Hunger and Satisfied

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

HUNGER AND SATISFIED

Luke 6:20-22

20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

NIV

Having looked at the poor we now turn our attention to the hungry. Once again Matthews’s record of these words include righteousness. That is those who hunger after righteousness will be filled. Luke leaves what it is we should hunger for to our imaginations except Jesus was in fact speaking about himself. The crowds were hungry for his words, his healing, his power, as they followed after him with such veracity. A person who is at the brink of starvation will hunt down food with that same mindset. These people had been spiritually at the brink of starvation under the authoritative administration of the law by the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the teachers of the law, so when Jesus came along with his love, compassionate healing and his power and authority with which he spoke, they were being spiritually satisfied, filled. Some of us today could be in the same situation which those people were. We could be in church, but yet starving to death spiritually, remaining in hunger for what Jesus has for us, love, compassionate healing and power, not to mention his righteousness. If we hunger for Jesus, we will find all of him. But if we hunger after the things of the world we will remain at the brink of starvation. If we feed on the world, we might be fat, but we will still be starving. We need to hunger after Jesus and if we do that we will never go hungry, for we will be satisfied.