Feeding the Five Thousand The Feeding of the Five Thousand John 6:1-14 John 6:1-14

Jesus and his disciples took a boat ride over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus needed some time to teach his disciples, but there were so many people following him that they went up a mountain to try to find some peace and quiet.

But the crowd of people found them anyway. They had heard so much about the amazing things Jesus was doing, they wanted to see him for themselves.

Jesus looked up and saw all the people heading towards them Jesus looked up and saw all the people heading towards them. He looked right at Philip and said, ‘Here they come, and it’s lunchtime, too. What should we do about food for all these people?’ Jesus knew what he would do, but he wanted to hear their answer.

Philip went into panic mode: ‘What! Buy food for all these people! There must be at least five thousand people coming our way! What! We don’t have that kind of money! No way! Too much!’

Andrew was a little calmer and he looked around. ‘Jesus, there’s a little boy here with a packed lunch—looks like he’s got five bread rolls and two fish with him. But that’s not very much is it? I mean, just look at how many people are here!’

The little boy brought his packed lunch to Jesus.

Jesus told all the people—about five thousand were there—to sit down on the grass. And Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish from the little boy’s lunch and he said a prayer. He thanked God for the food. And then he began to hand the food round.

And all those people—about five thousand were there—all those people ate as much as they wanted—until they were full.

And when they were done, Jesus told his disciples to gather up all the leftovers. And do you know what? There were TWELVE baskets of leftovers!

It started with just a very little bit of food, And a boy willing to share what he had —even though it wasn’t much. But in the hands of Jesus, who trusted in God’s great big power to do amazing things, that little lunch fed all those people —about five thousand of them. Can you believe it!

Acknowledgement All art is © Henry Martin Acknowledgement All art is © Henry Martin. Free use for ministry purposes. Not to be used for publication or profit.