In Luke 6:21 Jesus says, “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” SATISFIED. Did anyone ever tell you to ‘just be satisfied’? I’ve been told that. I used to be told that all the time by my parents. Like most other kids, whenever I got into a store, there was no end to what I wanted. So, I was often told to be quiet and be satisfied with what I had. That’s a good thing for parents to tell kids. In fact, that’s one of the most important lessons parents can teach their children: you can’t always get everything you want. Sometimes, perhaps even most of the time, you just have to be satisfied with what you’ve got.
But many people grow up without ever learning that lesson. I don’t think any of us ever completely get it into our heads. Think of all the troubles in the world that are caused because people are not satisfied. Yes, small children can drive their parents crazy because they are never satisfied, but adults cause each other all kinds of grief because they aren’t ever satisfied either.
Think of all the people who are in financial trouble now because of credit card debt. They are not satisfied with what they have, but keep buying and buying, adding burden upon burden, and only sometimes is it something that they really need. Think of all the husbands who abandon their and wives and children, leaving behind so much confusion and hardship and sadness, all because they are not satisfied at home and are looking for something else. And of course there are wives and mothers that do the same thing, because they are not satisfied. There are many other reasons why marriages break up, but oftentimes it is simply because one or the other is not satisfied, and they should be. And there are those many men and women who do stay in their marriages, but are always in conflict because neither one is satisfied. He wants a new pickup and she wants new furniture, and they can’t afford any of it. So they live dissatisfied lives, unable to be content with the many blessings they do have in their life together.
Then there are all the people who are not satisfied with how God made them or with what God has given them. So they are always looking at other people who are smarter or better-looking or luckier or wealthier or healthier or whatever. They are not satisfied, and they spend a lot of energy being bitter and resentful and mad at the world and at God.
Think of all the world leaders not satisfied with the power they have, but with cruelty to their own people or war against other nations, they seek to strengthen their hand and expand their influence. What terrible grief and misery that has brought and continues to bring upon humankind. And think about your own private jealousies and dissatisfactions, and all the discontent and unhappiness that brings to you, even though you know better and know you should be counting your blessings.
One Christian writer even argues that most of the trouble in the world come from the simple fact that we cannot ever be satisfied, and in our bitterness or greed or grasping for more, we bring misery to ourselves and those around us.
And here in Luke 6:21 Jesus tells us that in heaven, we will be satisfied. Not only will our bodies be healed in heaven and made perfect so that we will no longer get ill or die or even age; and not only will our hearts be healed in heaven, so that we will no longer be tempted to sin, but always choose the good and the right; but so also will our desires be cleansed and perfected, so that once and for all, we will be satisfied. SATISFIED. That will be wonderful.
It is so often the case now that we are not satisfied, and so often we make ourselves miserable because we insist on wanting whatever it is that we do not have. So much of the time we are not content. Are you right now satisfied? With everything? Jesus promises that you will be in heaven. You will be satisfied. I look forward to that.
This inability to be satisfied plays such a huge part in our sinfulness, that when God gave the Ten Commandments, he made two of the ten about this very thing. The prohibition against stealing gets only one commandment, and the commandment against taking the life of another gets only one commandment, and marriage is protected against unfaithfulness with just one commandment. But God’s Law about our satisfaction or lack of it receive two commandments.
The opposite of being satisfied is coveting, and both the ninth and the tenth commandments forbid coveting. The ninth commandment is “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house,” and the tenth commandment is “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his servants, nor his cattle, nor ANYTHING that is thy neighbor’s.” NOT ANYTHING, God says.
Coveting can be described as having your eye on someone else’s possessions and not your own. This does not mean God is against an honest and good-natured desire to better yourself with hard work. In fact God oftentimes commands that very thing, especially in the book of Proverbs. But coveting is desire with an evil twist. It is desire without gratitude for what one already has. It is desire that is never content and never satisfied. It is desire that resents anyone who has something that you want and do not have. And, it oftentimes turn into a desire that will try anything to get what it wants. Actually, the commandment against coveting is broken before any of the others. Before one steals, they covet the possessions of another; before one commits adultery, they covet the spouse of another; before one tells a lie, they covet the easy way out more than the truth; and so on. Think of any sin, of any trouble that we cause ourselves or others. Usually, in the very beginning of the act or the decisions that lead to the sin you will find some kind of coveting; and before that, you will see some kind of dissatisfaction.
There is an old hymn that contains these words: “I know of a sleep in Jesus name, a REST from all toil and sorrow.” We often speak of death as a rest, and of the dead, as those who are at rest. One of the things that we will get a rest from, is from our ‘restlessness.’ In death, we are at peace and at rest, and when the sleep of death is over, we will rise to a new life with our Lord, and there, says Jesus, we will finally be satisfied.
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Exodus 20:17a — Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.
Exodus 20:17b — Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.
Proverbs 27:20 — Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.
Luke 6:21a — (Jesus said), “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.”
Psalm 17:15 — I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.
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I know of a sleep in Jesus’ name,
A rest from all toil and sorrow;
Earth folds in her arms my weary frame
And shelters it till the morrow;
My soul is at home with God in heaven,
Her sorrows are past and over…
O Jesus, draw near my dying bed
And take me into Thy keeping
And say when my spirit hence is fled,
“This child is not dead, but sleeping.”
And leave me not, Savior, till I rise
To praise Thee in life eternal.
–“I Know of a Sleep in Jesus’ Name” (verses 1 and 6)
By Magnus Brostrup Landstad, 1802-1880