Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

 Taken from:  Matthew 14:13-21,  Mark 6:30-44,  Luke 9:10-17,  and John 6:1-15

When the apostles returned, to Jesus from their ministry journey they told Jesus everything they had done and what they had taught.  Then Jesus said, "Let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile."  Jesus said this because there were so many people coming and going, that Jesus and His apostles didn't even have time to eat.  Then Jesus and His apostles slipped quietly away with Hi apostles, they left by boat for a quiet place where they could be alone.  They crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee toward the town of Bethsaida.

But many people recognized Jesus and saw them leaving, and the crowds of people found out where Jesus was going.   People from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of Jesus and the apostles, and the huge crowds of people kept following Jesus wherever He went.  As Jesus stepped from the boat He saw the huge crowds of people coming to look for Him.  And Jesus had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.  They saw Jesus' miracles as He healed the sick.  He welcome them and began teaching them many things, and He taught them about the Kingdom of God, and He healed those who were sick.

Then Jesus started up the mountain and He sat down on the mountain side with His disciples sitting down around Him.  You see it was getting close for the yearly Jewish Passover celebration.

Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to Jesus and said, "Teacher, send the crowds of people away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night.  There is nothing to eat here in this remote place, and it's already getting late."  But Jesus said, "You feed them."  The disciples said, "are You wanting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd of people?"  For there were about five thousand men there.  And turning to Philip, Jesus asked, "Philip, where can we buy bread, to feed all these people?"

You see, Jesu was testing Philip, for Jesus already knew what He was going to do.  Then Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, it would take a small fortune to feed all of these people.  Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!  For two hundred denarius wouldn't be enough."  You see a denarius was equal to a man's wage for a full day.

Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Jesus,  "There is a young boy here with five loaves of barley bread and two small fish.  But what good is that with such a large crowd of people?"  You see Andrew was thinking like we would, he knew that two small fish and five loaves of bread couldn't possible feed five thousand people.  Andrew wasn't thinking straight, he had seen Jesus do many miracles and Jesus was fixing to do another miracle.  What did Jesus do? 

Then Jesus said, "Tell everyone to sit down on the green grass in groups of about fifty people each."  There were five thousand men there, and that wasn't even counting the women and children.  So they all sat down on the grassy slopes in groups of fifty or a hundred people.

Then Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish, and He looked up toward Heaven, He blessed them and gave thanks to God.  Next Jesus broke the loaves into pieces. He kept giving the bread to His disciples so they could give the bread to the people.  Jesus also broke up the fish and did the same thing do the fish.  And everyone ate until they were full.

After everyone was full, Jesus told His disciples, "Now pick up the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.  Remember there were only five loaves of barley bread to start with, but after the disciples picked up the leftovers there were twelve basket that were filled with pieces of bread that the people didn't eat!  And there was a total of five thousand men and their families that was fed.  What a miracle, Jesus did!