there was a surplus; “ twelve baskets remained of the fragments.” Think of it! Plenteous provision without a financial deficit! The hungry, tired people were sent home refreshed. We read that after the feeding of the five thousand, “ Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore per ceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone” (John 6:14-15). But Jesus again knew their hearts and the next day said to those who continued to seek Him, “ Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26). It is as if He said, “ I’m not going to continue to feed you lazy people; this is not my purpose in the world.” Jesus had no modern-day poverty program. His challenge, “ Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life” was a blast to their self-seeking. Our materialistic day is learning sadly that if we look to political leaders to provide for our needs, we will eventually be made their slaves. This attitude displeased the crowd. They wanted free lunch. They knew Christ had power to supply, and working for a living was not easy. In disappointment and anger, they reminded Him that God had fed their fathers in the wilderness with manna when there was no other source of bread. Our Lord replied: “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. “ For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world . . . he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:32, 33, 35). But you can never satisfy the masses with spiritual food, so we are told that “ from that time many of his [temporary] disciples went back, and walked no more with him (John 6:66) because they were seeking, as the masses so often do. SOMETHING FOR NOTHING The last days of this age according to Christ’s “ Rev elation” will be marked by “ Laodiceanism” (the “ ruling of the people” ) or to be literal, “ the justice of the peo ple.” This is a false justice in which the people demand everything because they are the people. Laodiceanism is the final apostasy and it seems to be here! But we must look again at this faceless creature— the Common Man—and try to see what he really is. Lincoln said of the common people that “God must have loved them because He made so many of them.” And, foolishly, we little inconspicuous folk like to think this is so. It is true in a broad sense—God does love us —not because we belong to any social class, but because He loves all people. But if we think that special virtue resides in us simply because we belong to the nonde script mass, we are deluded. The devil propagates a big lie today: that the people are always right! We must always give the majority what they want. All virtue resides in the common peo ple: “ fifty thousand Frenchmen can’t be wrong!” “ The voice of the people is the voice of God!” But the voice of the people is usually just the voice of the people — that and nothing more! The Lord Jesus said that it was the “ little flock” who had found the truth. The rank and file of the people travel the “broad way” that leads to destruction while only a few find the “narrow way” that leads to life. Our God is usually the God of the minority, for usually it is only the minority
the dictatorship of the proletariat, the “ totalitarianism of the Common Man.” Its promise is to emancipate him and make him personally and collectively strong, but plainly today, to bind him down with fetters, take away his God, his rights and his reason, and melt and mold him into a world instrument for the coming world leader of the great society, Antichrist, whose spirit is already operative in society. What conditions have brought the Common Man to this hour? The people are haunted by fear. The depres sion of the thirties brought us to a mental state wherein many would rather be subsidized and well-fed than free and possibly hungry. Certainly the tremendous things that are happening were anticipated by the Holy Spirit, and Christians should not be blind to the dangerous trend. Christ faced this basic problem during His earthly ministry. Christ was the true Common Man, and so remarkable is the revelation that God has given of Him in His Word, that there are few experiences of nations or individuals which have not been anticipated in the Book. Mark 12:37 tells of the earthly popularity of Christ with His people by stating, “ The common people heard Him gladly.” The words translated “ common people” (great crowds) might be translated “ the masses,” a term much on the tongues of reformers and revolution ists. But Jesus dealt much with the masses. When Christ officially presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah (Matt. 21:1-11), fulfilling the prophecy of Zech. 9:9, multitudes followed Him from Bethany to Jerusalem, spreading their garments and waving palm branches. They gave Messianic praise to the Son of God, crying “ Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” When, however, our Lord reached Jeru salem, He was rejected as Messiah and King by the nation’s leaders and sorrowfully He went out of the city. Christ paid little heed to the enthused masses as they cheered Him on His way, for our Lord knew what was in the heart of man. He knew that a few days later the same crowd which had cried “ Hosanna!” would be shouting “ Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” In a day when “ every trick in the bag” is used politi cally to move the masses, it is heartening to discover that Christ, in the dignity of His deity, made no per sonal use of the masses. Politicians try to capture the approval of the crowd, and having captured them, often ride mass psychology to personal victory. Jesus was no rabble-rouser. He did not envision crowds as sources of personal power. The record shows that “when He saw the multitudes, He had compassion upon them because they were sheep without a shep herd.” Crowds were not votes and channels to personal power to Jesus, but objects of His love and pity. He longed to help them. Christ would not have made a successful modern politician. FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND Christ kept Himself aloof from the tryanny of mass psychology. There is a revealing record of this in the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel, the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. The multitudes had followed the Son of God as He went from place to place, healing the sick and performing other miracles, and at day’s end found themselves very far from home. We read that Jesus lifted up His eyes and saw a great company and asked Philip, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Then He took a little lad’s five loaves and two small fishes and multiplied the bread until He fed the multitudes, five thousand men, not counting the women and children. Miracle of miracles!
NOVEMBER, 1964
13
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter