Matthew 14.13-21

I love food!

Do you love food?

Food is an important part of life.  Not only is food the way that our bodies receive the nourishment that they need to survive, we also have a long human history of seeing that sharing food with one another is a way of building relationships and marking some of life’s most important events.

Do you have a meal or a bunch of meals that you will never forget?

Maybe there is a meal that is unforgettable because it celebrated a special occasion like a first date, a wedding, an anniversary, a birthday, or even the passing away of a loved one. 

Maybe there is a meal that is unforgettable because it celebrated a gradation, cancer going into remission, a baptism, a confirmation, an adoption, or a promotion at work.

Maybe there is a meal that is unforgettable because of the family fight that happened while people were eating.

Maybe there is a meal that is unforgettable because of the food poisoning and sickness that followed it.

Or, maybe there is a meal that is unforgettable because the food qualifies as the best thing you ever ate.

I have several unforgettable meals. 

Both unforgettable meals that I am going to share with you this morning surround my wedding. The first unforgettable meal is my wedding meal.  This meal is unforgettable because it celebrated one of the best days of my life.

Besides it being my wedding, this meal is unforgettable because we actually didn’t get to eat any of the food that we were served. 

While I and Kristina were making the rounds to thank all of our guests for joining us, we were served a platter with one of each of the meal choices on the menu.  But, we were so busy connecting with our guests, when we returned to our table, they were already serving dessert.  We didn’t get to eat dessert either because we were busy dancing the night away.

The second unforgettable meal that I will mention today, took place on our honeymoon.  This meal is unforgettable because the food quality and presentation was some of the best we have ever had.

For our wedding, we were given the gift of a 8 course Chef’s tasting meal at Disney’s Victoria & Albert’s.  

During the evening, some of the delicacies presented to us were plates of John Dory, elk tenderloin, and wagyu beef filet. At this unforgettable meal, the best ingredients in the world were cooked to perfection by some of the best chefs in the world.  When the plates arrived, each course looked like the work of a master painter that should be hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Meals can be unforgettable.

In our text this morning, we come as bystanders to to wha would become an unforgettable meal because of the miracle that made it happen and the company that served the meal.

Let’s hear about this miraculous meal as it is recorded for us in Matthew 14.13-21.

[13] Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. [14] When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. [15] Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” [16] But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” [17] They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” [18] And he said, “Bring them here to me.” [19] Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. [20] And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. [21] And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (ESV)

Simple story, right?

People are hungry.

Jesus, the host, feeds the hungry people.

The people leave with their bellies full.

It may sound like a simple story at first, but what is actually happening at this meal is that all of history is unfolding and being brought into the light for the disciples, the guests, me, and you.

Let me explain.

God has always been about feeding people.

And, God has always been about feeding people in miraculous ways.

In today’s text, we see that very clearly.

5 loaves of bread and 2 small fish feed approximately 15,000 people.

But, stories like this, stories of miraculous meals, aren’t odd occurrences in the Bible.  When we think back over the history of God’s interactions with his people, we come across many stories of miraculous meals.  Another one of those miraculous meal stories is found in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is the part of the Bible that talks about history before Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected.

In the story of God’s saving His people through the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, we hear and see God intervening to feed His people while they are in the middle of the desert with no food or water in sight.

While they are traveling from Egypt to the place that God will one day allow them to call home, the Israelites become weary from the journey and the oppressive desert heat.  So, they start grumbling and accusing God of not caring about them.

However, in His grace and mercy, God, seeing their need and being compassionate toward them, allowed bread to rain from the skies every day so that their need for physical nourishment could be met.  

Even though the Israelites were in the desert because of their sin, their disobedience to God’s rules for life and love, God still took care of them in their moments of need.

Today’s story and this Old Testament story of God’s intervening in the human experience to feed the hungry show us clearly that God is compassionate toward those He loves.

At both of these unforgettable miraculous meals, the one very important thing that we need to recognize is that we are no different from the Israelites in the desert or the people on the mountainside with Jesus.

We are hungry and in need of help that only God can provide.  Just look at our lives.  Everything we do is to help ourselves find satisfaction.  The satisfaction that we are looking for is a bit different than the actual food needed in today’s text.   The satisfaction we are looking for comes from a hunger that desires a place of rest, peace, hope, and security.

God sees our need for rest, peace, hope, and security and has compassion on us.  He knows we will work and work and work, but never fully have those needs provided for. 

So, He provides exactly what we need to be satisfied.

Let’s hear what God does to provide for our needs.

John 6:31–35 has Jesus telling us that,

[31] Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” [32] Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. [33] For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” [34] They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

[35] Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (ESV)

This points to a third miraculous meal that I want to point out this morning, the never ending feast that happens in Heaven.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, through being fed by Him, the Bread of Heaven, we are invited to and welcomed at God’s eternal table where every single one of our needs will be met perfectly for all of eternity.

God’s compassion meets our need for the forgiveness of sins that allows us to have a space reserved for us at His Heavenly table.

Only through trusting in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection will you find the rest, peace, and security that you are looking for. It is only through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection that you can have peace with God and know that you are eternally loved and accepted because in Jesus every last fault in you is completely forgiven through God’s grace and mercy toward you.

God provided for the needs of the His people who were hungry in the desert and God provided for the needs of Jesus’ disciples who were hungry on the mountainside 

In Jesus, you are reconciled to God our Father in Heaven.

So, our God is a God who compassionately runs to meets your needs.

But, what about us?

How do we react when people who are in need come into our world?

Well, I would venture to say that many times, we are like the disciples in today’s text.

When the disciples saw that there were many needy people around them, what was their solution?

“Send them away!”

“Let them deal with their own problems.  Or, let someone else deal with their problems. I don’t want to be bothered figuring this out.”

For the times that we have had this mindset and the times that we have acted in this way, we need to repent and ask God for forgiveness.  

In the New Testament book of James, James says this to all of us who have faith in Jesus Christ:

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the the world.” (James 1.27)

The ways of God are completely different than the ways of the world.

The world says, lookout for number 1! 

The world says, take care of yourself and let others take care of themselves.

God says that it is your calling to compassionately love others and consider the needs of others more important than your own needs.

In a book of sermons by the 20th century Swedish Lutheran pastor, Bo Giertz,  he writes:

“God is constantly putting people in our path. And he doesn’t expect that we shall pass on by. It is easy to do that. One can see them every day but not see that their workloads grow, not notice how tired they look, not think that one could and ought to take a part of their burdens. This happens in so many homes where the mother has so much to do but the husband and children, with pure thoughtlessness, pass on by and leave the work to her alone. But it also applies to work life and friendship. There is the man who does not work anymore. No one does like the Samaritan; no one has compassion for him. There are men who keep falling into the hands of robbers: bad company and bad habits. No one speaks a good word to them or tries to give them better friends or a nicer environment. There are complete social classes and entire neighborhoods that are marked by injustice, by poverty and overcrowding and discontent—and thousands after thousands walk on by and never ask about it. And there are whole peoples who live in the darkness of heathendom with all that that means concerning cruelty, barbarism, terror, and spiritual death—and millions of Christians pass on by without lifting a finger. 

The brother whom you shall keep is also the person you see is in need of help who may now be in your own house or your own stairwell or far away in Zululand or South India.”

God is compassionate to you and meets all of your REAL needs.

Go, and be compassionate this week as God was first compassionate to you.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

August 2, 2026