Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand
(This children’s address is based on John 6: 1-15.)
A Theology: Jesus’ miracles of feeding the five thousand and walking on water give relevance to the meaning of his sermon at Capernaum. In his sermon Jesus said, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I will lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” (John 6: 39). The care that Jesus has for us all is further emphasised by the collection of left over food after feeding the crowd. He recognised that even the food which was given to him was a gift from God in which he would waste nothing of it. Therefore, how much more will Jesus look after us? Jesus walked on water to rescue his disciples in a storm. His integrity of care for the things that God has given him goes as far as dying on the cross in our place so that we may have life now and forever.
Theme: Taking care of the gifts from God.
Objective:
To teach that a crowd is made of many different people.
To teach that Jesus takes care of every one in the crowd.
Materials:
A pin-up board to hold pictures of various crowds of whatever is available.
Pictures: 1. a crowd at a sporting venue.
2.a crowd at a music festival.
3. a crowd at a beach, or in a city square
4. a crowd at school or at church.
5. an optional extra, a group (flock) of camels.
Drama Points:
1. To help settle the children, begin as quickly as possible.
2. “Put your hand up if you are going to the big football game this afternoon, the Crows playing Port Power? If you are going or watching it on TV you will part of a very large crowd watching the game.”
3. Place the pictures of crowds on the display board. “Here are a few pictures of crowds at various places. There’s one at a sporting venue, a music festival, in a city square, and one at a school. There’s one thing about a crowd that is common, they are made up of all sorts of people:
there are mums and dads,
boys and girls,
friends and neighbours,
visitors from interstate or from another country,
there are people who are sad because there team is losing,
there are people who are happy because there team is winning,
there are people who are tired, and others who are hungry.”
4. Tell the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. “One day a very long time ago, there was a crowd that followed Jesus. Jesus was famous. He performed miracles and made sick people better. And he taught people a new way to live. No wonder there was a crowd following Jesus.”
5. “That was the crowd that God gave to Jesus for him to look after.”
6. “The crowd that followed Jesus was just like any crowd today, like any crowd that we have displayed on our board. There were all sorts of people that followed Jesus:
there were mums and dads,
boys and girls,
friends and neighbours,
visitors from interstate or from another country,
there were people who knew Jesus and others who didn’t,
there were people who were baptised and others who weren’t,
some people knew the ten commandments while others had no idea,
there were people who were tired, and others who were hungry.”
7. “That was the crowd that God gave to Jesus for him to look after.
8. “When Jesus looked up and saw the crowd that followed him, he knew that they were hungry. At that very moment a little boy came to Jesus and offered up his lunch to help feed the crowd. The boy’s lunch was five small pieces of bread and two small fish probably as big as my finger. That would have been enough to feed a small boy but how would it feed a large hungry crowd?”
9. “Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed to God. He thanked God for all the things that God had given him. Then Jesus began to feed the hungry crowd. It was a miracle, everyone had enough food to eat and there was still food left over.”
10. “Jesus fed the crowd that God gave to him to look after.”
11. “Jesus fed everyone no matter who they were:
he fed the people that knew him and those that did not,
he fed the people that were baptised and those that were not,
he fed the people that knew the Ten Commandments and those that did not. .”
12. “Jesus fed and looked after everyone in the crowd.”
13. “Look around us, we are a crowd in church, we are part of this crowd. We are also part of the crowd that God gave to Jesus for him to look after; we are part of the crowd that followed Jesus.”
14. “Jesus continues to look after us no mater who you are.”
15. Let us pray. “Dear God, thank you for Jesus who continues to look after us no matter who we are. Amen.”
16. An optional extra, a time for fun and humour: “Before you go out to Sunday school, I have one more picture and a question. Here is a picture of a group of camels; can anyone tell me another name for a group of camels? I have a chocolate bar for the person with the correct answer.”
17. More than likely, there may not be a correct answer from the children. This then provides an opportunity to be interactive with the greater congregation.
18. “Who amongst us in the crowd gain give the correct answer for the collective noun for camels?
19.. Answer: A flock of camels.
20. In the end, I broke up the chocolate bar to feed the crowd at morning tea.
