Why did Jesus feed the 5,000 according to our last post?  Not because they were hungry.  But because he was mirroring his Father’s goodness to them.

Now here’s something interesting: In John 6:2 you can see that Jesus knew that the crowd was there for all the wrong reasons—but he fed them anyway.

Why?

Because God doesn’t react to other people. He always acts in ways that are consistent with his loving, gracious character, no matter how people might distort or misinterpret or misuse those actions.

And he calls us to follow him in acting in exactly the same way. We’re to mirror him and his goodness into the world just as he mirrors the Father and the Father’s goodness into us.

Now look closely at the command Jesus gives us in John 6:27. It will be key to our understanding how to mirror his Work of Mercy of sharing bread into the world:

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

What exactly does that mean?

Well, first let’s talk about what it doesn’t mean.

Jesus is not saying, “Quit focusing on feeding your body. Instead, feed your spirit.” That’s not what Jesus says in John 6:27. Remember: Body, soul, and spirit are equally important to develop in Christian discipleship. So let’s re-read the verse carefully, focusing specifically on the two different types of food Jesus contrasts:

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

The two kinds of food Jesus contrasts are not physical food and spiritual food.

Both kinds of food that Jesus talks about here are physical! The difference between the two types is that one kind spoils, but the other kind endures to eternal life. What does Jesus mean by physical food that endures? What kind of food is that?

Consider another Scripture that has to do with things that spoil:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus is clearly talking here about physical treasures—our money and our possessions. He says that if we store up treasures on earth, they will “spoil,” but if we store up treasures in heaven, they will “endure.”

How do we store up treasures in heaven? By using our money and our possessions to strengthen body, soul, and spirit equally, not just to strengthen our bodies.

So how can we apply that same principle to food that spoils and food that endures to eternal life? By using our food and our meals to strengthen body, soul, and spirit equally, not just to strengthen our bodies.

Jesus said that the crowd was working for food that spoils.

What does it look like to work for food that spoils?

It looks like doing a job in order to get money to meet our physical needs.

This is one reason people have such a hard time tithing, by the way. They think, “Look, I need this money to care for my physical needs.” Bad thinking. If you use your money only to care for your body, it will not endure. It will spoil.

How can you use your food and meals in such a way that your body, soul, and spirit are being strengthened?

From where?

That, as we identified in our last post is the most important question raised by Jesus in his feeding of the 5,000.

And if you answered, “From the little boy, with God’s help,” then you have officially missed the point of the story! So let’s leave the little boy alone and read further and see if we can answer Jesus’ question, “Where shall we buy bread for all of these people to eat?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

(John 6:10-15)

Now skip ahead to verse 25 where Jesus explains the sign:

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

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” (John 6:25-26)

Let’s rephrase verse 26 in light of what we just learned about miracles and signs. We could say it this way:

“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me”—meaning, you’re following me around and trying to make me king—“in the physical realm because of what I can do for your body. But that’s because you’re focused only on the flesh and what your body needs. You’re missing the sign: the invisible realm is bursting into the visible! Look through me into the invisible realm and behold your true Father, who is providing for all of your needs—body, soul, and spirit—and who is calling you to have fellowship at his table.”

Jesus doesn’t feed the crowd because they are hungry or even because they ask.

He feeds the crowd because he is mirroring his Father’s goodness into the world, and part of his Father’s goodness is that his Father invites us to his table. As we learned last month, the vocation God intended (and still intends) for all human beings is mirroring God into the visible realm.

He doesn’t just want us to do good stuff. He wants us to mirror exactly what he is doing.

Have you experienced God’s invitation to his table?  What physical form did that take? How can you mirror that to others?

This month, as we begin our study of the Work of Mercy of sharing your bread, the primary question we may find ourselves asking is “With whom?”

With whom should I share my bread? My family? The poor? Strangers? Enemies?

But Jesus starts with a totally different question. Jesus’ question is: “From where?”

From where do we share our bread?

At first, that question doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. But let’s look at John 6:1-58 and work through it section by section in order to understand why the question of “from where” is the most important question to ask when it comes to the Work of Mercy of sharing our bread:

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.  Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.  The Jewish Passover Festival was near.  When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”  (John 6:1-5)

“From where” is the key question in the whole Gospel of John. As Brian Stoffregen notes, “If one knows the source of Jesus’ gifts, one comes close to recognizing Jesus’ identity.”

But “from where” isn’t even the second question we usually ask. The second question we usually ask when it comes to sharing our bread is, “How much is this going to cost?” And that’s how Phillip and the disciples respond to Jesus:

Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:7-9)

Do you see that when we ask, “How much?” we’ve already answered the question, “From where?” By asking the question that way it’s clear that we assume that the bread is clearly going to come from us and from our labor. That’s why Philip says, “This is gonna cost more than half a year’s wages!”

So, let me ask you a question: What word would you use to describe Jesus’ feeding these five thousand people? Or what word would you use to describe Jesus healing people or raising Lazarus from the dead?

We often use the word “miracle” for events like these, but Jesus doesn’t. Look at John 6:2 to see the word Jesus uses:

…and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.

So what’s the difference between a sign and a miracle?

A miracle is what we call something when we think about it from the physical perspective. Something is “miraculous” because it doesn’t operate according to the laws of the physical world.

