Can I tell you a story? As many of you know, I participate in Ride the Rockies last week. Every day was challenging but not once did I feel that my life was in danger until the last 15 miles of our 388 miles of cycling. Let me put in context why I felt safe for most of my ride. Ride the Rockies was very well supported. There are police who patrolled every route to make sure all 1,100 cyclist were a safe as possible. There were medical staff readily available to any cyclist who needed care. At ever 15-20 miles was an aid station where there was food, water, a bike mechanic, and SAG vehicles ready to transport any cyclist to the next check point, or even to the finish line for that day if any cyclist felt that they could not finish the route.
On the final day of our route, we had to climb up Loveland Pass, which summits at just under 12,000 feet. The road leading up to the summit and down the other side of Loveland Pass was closed to most motorists so that we could safely climb up it and then descend it. Up until the last day of Ride the Rockies, my fastest speed on a bicycle was about 48 MPH downhill. However, coming down the summit of Loveland Pass on Friday, I broke that record at just over 55 MPH. There was not a moment while racing down that Pass that I was nervous or felt that my life was at risk.
The only time I felt like I might die during our cycling adventure is when four of us decided to take a short cut that would shave about 10 miles and 3,000 feet of climbing off our route. Shaving 3,000 feet of climbing off our final day after climbing more than 22,000 feet throughout the week sounded like a good idea, until we realized that the road that would get us to the finish line in Golden, Colorado was not only a truck route, but a road with very little shoulder, four dark tunnels with no room for a bike, and a sign that warned us that bikes were not permitted (we saw it, but felt that it was too late to turn around). I have been cycling since 2015, and I must say that of all the gnarly roads I rode my bike on, I have never been on a road so dangerous as the one we foolishly rode because we thought it would get us to the finish line faster and easier.
While participating in Ride the Rockies, I had multiple opportunities to talk about Jesus. One of the statements I repeated when it came to Christianity and why I was a follower of Jesus was this: “Jesus offers a better way.” Jesus’ way leads to life! Jesus’ way is the only route that leads to the life we were born for. Not only did Jesus say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), but he also said towards the end of his great sermon: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13–14).
Jesus offers a better way, and that way leaves no room for any other way but the way he calls us to walk as we follow him. Before I get to the fourth beatitude, I want you to think very carefully about something else Jesus said concerning the way he calls us to walk, and I would like for you to consider the implications of what following Jesus really means for your life: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul’” (Matthew 16:24–26)?
As I have had time to reflect on my last day participating in Ride the Rockies, I have thought a lot about the choice I made to go a different way than the one prescribed by the organizers who spent months planning each route for the safety of its participants. I thought about the way we treat the things that Jesus said and the words of the rest of the Bible that we consider to be Holy Scripture and the Word of God Almighty. When I ask this question, I am asking you, my dear Christian: What way do you really believe will bring you the satisfaction you desire?
Our Greatest Need
Here is the interesting thing I noticed about Jesus’ great sermon. The first three beatitudes concern something that I need; permit me to remind you of what they are:
- Beatitude #1: Only the poor in spirit can come to the cross of Christ because they understand that we need a righteousness that we cannot generate out of our own strength.
- Beatitude #2: Only those who grieve over their sin will come to the foot of the Cross of Christ because it is only there where they can be forgiven.
- Beatitude #3: Only those who admit that they are helpless to fix their sin problem can arrive at the foot of the Cross of Christ for the help that only Jesus can provide.
The fourth beatitude is the answer to the first three beatitudes. How can the poor in spirit receive the kingdom of heaven? How can those who mourn be comforted? How will the meek inherit the earth? Jesus tells us: “…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… shall be satisfied” (v. 6). The righteousness that satisfies the poor in spirit, those who mourn, and the meek is the righteousness that can only be found in the life that Jesus calls every person who wants to follow him into. This righteousness begins at the foot of Jesus’ cross where the forgiveness of sins is offered to all who would receive it by faith, but it does not stop there. The righteousness we discover at Jesus’ cross is one that transforms a person. This is why the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16–17).
