Preface for Pastors and Parents
I get all excited when I think about writing a children’s sermon on Matthew 14:13-21. “The Feeding of the Five Thousand” is a story I dearly love. So since I already have a children’s sermon on this coming Sunday’s Gospel, I’m working ahead: This one will come up next summer — it is the reading for “Proper 13(18)” in Year A of the lectionary.
It’s a story with many resonances to life in the church.
- The things Jesus does with the bread strongly echo the Lord’s Supper.
- The scene makes me think of stewardship — we bring what we can and trust God to bless it.
- And of course it goes to the mission of Christ and the church as well, where we do what we can to love in his name, and watch him bless and multiply it.
- Not to mention the parallel to church potluck dinners: There always seems to be more leftover than there was at the start.
But I digress.
At one time or another, the lectionary includes both Matthew’s and John’s versions of this event. Mark’s telling of the story is actually my favorite, but the lectionary doesn’t use it. (I wrote a Children’s sermon on Jonn’s version once.) But here we go with a children’s sermon on Matthew 14:13-21.
A Children’s Sermon on Matthew 14: 13-21
Good morning, kids! I’m so glad to see you this morning. Thanks for coming up to hear the children’s sermon.
I wonder if you’ve ever really wanted some quiet time all by your self. Jesus felt like that one day — but it didn’t work out the way he planned.
Some Time Alone
It had been a hard day for Jesus. He just got the very bad news that his cousin, John the Baptist, had died. So Jesus was really sad.
He said to his friends “I’m feeling so sad about my cousin John. I really need some time alone. Do you think you guys could take me across the lake in your boat?”
“Sure,” Peter said. “Everybody hop in!”
So Jesus and his disciples got in Peter’s boat and sailed away across the lake.
Running to Be with Jesus
But back where they started, a whole lot of people were just arriving. They wanted to see Jesus. They saw him sail away.
“Hey!” said one guy. “Where are they going? I walked four miles to get here and see Jesus.”
“Yeah,” said another. “I wanted him to heal my leg. Now he’s gone. What’s up with that?”
“Looks like they’re going to the other side,” said someone else. “They’re headed toward that big grassy area.”
“Hey, I have an idea!” said someone. “Let’s see if we can get there on foot. Maybe Jesus will still help us.”
“But I’m too tired!” said the first guy.
“And my leg hurts!” said the second.
“We’ll all help each other, okay?” said someone. “You two can ride on my donkey cart.”
So off they went, with the healthy people helping the sick and injured people.
On the Other Side
When Jesus and the disciples came to the shore, Jesus said “Okay guys! Thanks for the lift! I’m going to go ashore and spend a little time all by myself.”
But as Jesus stepped out of the boat he looked up. The grassy field was full of people.
Jesus walked up to the first person he saw, and asked her, “How did you all get here.”
“We walked!” said the woman. “Well, some of us rode on wagons. But we all saw where you were going. So we came as quick as we could.”
“Wow,” said Jesus. “You must have really wanted to see me.”
“We really do!” she said. “A whole lot of us are sick or injured. We were hoping you would heal us.”
“And still you still came all this way?” asked Jesus. “Even though you were sick or injured? You poor thing. Let’s see what I can do to help…”
Healing People
Jesus spent the rest of the afternoon healing the people in the crowd, One by one they came to him. One by one they told him what they were suffering from. And one by one Jesus touched them, or prayed for them, or spoke a word — and they were healed.
Even when Jesus had finished healing all the people, they still stayed around. I think they just liked being close to Jesus — he was so loving and so joyful. But that meant Jesus still had not gotten the time alone that he had come for. And now it was almost evening.
Evening Time
Thomas and Andrew came up to Jesus and said, “You should really send these people away!”
“Why’s that?” Jesus asked.
“Well it’s past dinner time!” Thomas said. “They’ve been here all afternoon. And before that they walked all the way around the lake. They must be really hungry.”
“Yeah,” Jesus said, “they probably are hungry. But why did you want to send them away?”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “So they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food — of course.”
“Oh,” Jesus said, “I thought you guys could give them something to eat.”
“Jesus!” said Thomas. “We don’t have enough food for this crowd! There must be five thousand people here. We barely have enough for ourselves!”
“What do you have?” Jesus asked, his eyes twinkling.
“Five loaves of bread,” said Andrew. “And two dried fish.”
“Okay,” said Jesus. “Bring it all here to me.”
Getting Organized
While Andrew was getting the food, Jesus stood up and called out to the crowd. “Okay, everybody, I have an announcement to make. You’ve all had a long day so we want to serve you some dinner. Could everybody sit down here on the grass please?”
By then Andrew and the other disciples were back with the bread and fish. They gave it to Jesus. Then they sort of stood back to see what he would do. It didn’t look like very much food for five thousand people.
Well, Jesus stood up, and he lifted a loaf of bread up high and he blessed it. He said
Blessed are you O Lord our God
Ruler of the universe
who brings forth bread from the earth!
(That’s the blessing everybody said when they were about to serve bread.)
Then he turned to the disciples and said “Okay, you guys, I’ll give each of you some bread and some fish.”
“What will we do with it?” asked Thomas.
“Walk around,” Jesus said, “and break off chunks of bread and fish to pass around. Make sure everyone gets enough!”
“This will never work,” said Thomas under his breath.
“I wonder,” said Jesus. Then he gave Thomas half a loaf of bread and part of a fish. He did the same for the other disciples too.
Enough — and More
As the disciples broke off bread and fish, and handed it to the people, something amazing happened. They always found they still had more to break off for the next person.
And as each person took some bread and fish, and passed it on to the next person, they too always found they had more to give.
Eventually, finally, everyone had enough to eat.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Now its time to clean up. I don’t want anything wasted. Get those baskets from the boat and pass them around for the leftovers.
Pretty soon the crowd was heading home. And Jesus’ twelve disciples came back, each with a basketful of bread and fish.
“Hey!” said Thomas. “We have more leftovers than we had when we started! How did that happen?”
Jesus smiled and said, “I wonder.”
Wondering
I wonder what it felt like for people to be sick and still rushing all the way around the lake, hoping Jesus would heal their bodies?
I wonder what it felt like to hand out pieces of bread and always find they had more to give?
I wonder if God has ever provided what you needed in surprising ways?
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You are, of course, free to use this children’s sermon, or adapt it as you find most useful. But, if you use it, please do one (or more!) of the following.
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