I gave this sermon on August 2, 2026, at Christ Presbyterian Church in Milford, Ohio.
The lectionary text is Matthew 14:13-21 – Feeding the Five Thousand.
Divine Order of Operations. I did well in math throughout high school and into college. Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics – no problems, and I enjoyed it all. Then calculus came, and I struggled. I made it through Calc 1 and Calc 2, but my college thoughtfully invited me to repeat Calc 3. I eventually passed.
Frustrated, I asked the professor if I was ever going to use calculus in my everyday life. He smiled and said, “No, David, you won’t, but the smart kids in this class will.”
Yes, I survived calculus, though I’ve forgotten most of it. “Forgotten” is a strong word; Evidently, I never really learned it!
But I still remember algebra. And I know that five plus two is less than 5000.
Five plus two does not feed a crowd. Five loaves plus two fish do not become enough for thousands of people. It would take a miracle for that to happen. Matthew tells us how it came about.
The gospel shows us Jesus giving thanks, blessing the bread, and breaking it. Then he gives it to the disciples to share with the people. Only then does the bread multiply. Only after it is blessed, broken, and shared does everyone eat.
How about those Order of Operations? Blessed. Broken. Shared. That’s God’s math, that’s God’s formula. That’s how the loaves multiply so that everybody eats.
And if Matthew had stopped writing there, it would already be one of the greatest miracles in Scripture.
In my last couple sermons on Matthew’s parables, you’ve heard that:
- Maybe the parable isn’t about the soil…
- Maybe the next parable isn’t about the weeds…
- Today, I suggest that maybe the Feeding of Five Thousand story isn’t about the loaves.
You see, Matthew didn’t stop writing after the food was blessed, broken and shared. The miracle isn’t over when everyone is fed. Matthew keeps writing because Jesus isn’t finished yet.
The disciples diligently gather up the broken pieces like there has been a ticker tape parade. We find out why in the gospel of John. Jesus said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted.” John 6:12. “So that nothing is wasted.”
My dad used to save old nuts and bolts in baby food jars. He nailed the lids to a board so he could unscrew the jar to take out the hardware he needed for the task. When he had leftover screws and washers from a project, and he always did, he’d pop them into a jar.
Maybe it’s from his days growing up in the Depression or WWII. Nothing was wasted.
Broken crusts. Torn pieces of bread. Fish nobody else wanted.
Jesus considered the scraps worth gathering.
Everyone remembers the five loaves. Matthew wants us to remember the twelve baskets.
We are remarkably good at deciding what no longer has value:
· We throw away worn clothes.
· Replace broken appliances.
· Trade in old cars.
· Walk away from relationships.
· Dare I mention those forgotten in nursing homes?
But Jesus has a habit of stooping down to gather up what everyone else walks past. He gathers:
· Wounded souls and weary hearts.
· Broken homes and shattered dreams.
· Fading faith and fragile hope.
In God’s kingdom, being broken is not the end of the story. Again and again, Scripture shows God drawing near to people precisely in those broken places. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” – Psalm 34:18. God seems to do some of His finest work with lives that are broken. Think of Moses the murderer, King David the adulterer, the Apostle Paul as Saul, the persecutor of Christians.
The Ministry of the Scraps. Steve Reis, the director of Milford Miami Ministries, was here one day in May to get supplies from the church’s pantry when he saw a man sleeping under one of the pine trees. Steve didn’t know if he was homeless or a traveler, and honestly, if you stayed away from the poison ivy, it would be a comfy place to spend the night.
Now, conventional wisdom says we couldn’t have vagrants sleeping under our trees. We couldn’t have wanderers catching a nap. We all knew that. So Steve knew what to do, using God’s math. Steve came back into the church. He didn’t call the police, he didn’t call the church elders. He went to the pantry again and grabbed a couple bottles of water. He picked up some breakfast bars. He got a toothbrush and toothpaste. While the man was still sleeping, Steve quietly left the supplies where the man would see them, along with a card from the MMM.
Steve didn’t know the man’s story. He didn’t need to. He simply gathered one of the broken pieces.
We often admire the miracle that everyone had enough to eat. But Jesus tells His disciples to gather the leftovers. And like a Thanksgiving turkey that is recycled the next day into delicious sandwiches and soup, Jesus has plans for their use.
Jesus tells us to gather the broken pieces. God stitches together what the world has thrown away. The Master already knows the pattern.
In today’s reading, what happens to the twelve Longaberger baskets of scraps?
Matthew never tells us. Maybe that’s because he isn’t interested in their destination. He’s interested in whether we notice them at all. The scraps weren’t discarded. They were gathered. Somehow, the leftovers became part of the miracle too.
That’s where God’s mathematics begins.
How did five plus two become greater than 5000? While we’re busy doing simple algebra, Jesus is revealing the mathematics of the Kingdom. We might not understand God’s mathematics today. Perhaps one day we will be the smart ones in the class. Until then, we will continue to trust in the Lord.
In a few moments…we will do exactly what Jesus did when feeding the 5000. What he did the night before he died. We will take bread. Give thanks. Break it. Share it. Done in remembrance of him and his broken body on the cross.
Jesus keeps teaching us the same lesson: Blessed. Broken. Shared.
· Nothing Christ has blessed… is disposable.
· Nothing Christ has broken… is wasted.
· Nothing Christ has shared… is forgotten.
Over these last few weeks in Matthew, Jesus has been teaching us one lesson after another.
· With the Sower: We learned to prepare our hearts for what God is sowing.
· With The Weeds: Don’t judge the field before harvest.
· With the Quilt: Don’t judge the pattern before it’s finished.
· With the Leftovers: Don’t discard the broken pieces.
In this story, Jesus wanted the disciples to notice how to treat the broken pieces. They were gathered, valued, and carried away because the Master still had a purpose for them.
And just like the disciples did, we need to value the scraps in our society, those who might feel discarded. The tired homeless man under the pine boughs, the elderly widow sitting alone, the exhausted migrant farmer trying to feed his family – they are all part of God’s quilt.
So let’s gather the broken pieces Jesus refuses to leave behind. And as you do, remember Matthew’s lessons to all of us: trust the Master before His work is complete.
To the Lord our God, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, be all glory and honor forever.
