Week 21
Jesus Feeds the Multitude Story 99 – The Gospel Story Bible You will need five small loaves of bread or dinner rolls, a large basket, and a can of sardines for this exercise. Prior to Bible study, show the objects to your children and see if they can guess which Bible story you are going to be reviewing this week. (They may not know what the sardines are, so if you want, open the can so they can see the fish.) Once they guess the story, ask them if they would like to try the same meal Jesus provided for the crowds. Then offer them a taste of the fish and some bread.
DAY O N E Picture It Once a person becomes famous, people want to be around him or her.That is why movie stars, professional sports players, and the president all draw big crowds wherever they go. To avoid the large crowds, famous people keep their travel plans a secret. Even so, as soon as someone recognizes them, word spreads quickly, and more and more people come, often wanting their autograph. That is what happened to Jesus. Whenever someone saw him, they spread the word, and soon crowds would form. But instead of autographs, they wanted him to heal their sick. Although Jesus didn’t announce his schedule, the crowds always seemed to find him.
Read John 6:1–4.
Think about It Some More Back in Jesus’ day, people didn’t have as many kinds of good medicine or as much medical knowledge as we have, so there were a lot more sick people with no cures. Today, we can cure leprosy, treat epilepsy, and even give people artificial legs to help them walk if they are lame. But back then, the doctors could not do any of that. So you can imagine just how exciting it was to bring sick people to Jesus and watch him heal them instantly. If Jesus walked the earth today, we could bring him people with diseases we have no cure for, like some kinds of cancer. So even though we can cure many diseases, the same kind of crowds would form. We would track Jesus via the TV news, and word would spread quickly on the Internet and by text messages. If Jesus thought it was difficult to get away from the crowds back in his day, it would be even harder today. Week 21: Jesus Feeds the Multitude | 113