New Year, New Appetite!

It’s the time of the year!

Singaporeans—baby boomers and millennials alike—would jostle with crowds and join snaking lines for traditional bak kwa (barbecued sliced pork) at popular chains like Lim Chee Guan, Bee Cheng Hiang and Fragrance.

After all, bak kwa is one of the most sought after snacks at Chinese New Year (CNY) gatherings, together with pineapple tarts and love letters. Because of one’s craving for this festive delicacy, Singaporeans are willing to make a beeline for bak kwa, nevermind the price tag.

So much so that CNY feels almost incomplete and unsatisfactory without a bite of bak kwa. Perhaps this reinforces how bak kwa remains a CNY must-have for many Singaporeans, and queuing up for it has evolved into practically an annual CNY tradition, at least in Singapore.

If one’s craving for bak kwa leads to a physical satisfaction of the stomach, then Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes points to us a spiritual hunger that feeds and fills the soul.

Having sat down at the mountainside, Jesus in no complicated terms said to His disciples, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6, ESV)

This seems straightforward. To be satisfied simply means to be fed, or to be filled as NIV puts it. But when we ponder further what “righteousness” Jesus was exactly referring to, we open ourselves to more than one interpretation.

At face value, righteousness would encompass righteous acts. In a perfect world, acts of righteousness should positively impact the society and reap due rewards. Yet history tells us enough that those who hunger for righteousness do not necessarily taste justice or vindication. Often than not, evil acts and wicked ones have the last laugh, and righteous ones walk away defeated.

Hence, according to one commentator, the “righteousness” Jesus was alluding to is not so much about “being good” or “being legally correct”, albeit important. The late New Testament scholar, R.T. France proposed that “the meaning [of one’s hunger] here is their one desire for a relationship of obedience and trust with God. It is a personal aspiration, [more than] a desire for social justice.”[1]

In other words, pinning our hopes on righteous acts alone cannot eventually satisfy. Rather, it is one’s desire for a relationship of trust in the Righteous One—our ultimate source of real righteousness and righteous character, that grants utmost satisfaction.

Seen in this light, one finds true, lasting satisfaction in life only when he or she hungers and thirsts for a personal relationship with the Righteous One who is none other than God Himself.

If so, how then can we hunger and thirst for the Righteous One? John Piper in his book “A Hunger for God” describes for us what an appetite for God looks like:

“There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and say to God: ‘This much, O God, I want you.’

If we don’t feel strong desires for God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.”[2]

And I think Piper is right. After all, appetites chart the direction of our lives — whether it be “the cravings of our stomachs, the passionate desire for possessions or power, or the longings of our spirits for God.”[3] If we are full of what the world offers, and if we have been gaining satisfaction in everything else except God, then we don’t really hunger for God, do we?

One way you and I can awaken our appetite for God is what Piper suggests as this pleasant pain between self-denial and self-indulgence called fasting.

Fasting helps us retreat from the world, realise what we have been feeding and filling up our lives with, and refocus on God, our ultimate source of satisfaction.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we are still in the CNY season. It’s certainly an occasion for feasting, not fasting. By all means, enjoy the bak kwa, pineapple tarts and love letters, in the good company of family members and friends.

But perhaps after this celebrative period, you and I can attempt a simple fast, from your favourite food, hobby, handphone, or anything you have been preoccupying yourself with. Spend that time instead hungering and thirsting for God, and experience and encounter God afresh.

Whether you are a student, a working adult, a mother, a father, or a retiree, if you find yourself no longer yearning as much for God, maybe this year, you can awaken your appetite for the Lord once more.

Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” May it be our prayer and desire, that in this new year, you and I will develop a new appetite for our Righteous One again.

God bless!

Ps Chao Rui

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[1] R.T. France, The Gospel according to Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Inter-varsity Press, 1985), 110.

[2] “A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer,” John Piper, accessed 31 January 2025, https://www.desiringgod.org/books/a-hunger-for-god

[3] Ibid.