John 6 v 1 – 15

Matthew 14 v 13 – 21, Mark 6 v 30 – 44 and Luke 9 v 10 – 17

Lesson Aim

To show that Jesus had power over food

Hook 1: a boy, a packed lunchbox, 5 loaves, 2 small fish and 12 baskets

Have a boy primed to come up with his lunchbox containing 5 loaves and two small fish. Leaders acting as ‘disciples’ can pretend to give out the food and pretend to clean up the leftovers. Using real fish always gets a response from children.

Hook 2: Paper fish and paper bread

Using the same objects as in Hook 1 but instead of real fish and bread use paper ones. Prepare fish and bread so that 10 or 20 other fish are hidden behind the first fish, linked together. You should appear to be only holding one at a time but when you hand over the first one lots of others come tumbling out of your hands.

Hook 3: Questions

What did Jesus have power over? You might have heard stories about Jesus healing people or about his power over nature. In today’s story he shows us how he had power over ……..  well, listen and find out.

Hook 4: Mathematical symbols

As you tell the story display these symbols to make a mathematical sentence.

5 loaves + 2 fish + Jesus = 5000 fed + 12 basketsful

Wait to the end before you add +Jesus. Explain that it is only when we add Jesus into the equation that it is balanced.

Story tips:

With older children it can be useful to discuss the reaction of the crowds to this event when they wanted to make Jesus a king. Why did they want to do this? Why did Jesus leave to avoid this happening?

Application

In today’s story we heard how Jesus had power over what? What other things have we heard in other stories over which Jesus has power? Jesus could only have power over food, illness, nature if he was the Son of God. That is the reason for Jesus’ power, it was not magic. Jesus had this power because he was God’s Son.