Matthew 14:13-21
August 2, 2026
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, CA.
Last Sunday, I told you that I grew up with yellow mustard on my hot dog. Today, we have a very big summer picnic when everyone was fed even though almost all of the people with the exception of a little boy didn’t plan to bring their own sandwich or a covered dish to share. They were hungry and even some yellow mustard wouldn’t satisfy their hunger pains.
The miracle of Feeding the 5000 was an important event in the ministry of Jesus. None of the gospel writers missed it. This is the only miracle of Jesus included in all four gospels. Jesus doesn’t preach a sermon nor does he tell a parable.
In my former church, we have an annual church barbecue picnic and before we all get our food, one of the pastors would preach a sermon and there would be singing a hymn and we never forget to pass the offering plate around. Only after sitting for a morning worship is when we go to get our food and for me, a plant-based hot dog with yellow mustard.
But in this summer picnic, there are lots of activity and no sermon! In this miracle, is the embedded message to meet human needs. This is the message for today.
We read that the Roman rule had to keep order to stop any uprisings. While Herod was afraid of the crowd, Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod knew that this would cause a problem. There were disturbances and unrest to the status quo. Against this reality, Jesus just wanted to retreat to a deserted place. But his followers literally followed him behind. On foot, they followed much longer and farther than they expected. When it came to mealtime, they discovered no one has packed any food.
Compassion
The mystery of this miracle to feed 5000 people with only 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, not even enough to feed the twelve disciples who were grown men, is about compassion. Jesus had compassion and invited the multitudes to eat.
When I was leading groups to Israel, we visited the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha, northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. The traditional spot where this miracle happened is now marked with a famous mosaic. At the souvenir shop, you can buy imprints of this mosaic on many things—most of them are on the things related to eating. There are bowls, plates and hot plates. There are placemats with this mosaic on them. And the most curious part of this mosaic is that instead of 5 loaves of bread, there is actually 4 loaves. The missing loaf symbolizes Jesus as the Bread of Life.
In contrast to the brutality of Roman rule, Jesus offers an alternative where compassion overturns social status and power. Jesus attends to the daily needs of the crowds and feeds them. Like Jesus’ own social status as a son of a carpenter, he fixes things like curing the sick and strengthening the weak. He feeds the crowds.
Just like last week’s message on the mustard seed that grows and yeast that leavens, Jesus shows an alternative world in a deserted place where he serves the weak and asks his disciples to give food to the people on the basis of need and compassion. Like a small mustard seed or a bit of yeast or only 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, these things multiply. And we are blessed in witnessing a miracle!
Lakeshore’s Picnic
We are in the middle of summer and probably like Jesus, we just want to retreat from our obligations, get away from the busyness of life, and maybe even take a Sunday off from church. Maybe that’s the reason why there are fewer people here today! That’s perfectly okay—we all need to retreat to a quiet place sometime.
But we think the reason why this miracle appears in all 4 gospels is that it’s about the power of God’s love—compassion. This account of the Feeding of the 5000 was treasured by the early church because it taught the very heart of the gospel message and was a deep source of hope and inspiration for Christians who were seeking to be faithful against great odds.
Today, in so many parts of the world, we see the resurrection power of the story of the fish and loaves coming alive in our midst. It is a story of great power because it demonstrates that God is love. It teaches us what it means to follow Christ. It assures us that God’s power for good is still vibrant in the world.
There are three things that we can learn from this passage. First, the story teaches us that God is love. Jesus’ compassion is not abstract but is the primary motivation to meet the basic needs of all of us. Here, the need is for food. But what else can we do to meet the basic needs of people?
Lakeshore sponsors the Hunger Task Force and we did the hunger walk in June. We provide Thanksgiving meals in November. We fill book bags for those who need paper and pens to go to school. We give to the America for Christ Offering and the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering because there are human needs beyond Oakland and California.
When we do these things and others, we reveal God’s power of compassion in the world, peace in a violent society, and the well-being of families. And in the end, we participate in sharing spiritual wholeness for all people.
The second thing we learn from this passage is that we are called to be disciples. Notice that Jesus didn’t feed the 5000. In our Bibles where the headings might read: “Jesus Feeds the 5000,” it’s a misnomer. Instead, he entrusted that responsibility to the disciples. Inasmuch as Jesus trusted his disciples, God is entrusting us as the Body of Christ, the hands and feet of Christ to do God’s work in the world. God does not work alone, but through people, you and me. To follow Jesus is to express our faith in concrete acts of love, justice., and compassion toward others.
