Dr. Ron Sumners
September 21, 2003
Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Peter responded, “Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus commanded, “Then feed my lambs!”
I worry that we in the church are not hearing what Jesus said. Pastors and churches expend 99% of their time on eloquent preaching, theological indoctrination, and institutional maintenance. Our priorities are not the priorities of Jesus. He wanted to make certain Peter would feed and care for His sheep.
He asked him to give them something to eat. I’ve heard preachers spiritualize this conversation and say that Jesus was speaking of feeding people the Gospel. Of course, we should be about the proclamation of the Gospel. However, the Greek word Jesus used for “feed” is bosko. It means to give physical food to eat.
Preaching and teaching are priorities of the church. But often we spiritualize the command to “feed the lambs.” In a culture of affluence, it is so tempting to interpret feeding the sheep as taking care of us. Feeding becomes worship and Sunday school. It means keeping the sheep comfortable and in the fold.
When we spiritualize the commands of the gospel, we fail to acknowledge the deep poverty of the people to whom Jesus preached and taught. We ignore His consistent emphasis on meeting the physical needs of the oppressed. We relegate the cry of the needy to the back of the line and the bottom of the budget.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” because finding enough to eat was a serious problem in that day. Jesus was making clear the first priority in establishing the kingdom of God – basic human needs must be met. When the church fails to feed needy people, the church fails at one of the primary tasks Jesus gave us.
In Matthew 25, Jesus described the acts of those “blessed by My Father” and inheritors of the kingdom. He said, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (vv. 35-36).
When those He was addressing asked when they had done these things, He replied, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (v.40).
The priorities of the kingdom of God couldn’t be clearer. We are to feed the hungry, provide clean water for the thirsty; open our homes to the homeless, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. These should be priorities of the church. James said, “Religion that God the father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
Once, while in college, I attended a Baptist Student Union meeting. We were asked to sign a “lifestyle statement” that pledged abstinence from drinking, smoking and sexual sin. We were asked to sign nothing forbidding greed!
Greed is the unchallenged sin in the American church. Orphans and widows go without because religion and greed walk hand-in-hand. In our infatuation with material gain, we have made greed into a virtue. Success, in our culture, and often in the church, is measured in dollars. It is no mystery why many find prosperity theology so attractive. It justifies our culture’s values. We interpret our success as a sign of God’s blessing and favor rather than evidence of our avarice.
We not only insist on having more than we need; we defend our gluttony as divinely ordained.
We ignore or spiritualize Jesus’ command to feed His sheep. We become the shepherds Ezekiel warned of, “You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured” (Ezekiel 34:3-4). We have cared for ourselves and ignored the needs of others.
God’s response to greed is as clear as His priorities. “I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep, because you shove the flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away. I will save the flock and they will no longer be plundered” (Ezekiel 34:20-22). I seldom hear these passages preached in the American church. We are the fat sheep. The inequalities of the world are the result of our greed.
Greed not only does great damage to the poor; it is also our spiritual affliction. It is a sign of faithlessness. We hoard more than we need today because we are afraid God will not provide for tomorrow. We are like the Israelites who, though God had promised to supply daily manna in the wilderness, insisted on collecting more than they needed. We call this prudence, but for the Children of God it is really distrust.
When we have excess, we don’t even ask, “What shall I do with this extra?” The answer is so ingrained in us. We store it away. We invest in mutual funds. We build a bigger house or buy a newer automobile. Do we ever consider that God could use that excess for the advancement of His kingdom?
If we were to shrink the world’s population to 100 people, with all the ratios remaining the same, there would be 59 Asians, 15 Europeans, 9 South and Central Americans, 11 Africans, and 6 citizens of the United States and Canada. There would be 52 females and 48 males. Thirty people would be white and 70 would be of different races. Thirty would be Christian and 70 would be of other religions. 30 would be able to read and 70 would not.
Although we in the United States are only a small percentage of the world’s population, we possess 59% of the world’s wealth. If we have food in the refrigerator, clothes on our back, and a roof over our heads, then we are richer than 75% of the world. Hot water, indoor plumbing, cars, televisions, telephones, and computers are extravagant luxuries in a world where 500,000,000 (five hundred million) people are starving to death. What does it mean when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” when we are so blessed?
