the wrong thing. When he broke all social conventions and
skipped lunch with the disreputable Samaritan woman at the well, his disciples encouraged
him to eat something. “But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat
that you do not know about.’ So the
disciples were saying to one another, ‘No one brought Him anything to eat, did
he?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to
do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work (John 4:32-34 NIV).’” Jesus was hungering and thirsting after
righteousness. He gained more
nourishment from doing the right thing (even when it looked disreputable) than
if he’d sat down to a feast.
Jewish
dietary laws governed not just what you ate, but where and with whom you ate. Ritual defilement was like cooties—you could
get it just by proximity with another person who was religiously
tarnished. So when Jesus was criticized
for partying with the wrong sort of people, he said, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a
glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is
proved right by her deeds (Matthew 11:19 NIV).” Just as Jesus was willing to set aside the
Sabbath laws for the sake of compassionate healing, he was also willing to
overlook dietary laws for the sake of compassionate fellowship. For Jesus, hungering and thirsting after
righteousness meant more than a desire to keep purity laws. It meant doing the right thing, even if it
looked like the wrong thing to all the “right” people.
When
I say the word “righteous,” you might think of a Californian surfer, riding righteous waves. Or, you may add to the word, hearing instead
the phrase “self-righteous.”
Unfortunately, that’s what most often comes to mind. When Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” he had
in mind the opposite of self-righteousness.
Jesus was saying, “Blessed are those who fill up on doing what’s really
right, for the sake of God’s love. Even
if you get criticized, and even if you go without because of it, you’ll still
be filled. Because you’ll have food
that nobody knows about.”
[i] http://www.koshercertification.org.uk/whatdoe.html
[ii]
Mark 2:23-27
[iii]
John 6:1-15; 26
[iv]
Matthew 4:5 NIV
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