Do More Than Take Care of Today

In his recent general conference talk, Bishop W. Christopher Waddell spoke of the need to do more than simply offer physical service in our efforts to minister.  He said, “In modeling our ministering after Jesus Christ, it is important to remember that His efforts to love, lift, serve, and bless had a higher goal than meeting the immediate need. He clearly knew of their day-to-day needs and had compassion on their current suffering as He healed, fed, forgave, and taught. But He wanted to do more than take care of today. He wanted those around Him to follow Him, to know Him, and to reach their divine potential.”  He suggested that a minister is more than a friend, and quoting the ministering website, “Our efforts should be guided by the desire to help others achieve a deeper individual conversion and become more like the Savior.”  Surely service, as Ammon showed, is key to ministering and missionary work, but in and of itself it is not complete in doing what the Savior has asked us to do when on His errand.  To minister as He did we must invite others to come unto the Lord and be changed. 

               I believe that we see this principle in particular in the story of the feeding of the five thousand.  After teaching a large multitude, Christ desired to serve their physical appetites, and He miraculously multiplied the bread and fish to feed thousands of them.  That night He walked upon the water, arrived at Capernaum, and the people came looking for Him.  When they questioned how He had come there, He replied, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye desire to keep my sayings, neither because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled” (JST John 6:26).  Jesus wanted them to seek after Him in order to keep His sayings, to get on the path that leads to eternal life.  But He knew that they came to Him only because they wanted to satisfy their physical needs.  When they said to Him, “Lord, evermore give us this bread,” thinking that He would keep giving them food, He replied, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:34-35).  His main concern was not to feed them—it was to give them spiritual sustenance that would never fail. 

             The Savior showed this focus again when He visited the apostles after the resurrection.  He found them having toiled all night on the boat without having caught any fish, and so He provided them food to meet their immediate needs, saying “Come and dine.”  He then “taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.”  But as with the five thousand, He was more interested in their spiritual progress then their physical appetites.  As soon as He had fed them, He highlighted the supremacy of spiritual matters over physical ones, questioning, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?”  Three times He highlighted to Peter, “Feed my sheep,” in essence instructing Him that spiritually nourishing the people was of far more importance than physical food (John 21:12-17).  The Savior’s life and ministry showed us the importance of service and seeking to help people with their day to day needs, but it also showed the more important need to help others to spiritually come unto Him.