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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            If you wanted a story to narrate the Church, this section of Matthew 14 is pretty good. Stories can shape and form us more deeply than simple instructions or descriptions. Stories get inside us and help us tell the story of our lives. And this story narrates the Church, which reinforces our story as Christians. Just to be clear, I don’t mean “story” in the fictional way, but in the sense that these events are told as they happen, and what they mean is not explained. This story doesn’t say everything, but no part of the story does. Even so, it narrates the Church very well. And the story goes like this:

            Jesus traveled to His hometown of Nazareth, where He had grown up, but the people there cannot see past the surface, that this is the carpenter’s son and they know His family. They do not believe Him, so He doesn’t do many powerful signs there. Then John is beheaded, and John’s disciples tell Jesus. When Jesus heard it, He went away by Himself to a desert place. Matthew doesn’t explain. Jesus often goes away by Himself to pray. Or maybe He’s mourning John. Or maybe, because He is fully human, He simply needs to rest His body and His mind. Or all three.

But the crowds hear that Jesus has gone there by boat, so they go there on foot. Again, Matthew doesn’t tell us: from whom did the crowds hear that Jesus had gone there? Someone told them. Maybe a relative, maybe someone in their village; someone who had been healed, or who knew someone who was healed, or who had heard that Jesus had healed. Whatever the case, someone had been there among them and told them that Jesus could heal and where He was. So they go, and they bring their sick. And Jesus sees them and has compassion on them. He doesn’t ignore them, or turn them away, or tell them to wait. He has compassion on them. Earlier, Jesus had had compassion on the crowds because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Now He has compassion on them and He heals their sick.

Did they all believe that Jesus could or would heal? Who knows? Do we? But He does, even today. Have you ever gotten better after being sick? Have you ever cut yourself and it healed? Well, we say, that’s just the body’s natural processes. And who made your body? Do you think it’s a different kind of healing, just because it happened immediately and we call it a miracle? When Jesus changed water into wine, we call that a miracle because it happened immediately. But water gets changed into wine all the time. Take some grapes, crush them, and mix them with water and leave them out. Some yeast will get in there, and you will have wine. It just takes a little more time, and it won’t be as good as what Jesus made. God made the water and the grapes and the yeast, whether wine happens immediately or over time. God heals. Jesus heals. He may wait do it temporarily now—even if He does it instantly—or it may have to wait until the resurrection, but He is the one who heals.

So Jesus heals people until it gets dark. And the disciples say to Jesus, “This is a desert place and it’s late”—which Jesus already knew—“so send the people away so they can go to the surrounding villages and buy food for themselves.” Are the disciples tired? Do they think Jesus is tired? Do they just want to get rid of the people? Or are they concerned for them because they’ve been there all day without food? Matthew doesn’t say. But when they tell Jesus to send the people away, He says, “They have no need to go away; you yourselves give them something to eat.” But the disciples look at what they have, which I doubt is enough even for the twelve of them, and they say, we only have five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus says, bring it to Me. And He commands the crowds to sit down on the grass. Jesus looks up to heaven and He blesses—not the food, but God. We sometimes call it “blessing the food,” but what we are doing when we pray is blessing God—giving thanks to Him because He’s the one who has blessed us with the food we need.

Jesus blesses God, thanking Him for this food; He takes it, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples, and they give it to the crowds. And Jesus keeps giving it, and the disciples keep giving it, and the crowds keep eating, until every one of those thousands of men, women, and children have more than enough, until they are satisfied. And then there are twelve baskets of food left over, which, not coincidentally, matches the number of apostles who only had a little fish and bread.

But that’s not the end of the story, Jesus healing and feeding people according to their physical, bodily needs. No matter how much those people ate; no matter how much you eat—have you done that, eaten so much you say, I’m not eating for days. But you still get hungry again. When God heals you, either by the bodily processes He created or instantaneously, you still get sick and hurt again. Those people whom He healed didn’t just stay alive forever. Even if they didn’t get sick again, they died. Jesus cares for them in their bodies, but He does so not just so they can have a little more life before death. Hear Yahweh through the mouth of Isaiah: If you’re thirsty, come to the water. Come, buy and eat, even if you have no money. Buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for what is not bread? And why do you labor for what does not satisfy? The people were satisfied, but only for that time. There is something more to the story, which feeds back into this story.

Jesus goes on from here, and He even does a very similar feeding a little bit later. But though the people were satisfied with this manna from heaven in the wilderness, they were still not in the land of promise. The word for “satisfied” is related to the word for the “grass” on which they were sitting. Like sheep, their good Shepherd gave them good pasture. We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. But the grass withers and the flower fades. It is the Word of the Lord that remains forever. Listen diligently to me and eat what is good. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear so that your soul shall live. Listening and eating are not two different things. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest these words. What words do we have? Only what Jesus has given us. Jesus says to pastors, the people don’t need to go somewhere else; you give them something to eat. And what is that? What do I have? Only what Jesus has given me. Nothing more and nothing less. Only the living bread from heaven. And this is by no natural process, whether over time or immediately. This bread does not come from anything you can get on earth, though it comes with what earthly things. This is food and healing from heaven, the water, and the words, and the bread and wine. This is daily bread for your eternal life. They do not need to go away, Jesus says. In John’s Gospel, Jesus asks the twelve, will you also go away? Peter says, Lord, where else would we go? We have no need to go away, because You give us everything we need; You have the words of eternal life.

Listen diligently and eat. This story goes on here and now. You don’t just hear it; you’re in it. God knows there are enough people out there who need to eat and be healed, in both body and soul. He puts, oh, 50,000 of them across the street and all around us. And you’re going to be with some of them, or with other people elsewhere. And they are going to be sick and struggling and grieving and hurting and sinning. And they might talk to you about it. And since you know that Jesus heals and where He is, you can tell them. You and I will not have all the answers; we will worry about whether we are saying the right words. Some of them may hear; some of them may not. Some of the may come to hear and be healed by Jesus; some of them will not. Some of them may stay; some of them will not. No matter. That part isn’t up to you.

And what will we offer them? What if we don’t have enough? What if we think they’d be better off somewhere else? They have no need to go away; you yourselves give them something to eat. And we have what Jesus has given us: Jesus’ resurrection life, which means healing for body and soul. He is here, and He does heal, and He does feed. This story will only end when there is no more hunger, and there is no more sickness that needs healing. But the healing and the food of that new life—life for both body and soul—it is available here, for as long as this story goes on.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

— Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 7/31/26