Jesus Feeds 5,000 People

Jesus' disciples had been traveling around, preaching and teaching. When they returned, the disciples told Jesus all about what they had been teaching people, and all that they had done. Then Jesus invited them to come with him to an isolated place to rest for a while. So, they got into a boat to go.

But there were many people who saw Jesus and the disciples leave. They figured out where they must be going, and ran along the shore of the lake to get there ahead of them. So when Jesus and the disciples arrived, it was not a quiet place like they had hoped, because they were greeted by great crowds of people.

The crowd had over five thousand men in it, not counting all the women and children who had come along to hear Jesus too. Instead of being disappointed, Jesus felt great kindness towards the people. To Jesus, these people were like sheep without a shepherd. So He taught them and healed their sick.

As it got later in the evening, the disciples told Jesus, "It is late and there are no towns nearby. Send the people away so they can go get something to eat."

But Jesus said to them, "You give them something to eat!"

The disciples responded, "How are we supposed to do that? We only have five loaves of bread and two fish."

Jesus called the crowd to him and told them to sit down in groups on the grass.

Then He took the five loaves of bread and the two fish, looked up to heaven and said a blessing.

Jesus then started breaking the bread and fish. He gave the pieces to his disciples to hand out to the people. The disciples kept passing out the food, and it never ran out! All those people ate and were satisfied.

The disciples even picked up twelve baskets full of leftover food that had not been eaten! All of that was from just five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus had performed a powerful miracle.