How are we living out our discipleship at Lakeshore? We go out to visit the sick in the hospital or at Piedmont Gardens where many have few visits. We welcome those who were once imprisoned and provide a safe and half-way situation to become valuable people again. We are disciples when we are neighborly to break down the walls of isolation, separation, and denigration because we are afraid of the newcomer.
Like how Jesus empowers the disciples to feed the 5000, he is charging us up as disciples to be in the world.
There’s a story of a group of people traveling on a business trip. Since the meeting ran over time, they were rushing through the airport to catch their flight home. As they barged through the terminal, one man inadvertently kicked over a table supporting a basket of apples. Without stopping they all reached the plane in time and boarded it with a sigh. All but one.
He paused, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apples had been overturned. This man waved goodbye to his coworkers and returned to the terminal. He helped the girl gather up the apples and noticed that several of them were battered and bruised by fallen on the floor. He reached into his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this $10 for the damage we did. I hope it didn’t spoil your day.”
As he was leaving, starting to walk away, the little girl called out to him, “Are you Jesus?” Like how Jesus empowers the disciples to feed the 5000, he is charging us up as disciples to be a compassionate people.
Thirdly, this passage reminds us that when we need it the most, God will give us the power to work for good in the world. Many times, we know that we should be doing more good in the world than we have been doing but we are often afraid that we just don’t have the gifts, talents, or abilities to do so. And we end up not doing anything at all. When Jesus told the disciples to feed the 5000, the disciples thought that it was impossible. The need was so great, and the resources were so few. Have we not felt the same? Jesus is teaching us that when we work together and followed Jesus, we would have more than enough.
As a church community, we have been experiencing a lot of changes and we may have become discouraged. The goal of presenting you with a balanced budget for 2027 will probably mean the tightening of our expenses and leading to some attrition. Some of us may feel disillusioned and wondering what will happen to us in the future.
When Lakeshore works together, we would have more than enough to not just remain relevantbut even to go beyond our sights to participate in where God is leading us to bring good news to others. The power of the Holy Spirit will do great things when Christians join together in unity and faithfulness to God’s purpose for the world. The promise of the story of the feeding of the 5000 is that when we join together in unity and in faithfulness, God will be with us.
We know that this promise is not without struggle and pain. Jesus even had to go the way of the Cross. It is because Jesus went the way of the Cross, the promise is that God will be with us and that God’s intention for love, peace and justice in the world will ultimately prevail.
Our Summer Picnic
Instead of reading that Jesus “looked up to heaven” to bless and break the loaves in verse 19, perhaps we can look up to heaven too. The challenge for us is how many times have we heard our Lord say, “Give them something to eat,” and because of our sense of powerlessness, we turn away from God? If we think our baskets contain nothing, when in fact we have a few loaves and some fish, then Jesus would have nothing to feed the hungry.
Lakeshore has the power to look up to heaven and trust God that we have enough to remain faithful to Christ Jesus in the world. We are called to dream bigger than we have been. We are called to never have the attitude or belief that we only have so little. The God who multiplied 2 fish and 5 loaves has the power to multiply us when we are unified and faithful to God’s promise.
What might our summer picnic look like today?
Go out and tell the good news to your neighbors, families, friends, coworkers, strangers who can become friends that all of us ate and were so filled. And that when we picked up all the leftovers, there were so much that the pieces filled up twelve baskets full. Tell everyone to come and eat!
The miracle is about feeding 5000 men and many more women and children, but there is over 6 billion people in the world today. God is going to work a miracle in us because we are called to have compassion to feed 6 billion people who came without their own sandwiches, without a covered dish to share, and they are very hungry for the gospel good news.
Remember the mosaic in the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha? The missing 5th loaf symbolizing Jesus is going to be with us. Are we ready to sponsor a Lakeshore Avenue summer picnic for the world? I believe we are!
Let us pray.
O God, remind us again and again that we have resources to do your will of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in the world. Enable us to be a compassionate people because you have compassion for us even when we didn’t deserve it. Your grace and mercy are for the whole world and only through us, as the hands and feet of Christ, can your love be shared for all to receive. Thank you, God for this opportunity to be your faithful disciples. Amen.