Focus Passage: John 6:1-15 (NASB)
1 After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, *This word is present tense in the Greek, but it has been translated as past tense to conform to modern usage.said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” 6 This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. 7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred *The denarius was equivalent to a day’s wagesdenarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, *This word is present tense in the Greek, but it has been translated as past tense to conform to modern usage.said to Him, 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. 12 When they were filled, He *This word is present tense in the Greek, but it has been translated as past tense to conform to modern usage.said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
15 So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Read John 6:1-15 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
When Jesus miraculously fed the crowd of over 5,000 people, He became incredibly famous. Jesus was very popular before, but this miracle changed how people saw Him. However, none of this would have happened had it not been for an often minimized character in this story: A small boy who happened to be the only person to have made this journey who had food left.
When we look a little closer at what was happening, Jesus asks the disciples for food and whether they had some food, but discounted it because it was way too little, or whether they simply had none, only a small boy was willing to let Jesus have his small supper.
Perhaps there was food left among a few of those in the crowd, but from what we read in the discussion between Jesus and His disciples, the assumption is that there is no food left among this large group of people – that is until a boy is found who happens to be offering his lunch to Jesus.
While the miracle was incredible, chances are that the boy who gave the food to Jesus was the one who shared what happened even more than anyone else. For the rest of this man’s life, he would remember back to the time he followed Jesus to the other side of the lake and who was the only one willing to share the little he had with Jesus.
If anyone in this event demonstrated faith in Jesus, it was this boy. This boy was not only unusually wise for someone his age, he demonstrated generosity and self-control when everyone else in the crowd was either not generous with what they had, or they lacked the foresight to bring food with them and/or self-control to not eat all the food they had brought.
This can teach me that not only should I exercise self-control and wisdom with what I have been blessed with, I should also be generous with what I have. Who knows? God may use it to bless more people than I could ever imagine.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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