What Jesus is saying is that the pathway that leads to being satisfied at the deepest level is a righteousness that only God can give through his Son, but you will never seek that kind of satisfaction if you do not first hunger and thirst for righteousness. You will not have a hunger and thirst for righteousness if you are not first poor in spirit, mourning over your sin, and humbled due to your own helplessness to fix your sin problem. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said of this beatitude, “The man who hungers and thirst after righteousness is the man who sees that sin and rebellion have separated him from the face of God, and longs to get back into that old relationship, the original relationship of righteousness in the presence of God.”[1]
The problem with the world, and even in the Church today, is that a hunger for righteousness is not where we begin in an effort to be satisfied. We begin with a hunger to be happy, a hunger to be satisfied, and a hunger for a new experience thinking that is how we will be satisfied. We move from one relationship to another thinking that will satisfy. We move from one job to another hoping that it will help bring us closer to financial freedom with the thought that will bring the satisfaction we long for. We make decisions motivated by a desire for peace or happiness with the hope to be satisfied and what is experienced every single time is the same problem. Jesus said that the way to be satisfied is through a hunger and thirsting for righteousness.
Jesus ran into a woman who thought she could find the satisfaction she longed for through a man in her life who would take care of her. She came to draw water in the middle of the day when nobody else drew water, most likely because of the shame she felt about her reputation as one who had five failed marriages and lived with a sixth who was not even her husband. She was trying to satisfy a thirst only Jesus could satisfy, so Jesus told her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). After discovering that Jesus could satisfy her thirst in a way that no other relationship could, her life was forever changed.
Throughout the Gospels, we discover that Jesus said similar things that he said to the woman at the well. In Matthew 11:28-30, he said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30). He also said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Our Great Satisfaction
Our world is hungry for happiness and continues to dip its bucket in places that hold no water and are left thirsty every time (see Jer. 2:12-13). C.S. Lewis’ words continue to ring true ever since he first wrote them over seventy years ago: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”[2]
Listen, nothing that this world has to offer you will give you what only God can give. This is why Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). Lewis’ quote reminds me of something S.M. Lockridge said in his sermon, The Lordship of Christ, “We are forever blowing bubbles looking for ships that never come in, chasing pots of gold at the end of receding rainbows…. You never will find that proverbial pot of gold because you try to ignore him who has a rainbow wrapped around his shoulder.”
It is understandable that the world keeps throwing its bucket in wells that cannot satisfy. The world needs to hear of the righteousness that it needs and is exclusively available through Jesus. This is why we, the Church, have been sent into the world and this is why Jesus said of those who believe in him and follow him: “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). We are called to go into the world to tell and show them that Jesus offers a better way; in fact, the first century church was given the nickname, “The Way” because of Her association with Jesus.[3]
What is a curious thing is that there is little difference between where the world is seeking its satisfaction from and those who claim to follow the one who said of himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). For example, in a survey conducted in 2019 by Pew Research Center, it was discovered that half of people who call themselves Christians believe that sex between consenting adults who are not in a committed romantic relationship is sometimes or always acceptable. More than half of those identifying as Christians believe that sex between unmarried adults who are in a committed relationship is okay. Even though Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27–28).
Jesus said over and over again, and he says it here in his fourth beatitude that the way to be satisfied is to hunger and thirst for a righteousness that only God can provide. The hunger and thirst you have spiritually as a human being can only be satisfied through Jesus Christ. The hunger and thirst for righteousness is not something that goes away once you become a Christian, but one that only grows and is continually satisfied as you follow Jesus. The hunger and thirst for righteousness is met while following Jesus because his way is the better way.
So, I come back to what Jesus said concerning the implications of following him. I asked you to think about its implications; now I am going to ask you what it means for your life. Here again is what Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul” (Matthew 16:24–26).
If you really believe that Jesus offers a better way than that which the world offers you, are you genuinely and intentionally following him while you take up your cross? Are you losing your life for his sake so that you will find it? If Jesus tells us to forgive those who sin against you, then why are you still holding a grudge? If Jesus tells us to flee from sexual sin, then why do you continue to run to it? If Jesus holds marriage up as something so sacred then why do you treat it as common? If Jesus says that we must be people of character, why are you not a person of your word? If Jesus tells you to love your enemies, why do you hate them? If Jesus tells us to invest in his Kingdom, why do you invest only in this life? If you really believe that Jesus rose from the grave, why do you live as if this life is all you have?
Could it be that the reason why you feel so dried up spiritually is because you are dehydrated from dipping in the wrong wells? When Jesus calls us to follow him, it is an all or nothing invitation. It is either Jesus’ way or no way; his way leads to life and every other way only leads to death.
When you hunger and thirst for righteousness and seek to have that hunger and thirst satisfied in Jesus… it will affect you and it will change you. The route that leads to satisfaction that Jesus offers will lead to life. As you follow Jesus’ way, your appetite for righteousness will grow and you will begin to experience the life you were born for and the one God intends for you. My dear Christian, it is time to stop sipping from the buckets of the word and instead drink from the One who offers you the bread of life and living water.