So a miracle points to the physical world. But a sign points to somewhere else. A sign points beyond the physical realm. A sign is designed to lead people to ask, “From where is this sign coming?”

And that is the most important question that is raised by Jesus’ sign of feeding the five thousand: Where is this bread coming from?

How does the shift in thinking about Jesus feeding the 5,000 as a sign, and not a miracle, impact how you understand it?  What does that change for you?

In our last post, we noted how the gold standard for Christian giving is purpose. So every month we should be praying, “God, how may I be a part of your giving this month?” That’s a very different question than, “God, how may you be a part of my giving this month?”

It’s God’s money, and you are God’s instrument. Never get that backwards!

So this is why at .W Church we collect the offering monthly instead of weekly. Each of us needs to be purposing what to give, not deciding at the last minute.

Throughout the month, each of us is disbursing the 70% of our offering that has been entrusted back to us and practicing the Works of Mercy we’ve learned about. As we pray daily and meet daily in family worship, we ask God and one another, “What should we be giving this month? What is God doing around us? How is he asking us to join him in that giving?”

We also conduct our “AAR” (After Action Review), asking each person or family to answer the following four questions about the giving they did for the month.

We don’t ask, “Did you tithe?” Because someone could tithe and still not give with purpose. And for most Christians (the ones who, for example, are not homeless or hungry), the tithe should be the minimum they give, not the maximum.

(And Christians who are poor should still give generously, by the way. You’ll see in the Scriptures that God uses the gifts of the poor to accomplish his most important work, whether it’s the widow feeding Elijah or the boy giving Jesus the fish and loaves. Everyone should give, sharing whatever they have. Everyone.)

So the four questions you should ask each person each month in each .W group are these:

Step 1: What was the intent of your gift last month? In other words, why did you make that gift? How did you decide to do it? What were you seeking to mirror about God’s character through your giving?

Step 2: What happened? Why? What are the implications?

Step 3: What lessons did you learn?

Step 4: Now what? In other words, how will you give differently—or more, or the same, or to a different person, or to the same person, or whatever—in the future?

It doesn’t matter if their giving was $0.05 or $50,000 for the month. We need to ask these four questions to each person each month as a means of accountability and as a means of helping them to grow.

Do not fail to be diligent in asking each member these questions each month. Few things can help members grow more than asking these questions. Few things can prevent members from growing than neglecting to ask questions like these.

Have you ever incorporated questions like these into your giving?  If so, how do you feel they helped?  What other questions would you add to this list?

People ask me, “So what’s the deep theological reason for doing one offering a month in the .W Church? And should Christians tithe?”

My answer to these deep theological questions is that I have no deep theological answer.

I’ve known people who would argue passionately that all Christians should tithe and that no Christians should tithe, and each side is convinced that the other is in apostasy or bondage. And I’ve also met people who insist that an offering should be taken every time the church gathers together.

My own solution to these dilemmas is that if something is specified in the Nicene Creed, it is a core belief which all Christians must hold, without exception. We lay no precondition of belief on members other than the Nicene Creed, which, in the words of Vincent of Lerins in 450 AD, specifies “…that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”

So I always say, “If it’s in the Nicene Creed, we believe it and do it, and if it’s not in the Nicene Creed, we do not treat it as if it is.”

So as regards when and how much and how often to give, you’ll notice that these things are not specified in the Nicene Creed. The Scripture gives us ample guidance in these matters, of course, and one recurring theme—which is especially important to note as we conclude this month’s emphasis, on the Work of Mercy of Doing Good—is that our giving should be planned and purposeful.

Some Christians who hate tithing say, “God wants us to give spontaneously and not in a way where we are bound to a set amount that drives the Spirit out of the process.”

But the Scripture does not commend spontaneous giving as the gold standard of Christian giving.  Instead, in 2 Corinthians 9:7, Paul says,

“Each one must give as he has decided [or the King James says “purposed”] in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Purpose—that’s the key word.

The gold standard of Christian giving is not spontaneity but purpose.

If you read the verses around this one in 2 Corinthians, Paul is stressing to each Corinthian Christian the importance of praying and thinking through what they will give to a special offering Paul is raising to send to the mother church in Jerusalem, which is experiencing hardship due to famine and persecution. Paul is saying, “Think about this ahead of time. Pray about it ahead of time.” He uses the analogy of sowing and reaping. Anyone who has planted so much as a single zucchini will know that sowing a seed requires planning, preparation, and ongoing cultivation.

Sadly, most Christians do not put that level of thought into their giving. If they’re immature Christians, they’ll pull out their wallet and toss a few dollars in the offering when they’re asked. If they’re long-time Christians, they’ll compute their tithe or giving budget and put that in the offering.

And some “modern” Christians believe that God wants them to give according to what we call “random acts of kindness,” which means that they give whenever they sense the Holy Spirit is prompting them to give.

But none of these practices get at what Paul is talking about here.

Of course you should give whenever the Holy Spirit prompts you, but giving only when the Holy Spirit prompts you is like cleaning your room only when your parents tell you to. Your goal should be to give as God gives.

God plans his giving very carefully! He gives us what will help us, not whatever we ask for.

How have you navigated this question in the past?  What is your personal practice when it comes to giving?