By Editor Bob Terry
Political rhetoric is heating up with elections less than 60 days away. Jobs, wages, taxes, personal benefits — these are the things politicians tout whether seeking state office or election to the Congress of the United States.
Each party and each politician seems to be trying to out promise the other. The reason is simple. The one that promises the greatest prosperity usually wins.
That is not a new trait. Jesus reached the zenith of His popularity after providing bread and fish to at least 5,000 people who followed Him to the countryside to listen to Him preach. The crowd wanted to make Jesus king (John 6:14–15). He could do miracles. He could heal their diseases and fill their stomachs.
For such provisions, the crowd was willing to make Him king — even by force if necessary. John 6 tells of how the people searched for Jesus once they realized He was no longer with them and how they turned away from Him once they realized Jesus would not play their game of being a “bread king.”
Jesus had turned His back on that kind of approach at the beginning of His ministry. Following His baptism, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray. He knew He was the Son of God. The voice from the sky announced it at His baptism. The 40 days in the wilderness was a time to clarify His calling, to focus on the type Kingdom to be ushered in and to realize the personal cost of obedience — even death on a cross.
Satan was the first to try and make Jesus a “bread king.” “Since you are the Son of God, why not use your powers and turn these stones into bread?” Satan asked. After all, of what value would Jesus be if He starved in the desert?
Or how did Jesus know what powers He possessed if He did not use them? Satan is amazing in the way he rationalizes disobedient behavior.
To be sure, bread was necessary for Jesus to survive. He was fully human, as well as fully divine. He had to have physical nourishment like everyone else. There is nothing wrong with bread, and there is nothing wrong with the concerns of jobs and wages and taxes and personal benefits and the rest one hears about today.
But for Jesus, the question was about the nature of the kingdom of God. Would it be based on selfish indulgence or upon service? Would He use His powers to satisfy self or to give Himself a ransom for many?
The most common response to that question embraces the first choice. Power is used for selfish results. Consider former public officials convicted of illegal kickback schemes. Government appointees resign in disgrace having used position for personal gain. Business leaders sentenced to prison for unethical and illegal schemes to enhance their influence and their riches. Sports figures stoop to chemical cheating to gain the applause of the crowd. The headlines are almost endless.
How often we forget that the methods one uses to achieve a goal reflect the goal itself in its initial form. One can never arrive at a righteous end by using unrighteous methods. Even those in the church succumb to the temptation of selfish indulgence. When a pastor or any other Christian leader uses position to force compliance with his will, power is used in personal service rather than depending on the provisions of God. When a church includes manipulative elements in its programs, it is using power for personal service rather than depending on the providence of God.
Jesus’ response to Satan was direct, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jesus did not deny the need for bread, but He affirmed that bread is not ultimate. In fact, bread by itself is not enough. It is better to be without bread than to be without God.
Jesus rejected using who He was or what He possessed in selfish ways because to do so lessened His dependence in the caring love of His heavenly Father.
For Jesus, there were no shortcuts to trusting in God. Even if the goal was worthy, His methods had to demonstrate obedience to God. To do any less would change the nature of the Kingdom He had come to proclaim. The ends and the methods are related.
So it is with us. God’s work must be done in God’s way. There are no shortcuts to obedience. To accomplish the callings God places on our lives, we must live in faithful obedience. We must never “turn rocks into bread” for selfish gain.
To do so might result in personal gain for a moment, but what does it profit if one gains the whole world and loses one’s own soul?
Share with others: