HOW IS YOUR APPETITE?
Matthew 5:6

There are a lot of powerful words in the English language, words which convey significance, authority, purpose.  We immediately focus on words such as status, affluence, importance, preeminence.  To these we could add such words as money, position, power.  But there is a word which rightfully belongs in that list.  In fact, this word motivates the teachings of Jesus in this fourth Beatitude.  It is a word which governs our actions in one way or another everyday.  That word is appetite.

Jesus states in this Beatitude, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  This Beatitude describes that which motivates us in life, what propels a person forward, what makes a person get out of bed every morning to face another day.  Friends, what is your purpose for living?  What feeds your zest for life?
The columnist, Sydney Harris, writes, People who are driven by their appetites perish by ignoring their reason; and people who are governed by their reason too often perish by ignoring their appetites; and …only a few wise or lucky ones are able to sustain a creative tension between these opposites.

The world certainly has a lot to say about appetites.  There is the physical appetite for food, so we create foods beyond description.  I marvel every time I walk the aisle of the supermarket at the increasing variety of foods on the shelves.  It is almost like food is our god.  To satisfy our demand for food, we build restaurants without number.  I heard recently on a news program, that there are over 800,000 restaurants and eating places in America.  That is one eating place for every 312 people in America.  We eat like gluttons and then pay others to help us take the weight off so we can put it back on again.

Then there is the physical appetite for sex, which the world has glorified on the television and movie screens.  Clothing is designed that glorifies and accentuates the body.  The world emphasizes that unless a person is physically attractive he or she has lost value, so a whole new avenue of products have been created to help prevent that from happening.  So we apply the oils and creams.  We take the pills and supplements.  We don't want to lose our physical attractiveness.

The world also focuses upon the appetite for power.  We want to be recognized as being somebody.  We want to feel important.  We want to be rewarded.  So, we have created halls of fame for just about everything imaginable.  We have published books which list Who's Who for just about every area of life. 

Even the Christian world has developed its own set of appetites.  There is the appetite for spiritual experience.  We become desperate for experiences.  Then there is the appetite for Christian skills, you know, how to do deacon better, how to increase in church growth, how to be a better family, etc.  We rush here and hurry there because "we gotta go...because we gotta know." 

I am not saying that any of these appetites are wrong.  But is that a healthy appetite?  Is that what Jesus was describing to His disciples?  Is that what Jesus told us to hunger and thirst for?  Those questions will be answered in our next study together.

Father, It seems that we are a very hungry and thirsty people.  Our appetites almost are insatiable.  Yet, the more we try to satisfy our hungers, the more hungry we become.  It is Your reminder to us that we are feeding upon the junk food of life.  Lord, give us a hunger and thirst for righteousness so that we can be filled.  We pray this in Christ's name.  Amen.

 

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