John 6:1-15

¹Some time later Jesus went across to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (also known as the Sea of Tiberias). ²A huge crowd followed him, attracted by the miraculous signs they had seen him perform when he healed those who were ill. ³Jesus went up the hillside and sat down with his apprentices. ⁴The time for the Jewish Passover festival was approaching.  

⁵When Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming towards him, he asked Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough food for all these people to eat?’ ⁶Jesus asked Philip this question to test him – to stretch him to see if he would apply the lessons about Jesus’ identity and power – even though Jesus already knew what he himself intended to do next.  

⁷Philip thought for a few moments, looked at the number of people and worked out the amount of money it would cost to feed them all. He answered, ‘Even if we had eight months’ wages, that still wouldn’t be enough to buy each one a little to eat!’ 

⁸Just then, another one of Jesus’ apprentices, Andrew (Simon Peter’s brother) spoke up, ⁹‘There’s a young boy here with five small loaves of barley and two small fish, but that’s just a drop in the ocean compared to what’s needed for everyone here!’

¹⁰Jesus said, ‘Get the people to sit down.’ Because it was spring, a lot of fresh grass was growing in that place, so everyone could settle down comfortably. In fact, about 5,000 men, as well as many women and children, were there. ¹¹Then Jesus held the bread in his hands and spoke a prayer of thanksgiving to God. He gave it to his apprentices to hand out to everyone sitting down. As Jesus broke and distributed the bread, it multiplied miraculously. Then Jesus did the same with the fish. They all ate as much as they wanted until they were full.  

¹²When all the people had eaten as much as they could, Jesus told his apprentices, ‘Collect up the leftovers. I don’t want anything to be wasted.’ ¹³So they gathered together the pieces that had not been eaten. The leftovers from the five barley loaves filled up twelve baskets. 

¹⁴When the people saw this miraculous sign Jesus had performed, they started to say, ‘This really must be the Prophet we’ve been waiting for!’ ¹⁵But Jesus knew they had misunderstood his mission, and that they wanted to get hold of him and force him to become their earthly king. So he went off again up the hill to be by himself.