Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.
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.