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 Today,
many churches are turning to entertainment and food in order to
get people to “come to church.” That is like feeding a cow
fodder instead of corn. One couple told me that On nights when a
certain Baptist Church had its refreshment center open for the
young people, they could hardly find a pew; however, on other
nights when the center was closed, most of the pews were empty.
Baptist are not unique in this.
Gone
are the days when men sought refreshment for the soul, but
crowds can be drawn by offering other morsels. Does this mean
that we should change the kind of table we set, or does it mean
that we should continue to seek those honest few (Matt. 7:13-
14) who are thirsting for nourishment for the soul?
Jesus
fed a multitude with five loaves and two fish (Jn. 6: 1-13). He
did not feed them to entice them to come to listen to him teach,
but rather as a sign of his divine power. After seeing the
miracle, they said, “This is of a truth that prophet that
should come into the world,” (v. 14). The next day the crowd
sought him again, but they sought him because their stomachs had
been filled, not because they hungered for righteousness. When
he began to “dish-out” the true manna, they began to murmur
and turned back from walking with him. They could not stomach a
diet intended to nourish their souls. It is refreshing to notice
that Jesus did not change the menu to draw the crowds. If they
wanted to eat from his hand, they had to hunger for the true and
enduring grain.
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A
woman gave our Lord a cool drink and he, in turn, offered her
living water that could quench her thirst forever (Jn. 4:142).
She did not understand what he offered, but when he told her “all
things which she had ever done,” she went to the city to tell
others of the Christ. Many from the city came to see Jesus. They
sought, not a “fountain of youth,” but the real, living
water which alone could satisfy their soul’s need for life.
Jesus
said to his disciples, “I have meat to eat that ye know not
of,” and he explained by saying “My meat is to do the will
of him that sent me, and finish his work,” (vv. 32, 34). He
says to us. “Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,” (Jn. 6:27).
The wise man said, “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for
this is the whole duty of man,” (Eccl. 12:13). Fodder does not
really satisfy anyway — “All is vanity and a striving after
wind,” (Eccl. 1:14).
After
eleven years, Margaret has become a good cook. She prepares a
variety of nourishing food. She could not entice my salivary
glands with fodder, nor would she try, because she knows my
stomach’s needs — and my soul loatheth fodder. Our Lord
always fed men what their souls needed. If we, in order to draw
crowds, substitute “light bread” for “heavenly manna,”
we “satisfy” the body but put no meat on spiritual bones.
Instead, we should seek those whose souls loath fodder and
hunger for truth. ——Jim R.
Everett.
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