Thoughts on World Hunger

Matthew 4:1-4
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’.

I was reading this passage just after reading a post by “Abandon Image” http://tialynnlecorchick.blogspot.com/ on the aWAKE project (Tony Campolo and Bono) and I thought to myself that it seems that Jesus could have created enough food to feed everybody on earth if he had wanted to. So why didn’t he? The quick and easy answer is that that was not why he came, nor what he came to do. But that would not completely solve the riddle. It is interesting that Jesus did not answer by saying “I do not live by bread alone”, he said “Man does not live by bread alone”. I will attend to Africa in a minute but first let me set the stage.
This existence that we see as the world is only a dress rehearsal for the main event and it is on that premise that the Christian must view the world. What are we commanded by Christ to do as his followers? The answer is found in Mark’s gospel chapter 16: verse 15. “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” The most important thing to do is preach the gospel to everyone on earth. By and large, Christians have accomplished this mission fairly well; however, there are millions who still have not heard. Did Jesus attend to hunger while he was on earth? Everyone knows the answer to this is “yes”. There are few stories that are found in all four gospels, one of them is the “Feeding of the five thousand” (Matthew 14, Mark6, Luke 9 and John 6 respectively). So let’s take a look at how he did it. Obviously it was a miracle how he actually created the food which we are incapable, as humans, of reproducing. However, the circumstances we can follow. The circumstances are that he was preaching, and the people he fed were the ones gathered to hear him preach. In other words the circumstances were that he was attending to their spiritual well-being, and as a product of that, he attended to their physical needs as well.
With all of that said, we also have a situation from scripture where Jesus was asked to feed the poor without attending to their spiritual well-being. If we look at Mark 14: 3-7. “And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she broke the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.” Jesus’ point here is that selling the spikenard and giving the money to the poor which is, in and of itself a good deed, would do the poor that were receiving the money no permanent good. We as Christians need to have in the forefront of our minds the spiritual well-being of the human race first, before all else. Those who are hungry here and who have not heard the gospel are destined to be hungry here for a few years and lost for eternity. If their spiritual needs are met, they will enjoy heaven for eternity, then all we need as Christians need to attend to at that point is their immediate need for food, clothing, or whatever else they need.
I think at by this point it should be fairly obvious where I am going with this, so I will sum up. The situation in places like Darfur, Mogadishu etc. is dire. These people need food, clothing, medical supplies and other resources and we as Christians are indeed called upon to do what we can to provide these things, Jeremiah 22:16 “He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.” But we must never forget that the most important need is to hear the gospel and to have the opportunity to respond. Nothing would be sadder than for these same people to die of old age, well dressed and with their bellies full and to then be lost for all eternity. Would not these same people curse their benefactors from the grave? It gives new meaning to “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”.