You Give Them Something to Eat

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 2, 2026

Sermon: “You Give Them Something to Eat”     Matthew 14:13–21

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

For the last few weeks, we’ve been listening to some of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom of heaven. Today we turn our focus to one of Jesus’ miracles: how Jesus fed “about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:21) with only five loaves of bread and two fish. In its own way, this miracle also teaches us about the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus had just heard that John the Baptist had been put to death in prison. So Jesus wanted to withdraw from the crowds to someplace quiet, likely so that He could grieve and pray. He got in a boat with His twelve disciples to go across the Sea of Galilee to an isolated and uninhabited place along the lake. But the crowds of people followed Him around the lake on foot, and even got there before Him. When He came ashore, there was already a large crowd there. Matthew’s Gospel tells us that there were about five thousand men, plus women and children. To give you an idea of the number of people, the Rodeo Grounds in Taylor can seat around 5000 people.

You might think that Jesus would have been annoyed or angry when the crowd found Him. Couldn’t they give Him just a little time away? But Matthew tells us that Jesus was not annoyed. “He had compassion on them” (Matthew 14:14). He saw their needs, and His heart went out to them. He especially saw those who were sick among them, and He healed them. When God’s kingdom comes, it begins to set right everything that has gone wrong in the world because of sin, death, and decay.

Jesus’ disciples thought they were being considerate to the crowds when they said to Jesus as evening came, “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” (Matthew 14:15). Jesus shocked them by saying, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16). But the disciples complained, “We have only five loaves here and two fish” (Matthew 14:17).

We need to see ourselves and our society here in these words of the disciples. We have people in need all around us, and Jesus says to us, “You help them. You give them something to eat.” We like to think that we are being caring when we tell people to go take care of their own problems – or when we pass the responsibility to help to some government program. “There’s help over there,” we say, echoing the disciples who wanted to tell the crowds, “There’s food you can buy in the nearby towns.” We don’t want to get personally involved with other people who are struggling. We’d rather let someone else do it. And we like to say that we can’t do more because we only have a little for ourselves. And we forget that we have the God who owns everything standing next to us. What do we have that we did not receive from Him? If He tells us to help someone, will He not also give us the means to do so?

God doesn’t ask us to fix every problem in the world. Instead, He tells us to love our neighbor. That word “neighbor” literally means “the person dwelling near you.” Yes, we can be concerned about people in Africa and Asia who are in need, but most of all, we should be concerned about the people who live much closer to us, that we see every day. As James reminds us, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15–16).

Jesus showed His disciples that He would give them what they needed to carry out His command, “You give them something to eat.” He told His disciples to bring Him the five loaves and two fish. “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. And they all ate and were satisfied” (Matthew 14:19-20). Jesus multiplied what they had so that everyone’s hunger was satisfied. In Jesus’ hands, the five loaves and two fish became enough for more than five thousand people to be fed. But even more than that, after everyone had eaten their fill, the disciples went around to collect the leftover pieces in baskets – and there were twelve full baskets left over. They had more at the end than they had at the beginning, after everyone had been filled. What at first seemed like “not enough” became “more than enough” because of Jesus.

This is the way things are in God’s kingdom. God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). We have no power to save ourselves from our sins. Even when we try to stop sinning, we keep finding ourselves sliding right back into it. And there is no way that we can save ourselves from death. We can’t keep ourselves from dying, and we can’t bring ourselves back from death. So God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He sent His Son Jesus to pay for our sins by dying for us on the cross, and God raised Him from the dead so that we also can have eternal life in Him. Because God has compassion on us, He changes our “not enough” to more than enough in Jesus.

Look at how much of God’s plan of salvation involves God providing in abundance. When God brought the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, He led them out into the wilderness on their way to the promised land. The people thought that there would not be enough food for them in the desolate wilderness, but God fed them in abundance by sending them the manna from heaven, just as Jesus later fed the crowd in the wilderness with the five loaves and two fish.

The prophet Isaiah recorded for us the words that God spoke to the people of His time: “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. … Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Isaiah 55:1–2). When God speaks His Word to us and gives us His promise to establish His kingdom among us, He fills us with His love and satisfies us with His goodness.

And when Matthew describes how Jesus fed the crowd, he points to us to how Jesus feeds us now. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, [Jesus] 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” (Matthew 14:19). That’s very similar to what Jesus did at the Last Supper:

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the [testament], which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26–28).

Some skeptics wonder how Jesus could truly give His body and blood to the millions of believers who partake of communion all around the world today. How could there be enough of His body and blood to feed so many? But as Jesus was able to multiply the five loaves and two fish to satisfy the crowd of five thousand, He is certainly also able to satisfy all of us today with the gift of His body and blood for our forgiveness. So come – eat and drink, and be satisfied with the feast that Jesus delivers to you today.

And think also of the greater feast to come when God finishes establishing His kingdom when Jesus comes again. The Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments describe it as the richest of feasts, a celebration that has no end. God wants you to be part of that eternal celebration. In Jesus, He gives you all that you need for that life with Him in the world to come, and He gives you all that you need now for the life that you live in this world as you follow His command to love and serve your neighbor. “ God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Isaiah 55:1           “Come, everyone who thirsts,

                  come to the waters;

       and he who has no money,

                  come, buy and eat!

       Come, buy wine and milk

                  without money and without price.

2    Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

                  and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

       Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

                  and delight yourselves in rich food.

3    Incline your ear, and come to me;

                  hear, that your soul may live;

       and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

                  my steadfast, sure love for David.

4    Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,

                  a leader and commander for the peoples.

5    Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,

                  and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,

       because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,

                  for he has glorified you.

Romans 9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Matthew 14:13 Now when Jesus heard this [about the death of John], 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.