Longing to Be and Do Good?
You are blessed precisely in your current state of being.
I know that my readers here at The Gospel of the Kingdom hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be good people and to consistently do God’s good. But it's easy to get down on ourselves because we're not perfect.
Righteousness is a complex word that describes both personal piety and public good. If we had been in the assembly that gathered on the hill to hear Jesus teach (Matthew 5-7), we would have heard him comfort us:
Great blessings belong to those who want to do right more than anything else.
God will fully satisfy them.
Matthew 5:6, ERV
What does Jesus observe about those who seek righteousness? What does he intend to confer upon them? How do unfulfilled desires for righteousness make us blessed?
Desiring something means we don’t have it yet. We are not yet the kinds of people we hope to be. The inner transformation required to become an inwardly and outwardly righteous person requires concentrated spiritual tenacity over a long period of time.
We can never be perfect in heart, mind, attitudes, and emotions. We will never perceive social realities flawlessly. Harassing thoughts of “not being good enough” or “not doing enough” or “not doing it right” or “not being effective” are close companions to those who seek righteousness. We link our sense of being blessed to how much or how well we think we are being a blessing to others.
And it is never enough.
Jesus pronounces over you something much different than discouragement rooted in self-recrimination: you are blessed. Not because of a letter grade you earned. Not because an organization or website names you Righteous Person of the Year. Not even because you are striving to be better. Rather, you are blessed because you are in the kingdom of God Jesus is bringing to earth. You are blessed precisely in your current state of being: wanting to do right more than anything else.
Jesus sees you and gets you. He delights in the knowledge that you hunger and thirst for righteousness. In him, in the kingdom of God, you will be satisfied. Not in any results you can measure—inward or outward. Jesus is saying to you, seeker of righteousness, that independent of how you might judge yourself, in him you are fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (Mathew 5:6, AMPC).
Jesus recognizes what is truly good in your motivations. He sees you are on the right track, pursuing a godly pattern of thoughts and actions. Like those who are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted for righteousness, you are blessed!
Blessed is a translation of the Greek term makarios. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, it is pregnant with nuance. It refers to a self-contained happiness. In this context, self does not suggest being introverted, or aloof, or alienated from others, or private, or, as the British say, “she keeps herself to herself.” It means something very positive. It means that just as you are, as a child of God’s kingdom, focused on wanting to do right more than anything else, you already possess a kind of completion. You presently have all that is needed for a rich and full life.
The blessing Jesus confers is meant to produce the kind of person who best seeks a life of goodness: one who has an inner quiet that is independent, that is self-regulating in the sense that one’s peace and self-acceptance does not depend on circumstances and is not influenced by others. Imagine the steadiness, the composure, the grounding, the clear thinking, the poise this blessing produces in the human heart.
You, who want to do right more than anything else, Jesus blesses you with a blessing to which nothing on earth can compare. Your kingdom blessing comes from a Trinity without neediness. God, from his own eternal fullness and loving impulse, is giving you all you need in your life for personal transformation and for being a redemptive presence in the world.
I add my prayer for Jesus’ blessing to be a lived experience in your life:
Happy are those who long to be just and good, for they shall be completely satisfied (Matthew 5:6, TLB).