I have traveled to Africa and Asia. Both were jarring experiences, as I saw the inequities in the world. The depth of poverty in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria and the high mountain villages of central China was impossible to describe. I came home each time with a tremendous impression of how blessed I am to have been born in the United States. It also made me aware of the responsibility that comes with the blessing.
It is crucial to remember that none of us did anything to deserve most of the blessings we experience. Simply being born in the United States is an enormous advantage. When I consider the country of my birth, my loving parents, my excellent education, then I become one of a very small group – those who have been blessed beyond measure. The question for American Christians is whether we are blessed as a sign of God’s favor or blessed in order to be a blessing!
We have been given abundance as a responsibility. Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). Our blessing has a purpose. We are to care for those who are in need. What we have is a resource for establishing the kingdom of God. When those of us who are materially blessed pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are accepting our responsibility to feed the hungry in the world.
The proper response to our prosperity is not indulgence. Nor is it the seeking of even more blessing. Prosperity and blessing are not ends in themselves. We are not to eat, drink, and be merry. We are not to feast while the world famishes. We are not to celebrate our good fortune as we pity those less blessed.
The proper response to prosperity is not justification. We are not to pretend we deserve what we possess. We are not to argue that our blessing is a reward for our goodness or hard work. We are not to imply that starving children have only themselves to blame.
The proper response to prosperity is not guilt. We are not to bemoan the unfairness of the world. We are not to demand to know why those richer than us don’t give more. We are not to make our donations to “World Hunger” and wash our hands.
The proper response to our prosperity and the world’s poverty and hunger is compassion.
What if you had been a disciple the day Jesus fed the 5,000. What would have been your response? Some might say, “Jesus, you are such a soft touch. These people made bad choices. They should have realized they would need food when they came out here. Do you want us to reward their irresponsibility?” Others might say, “Lord, you are so naive. I know these people.
They are the ones who never pay their taxes. They are lazy and are just looking for a hand-out. Should we encourage this kind of behavior?” One would say, “Master, we need to be good stewards of what we have been given. If we feed these people today, they will just be hungry again tomorrow. Do you want us to throw money down a rat’s hole?”
How did Jesus respond to the need of the people? He had compassion on them and He performed a miracle to feed them.
What would it mean if the church took seriously the call of Jesus to give the hungry of the world something to eat? What would it mean if Christians and churches took the money we have hidden in bank accounts and guarded by mutual funds and offered it to the hungry world? In 1998, it was determined that it would take only thirteen billion dollars to eliminate starvation in the world. In 1999, the American church spent over six billion dollars on new gymnasiums. How would the rest of the world react if they saw churches committing themselves to feeding the world instead of investing only in themselves?
Historians now believe the primary reason the early church grew was not because of an aggressive evangelism program, not because of an expensive building project, and not because of an aggressive media campaign. They believe that Christianity spread so quickly because Christians took seriously Jesus’ command to be compassionate. In the Roman world, where 5% of the people were wealthy and the rest were either poor or slaves, the willingness of Christians to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison was miraculous.
Do we have the same priority today? I wouldn’t want to admit how many times my prayer has really been “Give me this day my daily luxuries.” I would not want to confess how seldom I have thought of the plight of the hungry. I would not want to admit to a starving child in the Sudan that American Christians give only about 3% of their income to churches and charities combined. I certainly wouldn’t want to tell him about the food we throw away after a family meal or a church dinner!
If that starving child prays, “Give us our daily bread,” it is a cry of desperation. If I pray the same words it has to become a vow of generosity. When I saw those words, I am not just asking for bread for myself. I have fought being overweight all my life. I could use a little less daily bread. I am pledging to do all in my power to see that that child in the Sudan has daily bread.
“Give us this day our daily bread” is a prayer of equality. It is recognition of God’s interest in more than just my needs. God cares for the needs of all. What God desires is not for some to be prosperous and others to be in poverty. God desires equality. He wants everyone to have enough.
He has provided ample resources to make that happen. The only thing lacking is our compassion.
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