THE HUNGER CRIMES: the essence of the final judgement
After our recent encounter with Grace (https://thethirdway.org/answering-heavens-prayer-the-story-of-grace/) our hearts were stirred into a deeper search — not only for solutions, but for the kind of commitments that reshape how we live. Encounters like these become invitations. They unsettle us. They awaken us. They call us to look deeper – at the world and at ourselves.
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Matthew 25:31-46 is one the most profoundly revealing, deeply prophetic and theologically unsettling explanations of what the end times will look like. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Heaven and earth will hold its breath as He speaks judgement. I will be there. You will be there. And the first words of judgement that will echo through the universe will be:
(35) I was hungry and you gave me something to eat…
The God of the universe, creator of all that live and breathe, in His first words at the final judgement, will not list our great victories, our support for nations, our knowledge of scripture, or our defence of truth. He will not begin with the heart. No, he will begin with the stomach…
- Jesus starts the last judgement with “I was hungry” because hunger is the most revealing and universal form of human suffering. Feeding the hungry therefore becomes the clearest test of the heart’s condition.
- Jesus begins with hunger because He begins where life is most fragile. He starts with the need that cannot wait.
- Jesus starts with hunger because He removes excuses. Feeding someone requires no theological degree, no training, no special gifting, no spiritual sophistication.
- Jesus starts with hunger because He makes compassion accessible. Anyone can give bread. Anyone can share a meal.
- Jesus starts with hunger because hunger reveals the world we have created. Hunger exposes the systems we build. Hunger is never just about food. It is about economic injustice, social exclusion and religious indifference. No other activity reveals the heart more than how we respond to those who hunger.
- But more than anything else, Jesus begins with hunger because hunger reveals the truth about us. It reveals our priorities, our compassion, our generosity, our willingness to act, our willingness to see
So, if Jesus returns today and we are all gathered before the throne of Christ, what would judgement look like?
The numbers are staggering:
Roughly 1 in 11 of our neighbors face chronic hunger, while nearly 2.4 billion people (nearly 1 in 3) are considered food insecure, meaning they lack consistent access to food. The crisis disproportionately affects the most vulnerable, including women and children and those living in rural communities. It touches God’s children in every corner of our planet, and creates long-standing effects on health outcomes, economic development and even perpetuates conflict.
But the origin of hunger is not a lack of food; it is a lack of compassion.
Our world produces more than enough food to feed its 8.3 billion inhabitants. The challenge therfore is not hunger, but inequality.
- In America alone, food makes up 24.1 percent of all material in municipal solid waste landfills. Approximately 60 million tons of food is thrown away every year, which accounts for 30% to 40% of the entire U.S. food supply. This volume is the equivalent of throwing away about 114 to 130 billion meals annually. The value of this wasted food is estimated to be around $218 billion annually, accounting for roughly 1.3% of the U.S. GDP.
- In Europe, the European Union generates nearly the same amount of waste – over 58 million tonnes of food waste each year, which equals about 130 kg (287 lbs) of wasted food for every person. This total waste carries an estimated market value of 132 billion euros.
- South Africa is no different. A nation where approximately 10.8 million people (17.6% of the population) live below the extreme food poverty line, while 23.2 million people (37.9%) live below the lower-bound poverty line, and 40.8 million people (66.7%) fall below the upper-bound poverty line, wastes about 10 million tonnes of food every year. This equals one-third of the 31 million tonnes of food produced in the country annually, costing the economy an estimated R61.5 billion per year.
BUT, the world’s hunger we seem to tolerate is a not a statistical one, it is a spiritual one.
THE CHURCH AND THE HUNGRY
According to the World Bank’s March 2026 global poverty update, the number of people living in extreme poverty (on less than $2.15/day) is 847 million people. And yet the global Church — the people called by the name of Jesus — holds more than half of the world’s wealth. Christians worldwide earned about $74 trillion last year and collectively steward $160–180 trillion in personal wealth.
The concerning factor, however, is not the extensive wealth of the church but the exponential inequality in society. Hunger is not an impenetrable epidemic. The solution is as simple as it is communal:
- It would take $93 billion a year to end hunger on earth.
- This means: If Christians gave just 0.06% of their wealth, hunger would end. Not a tithe, not 10%, not even 1%, but 0.06%
- If every Christian share 15 US cents a day (R2.00), hunger would end.
The world is not starving because God has not provided. The world is starving because the people of God have not responded.
Let that settle in your spirit.
This is not a word of accusation — it is a word of awakening. A trumpet call. A holy interruption.
The Lord is saying to His Church: “You carry the bread of the world in your hands. You carry the healing of nations in your storehouses. You carry the answer to prayers you have not yet prayed.”
We have built sanctuaries while mothers search for food. We have filled auditoriums while children fill their stomachs with water to quiet the hunger pains. We have multiplied conferences while families multiply their tears.
And yet — hear this — God has not given up on His Church. He is calling us back to the simplicity of the gospel: “I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat.”
Not out of guilt. Not out of pressure. But out of the overflow of Christ’s compassion burning in our bones.
Imagine a Church awakened. Imagine a Church that sees hunger as an opportunity. Imagine a Church that gives not out of surplus, but out of love. Imagine a Church that believes that miracles are not only for healing bodies, but for feeding nations.