Happened to be reading some articles over at Sojourners, when I came across this complaint by Bill Moyers:

Christianity lost its voice. The Religious Right drowned everyone else out. And they hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, "The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor." The very Jesus who told 5,000 hungry people that all of you will be fed, not just some of you.

Much of what Moyers says in the rest of the article is simply factually wrong: that we're deep into economic doom. The economy was on the upswing at the time, and is positively booming now (not that the media's going to leak that little secret). But what shocks me is how shameless he misleads his audience about the story about the feeding of the 5,000.

Actually, Jesus fed them once, because he had compassion on them. But even that caused a bit of a problem -- seems the crowd was so happy at being fed once, for free, that they tried to use coercive force to set up a government which could give them an endlessly assured supply of food. Unlike Bill Moyers, Jesus would have none of that:

Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. (John 6:15)

In fact, they kept demanding an assured supply of free bread, over and over. And Jesus, God incarnate himself, kept trying to tell them such a view was sinful and a mark of unbelief. Even though Jesus had tried to remove himself, to oppose their utopian scheme, they followed him to the other side of the lake:

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

Jesus says their focus on getting bread from a government is wrong, and keeping them from knowing God. Their "faith" in him is nothing but a tool to achieve a political end, which they make clear is very earthly...

Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

You see, according to the crowd, Jesus isn't really a prophet, and isn't really from God, unless he's preoccupied with setting up a system to feed the poor! That's exactly the lie of Satan the "religious" left is selling their misled sheep, when they make support for socialism the ultimate test of faith, exactly as these people wanted Jesus to prove his "godliness" to them by creating a govenment to supply them -- poor peasants that they indeed were -- with an guaranteed supply of food.

And Jesus tries to straighten them out, yet again:

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe."

Did you catch that? They made support for feeding the poor the ultimate test of godliness, and Jesus said: "Still, you do not believe." These, the ones who demand he assure the poor of food -- because, you know, he very well could, and had just shown he could -- what does he say of them?

"Still, you do not believe."

When Bill Moyers says:

"They hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, 'The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.' The very Jesus who told 5,000 hungry people that all of you will be fed..."

What does Bill think the "Good News" was? He clearly thinks the "Good News" was that they would all be fed! Funny, that's exactly what the crowd thought. And what Jesus's response? That this mindset was an unbelieving one, which denied the important truth Jesus was trying to teach: His role, his uniqueness, and the importance of seeking first eternal life through him.

No, the good news isn't that the poor will be fed. Jesus, God incarnate, who had just proven he was able to miraculously feed the poor for one day, or for the rest of their lives should he choose to do so, DIDN'T. Instead, he rebuked them for imagining the "good news" was some kind of utopian kingdom of assured free bread for the poor! They did "still not believe" because their mind was carnal and earthly.

It is good to help those in need. Faith without any works is indeed dead! But it is not always a test of faith. Jesus fed the poor, hungry crowd once, but refused them the second time. They implied his refusal must mean he wasn't godly. As it was once, so it is even now.

I hope you have learned something from this little lesson.

If you are poor (and we all are poor) we must seek first God's righteousness -- in Jesus, and only in Jesus. Then we will also find "all these other things" made available to us. And the desire for a government to take care of us instead, as I explain here, is simply a symptom of our rejection of God's kingship and authority, and disbelief in his power and promises.

God bless you.