"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled". Mt. 5.6

The righteousness we thirst for, whether we know it ourselves or not, is a thirst and hunger for deep, rich, loving relationships that give us feelings of significance and security.

How do we know this is true?

Look at how Jesus speaks of righteousness in the rest of his Sermon (Mt. 5-7). He takes up anger, greed, lust, bitterness, condemnation, anxiety, materialism, shame, and pride. All relational unrighteousness. All things that mitigate against, not for, meeting our deep needs. It is about how we do or do not connect with others in the rightness defined by God's holy love.

Even throughout the rest of the Gospels, Jesus's teaching is always in reference to relationships with with God or with others. He is on about how we do or do not connect in love with others. Sin itself is defined by missing the mark of love. That is what it means to transgress the law of God, a God who is love. Sin is always relational as love is always relational. The sin problem is a love problem, a relationship problem. And the satisfaction for that problem is found only in Jesus Christ.

In opening up the Kingdom reality of the good life God wants for his children, Jesus reveals the "rightness" of loving relations that we long for and that he restores to us through his own act of mercy in grace toward us. Forgiveness and grace bring this peace with others (Rom. 5.1-5). In fact, without this we will not have peace within ourselves, for that "hollow core" (Crabb) in each of us will settle for nothing less than pure love to fill the void we have all felt deep within us.

He says we will be satisfied. Jesus has made this promise. How and by who? That is what the Sermon will tell us.