John 6:26

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs, but because ye ate of the loaves and were filled.

The Lord had overcome the temporary hardening of his apostles' hearts, but it would prove impossible to change the adamant position of the unspiritual multitude. True, they had seen the great sign; but instead of its opening their eyes to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, they had at once contrasted it unfavorably with the feeding of Israel for forty years in the wilderness. They wanted him to do something like that, thus subsidizing their scheme of chasing out the Romans. They were not looking for a spiritual leader; all they wanted was a military and political victory over their enemies. Their presence on the western shore, as appears later, was geared to that secular hope, and to their intention of compelling Christ to conform to it if possible.

The temptation still exists for men to view holy religion as primarily concerned with the economic sector. But when preachers forsake the spiritual aims of the church and pander to the economic and social desires of the people, they succeed only in arousing hopes and ambitions that are doomed to frustration. Let any church start a literal feeding of the multitudes; and it will be found, as it did here, to tend in the direction of some kind of social upheaval, and not in the direction of any moral and spiritual betterment. Look what happened when Christ fed the multitudes: far from taking this as proof that a Saviour from sin had arrived, they at once supposed that he should feed them three times a day for forty years, thus releasing them to dedicate their full energies to destroying the Romans! When Christians or churches seek to provide for men what men should provide for themselves, the hopes and ambitions released by such efforts are just as sinister as those released so long ago on the grassy slopes of Butaiha.