Did Jesus Experience Financial Pressure?
“For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.”
Did Jesus even think about money? Or did He float along day after day doing miraculous ministry, unconcerned about the “dailies” of life? Here are some behind the scenes snapshots.
While Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, His disciples were in the nearby town of Sychar buying lunch. Though it was mealtime, Jesus did not multiply fish and loaves, nor turn Samaritan water into wine like He had done at Cana just 40 miles north!
Meanwhile, in downtown Sychar the disciples were buying food with cash stored in a moneybox (Gr. glossokomen—box originally used to house a woodwind musical instrument). It was from this purse that Jesus and the Twelve paid their expenses and gave to the poor (John 13:29).
The Gospels record only three times that Jesus created miraculous meals—feeding the 4000, feeding the 5000 and providing high quality wine for Cana’s wedding guests. Though He could have performed daily meal-time miracles, Jesus went to the market like the rest of us. Even the Last Supper was purchased (Luke 22:8-13). Jesus was human—the temptation to worry about life’s dailies hovered over Him too.
This undercuts the view that it is more spiritual to hope for miraculous Last Minute Deliveries (LMD’s) of provision. Sometimes God does perform last minute miracles, like the famous story of the milk wagon breaking down in front of George Mueller’s British orphanage the very morning the orphans ran out of milk!
LMD’s for food were not the norm for Jesus. He and His disciples paid cash for non-miraculous dailies—like lunch in Samaria.
What if Jesus had performed a food-miracle for every meal? He wouldn’t have needed a money box. He wouldn’t have needed women as giving-partners (Luke 8:2-3). And He would have attracted free-loader followers—until the food ran out. Jesus’ miracles were not merely for personal convenience.
Instead, Jesus chose to live by the same economic pressures we all face. He understands the daily pressure of provision. He even prayed, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)
Like Jesus, you need a moneybox. Occasionally, God will provide miraculous LMD’s, but mostly you will buy food. Perhaps the miracle is implementing your fundraising plan by setting some appeal appointments.
Either way, because Jesus was fully human, He understands your financial pressures—and He welcomes you telling Him about them.
