Matthew 25:35–40: “For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I was naked and you gave Me clothing, I was sick and you took care of Me, I was in prison and you visited Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’”
A while ago I spoke about the fact that the Good Samaritan is Jesus. Now I want to focus on this passage and explore how Jesus Christ is not saying something here that He Himself has not already done for us. “I was hungry, and you gave Me food.” Let us start with hunger.
He said, “I am the bread of life… I am the bread that came down from heaven. Everyone who eats Me will not be hungry again” (see John 6:35, 51). He is the divine satisfaction. He said that you should long for the bread He gives, that you should long for the bread the Son of Man will give you, because once you eat it you will be satisfied forever. There is a sense of rest, a sense of permanence, a sense of completion that Christ brings—a sense that your search is over, your seeking is over. He is the be‑all and end‑all. He is the destination. He is the focus. He is the satisfaction.
He fed thousands with natural bread, multiplying it for them, and when they kept coming He told them, in effect, “You are looking for Me because you ate the loaves and were filled,” and He told them to desire the spiritual food that He, the Son of Man, would give (John 6:26–27). He is telling them: everything else you can lay aside. “I am satisfaction. I am sustenance. I am the never‑ending replenishment.”
Here He says, “I was hungry, and you gave Me food.” We are the ones who were hungry. Of course, that is not the primary focus of this passage in Matthew 25. The focus there is the Son of Man coming and separating people, but it is clear that we were hungry too.
We were hungry, seeking satisfaction from all kinds of places. Seeking satisfaction from all kinds of avenues. Seeking satisfaction from all kinds of things we wanted to use to meet our needs. But the only Person—this is the truth—the only Person who can meet that hunger is Christ.
You are seeking for human beings to meet your need. You are seeking for a job to meet your needs. You are seeking for a certain amount of money to meet your needs. You are seeking family, children, recognition to meet your needs. But there is a bottomless need in you that only Christ and His infiniteness can supply. That is what Jesus Christ was making clear to those people: they ate something, they wanted it again tomorrow.
Everything you are searching for now—every source of satisfaction you are using—maybe you are depending on drugs, or on some form of addiction, trying to meet needs within you that will not be met that way. It does not matter what you do to meet them. Only Christ is the satisfaction. I am telling you the truth: only Christ is the satisfaction. And He says, “Come to Me.” Come to Him, not anyone else. Let your priority be coming to Him. Let your focus be coming to Him to meet those needs.
Not “come to Me and try to impress Me.” Come as someone who is poor in spirit. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). You do not have any choice. There is no other way. There is no other One. There is no other truth. He is the One.
We are hungry. If you do not know you are hungry, you had better know you are hungry now. Many of our personal problems come from trying to meet our needs through human beings. So we fight them: “You are not meeting my needs.” We try to meet our needs through our jobs. We try to meet our needs even through ministry. So we fight people who do not support our ministry. We fight them because they are not giving us the regard we want in ministry.
We try to meet our needs through all kinds of means. In another place, the Bible says there are those “who devour My people as they devour bread” (see Psalm 14:4; Micah 3:3). People are trying to meet their needs by abusing other people. I know what I am talking about. You feel a sense of satisfaction in the violence coming from you. You are trying to abuse other people, trying to use them to meet your needs. It may be sexual needs—you want to use them to meet your needs. The need will only multiply. It is a bottomless pit of need.
Only Christ gives you rest. Only Christ. He is not giving you rest by saying you will never have needs again. You feel a sense of satiety with Him. That is what I am talking about.
God bless you. See you later.