BREAKFAST BIBLE STUDY

Righteousness Unfilled

Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

3/22/26

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.”

– Jesus

Since I picked the Bible passage for this week because it’s kind of the next beatitude, Grace and Christian make me think hard about why Christian nationalists would not like Jesus talking about righteousness. See, in Luke, Jesus talked about social problems in Galilee, which mostly involved poor people, but Matthew makes the beatitude more about spiritual junk. Luke talks about the poor, but Matthew talks about the poor in spirit. In the next one that’s on the list, Jesus tells everybody that if they hunger for righteousness, they will be filled.

“When will they be filled?” Christian asked.

“After Jesus’ second coming?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Grace said. “But I bet the people in the crowd thought he was talking about a kingdom on Earth that they would see in their lifetimes. Instead, Rome crushed the Temple in Jerusalem, and the people of Israel were scattered.”

“Is America kind of like Rome?” I asked.

“It goes through phases,” Christian admitted. “Right now, despite campaign promises of no more war, our president is having a hard time satiating his lust for empire building.”

“Would Christian nationalists rather be like Rome or like Jesus’ kingdom?” I asked.

“What do you think?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know. I just want to farm,” I said.

“What do aspirations of taking Greenland, Panama, and Canada sound like?” Grace asked. “What about bulldozing Gaza? Attacking Venezuela and Iran? And threatening Cuba? Does that sound like Jesus or Rome? What about turning on allies? What about acquiescing to enemies?”

“What does that one word with the Q sound mean?”

“To acquiesce is to quietly comply with someone’s demands,” Christian said.

“Was Rome dumb?” I said. “If Rome was dumb, that sounds like Rome…but I’m not sure. I just don’t think Jesus would have wanted any of that.”

“Does a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness want righteousness for everybody?” Grace asked. “Or only a select few?”

“I bet for everybody,” I said.

“Foreigners?” Christian asked.

“Sure.”

“The poor?” Grace asked.

“Especially them.”

“Minority groups?” Christian asked.

“Everybody,” I said. “Everything should be fair for everybody.”

“Is that the case in this day and age?”

“No.”

“So, as a Christian nation, is America living up to Jesus’ aspirations?” Grace asked.

“What does aspiration mean?” I asked.  

“What Jesus aspires to achieve,” Christian said. “His lofty goals.”

“I think it goes back and forth,” I said. “Sometimes America does good, but not right now, not under Trump. He wants to go backward. He’s like…an anti-Jesus.”

“There’s another word for that,” Grace said.

“There is?” I asked.

“The word you’re looking for,” Christian said, “is Antichrist.”  

In state legislatures across the country, Christian fundamentalists are passing laws meant to force the teaching of the Christian Bible in public schools. From the posting of textually inaccurate iterations of the Ten Commandments on the walls of classrooms to the incorporation of the “Trump Bible” across multiple pedagogical disciplines, these laws and mandates are sweeping the reddest parts of this nation.

The height of hypocrisy is banning books in the name of “protecting children” while mandating one particular book rife with numerous acts of sexual violence and scenes of graphic violence and genocide.

Book bans are dangerous. The Bible is worth reading and exists online and in public school libraries across the country, but proponents of mandating its formal teaching in public schools need to know what it actually says.

Some biblical themes in my books below might not be appropriate for children.