HUNGRY!

by Bill Ireland

Author’s note: This is the fourth in a series of articles on Jesus’ temptation and its insight for the practice of ministry.

Jesus’ temptation began in earnest after fasting for forty days and nights. As Matthew recounts, Jesus was “famished.” Hence, the Adversary’s first attempt to sabotage how Jesus would go about his work: “If you are the Son of God (and you are!), command these stones to become loaves of bread.” The shape of the desert stones conjured up visions of bread, and likely made Jesus’ mouth water. When we’re famished everything reminds us of food. One of my dear friends and colleagues earned his Ranger tab in the U.S. Army. At one point in his training he said, “I don’t know whether it was real or not, but one day I was so hungry I thought I saw a Big Mac beside the trail!” When we’re hungry, all we can think of is food.

In that vein, this first of Jesus’ temptations poses a question: What are we hungry for? As we pursue our work, what are we after? All of us are chasing something. All of us are hungry, not just for bread, but for something that will satisfy our yearnings. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the gifted and influential pastor of the early 20th century, wrote in his book, The Meaning of Prayer, of what he called “dominant desire.” He described it as “the settled craving of a man’s heart.”i Fosdick recognized everybody craved something. We are all hungry for something, and we long to be filled.

As I see it, Jesus was hungry to fulfill his mission as God’s Son. This initial encounter with the Adversary pushed Jesus to satisfy that hunger in one or two (maybe both!) ways.

First, by enticing Jesus to turn stones into bread, the Tempter invited Jesus to put his needs first. Serve yourself first. Those of us in ministry recognize the importance of self-care. If we pursue our work with no guardrails and no boundaries, we will soon give out in our quest to meet everyone’s needs. How many times have we told people to call on us if they need us? Not surprisingly many will take us up on our offer, and we soon learn their needs are a bottomless pit. If we take that route too often, we will soon find ourselves empty and with nothing left in the tank.

The importance of self-care aside, however, this temptation speaks to the subtle and ever-present desire to use our work to meet our needs. Our highest aims and actions are often hemmed with a bit of selfishness. We want to preach well so the crowd will affirm us. We make extra visits to polish our reputation. We relish opportunities to rise to the occasion so as to impress others with our abilities. The desire to do well certainly makes us better ministers. Nevertheless, left unchecked, our hunger to do well can soon turn into dysfunction. We turn our work into a means for self-aggrandizement or for receiving some affirmation. No matter the venue or the occasion, we can put ourselves front and center and make everything about us. “I” takes center stage. We use our role to fill up whatever is lacking in the deepest parts of ourselves. We serve others in order to have our own needs met.

The flip side of this temptation is that we can succumb to the allure of giving people what they want instead of what they need. “Feed them, and they’ll follow you.” Give them bread, and you’ll never lack for a crowd. In the course of his ministry, Jesus did indeed meet the needs of other people. He healed the sick. He cast out evil spirits. He opened the eyes of the blind. All our Gospels teach us that Jesus fed hungry multitudes. These are all hallmarks of Jesus’ work.

If we take Jesus seriously, we’ll do the same. We will recognize that meeting the needs of others and serving them is a mark of faithful discipleship. Effective ministers and thriving churches search for the ways in which their gifts and resources match up with needs beyond the walls of the church. When that happens, we find our greatest satisfaction. As Frederick Buechner put it, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” Genuine delight and satisfaction result from learning how to give ourselves away on purpose.

Nevertheless, this noble ambition can be corrupted. By devoting our energy to giving people what they want, we may fail to give them what they need. As pastors and ministers, our default position is to offer comfort and encouragement. But effective ministry requires more than that. Sometimes we have to make our congregations uncomfortable in order to prod them into greater faithfulness. Sometimes we have to speak truth when everyone is comfortable with untruth and illusions. Sometimes we have to turn over some tables to bring about a change in culture. Sometimes we have to call on our churches to get their act together and start living as the body of Christ. That’s what they need. Yet, we often shrink from this aspect of our work because we don’t want to deal with complaints and backlash. Nevertheless, if we choose to give our churches only what they want, our congregations will never thrive. The bread they want often makes for a thin diet with no nutritional value for the soul. Jesus operated with a clear understanding that his mission was not about giving people what they wanted but what they needed.

We are all hungry for something. Satisfying our hunger and that of others requires we keep in mind that we and our people “do not live by bread alone.” Whatever stones we seek to turn into bread, they will never, ever satisfy, and no matter how much we eat, we’ll never be full.

i Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962), p. 136.