Children’s Sermon

John 6:1-21

A Boy and His Lunch

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John 6:1-21

A Boy and His Lunch

By Dr. Carol J Miller

TO BE DONE AS A SKIT. The participants need to be male except for the narrator, who can be male or female:

• Pastor as “Jesus”
• A child as “Timothy”
• A child as “James”
• A teen or adult as “Andrew”
• A teen or adult as “Philip”
• An adult as “Narrator”

TIMOTHY: Slow down, James, I can’t keep up.

JAMES: My mom told me I have to be home by twilight, Tim. If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss Jesus. I really want to see him.

TIMOTHY: I wish I hadn’t already eaten the bread I brought.

JAMES: My mom packed me a lunch, but I’m saving it for lunchtime.

NARRATOR: The boys walked on together. As they got to the top of a hill, they looked down into the valley. There were thousands of people! Many must have come from far away. The boys knew they would have to get around this huge crowd if they wanted to see and hear anything. So they did what all children do: they squished and squirmed, and wriggled, and “excuse me” and “pleased” until there was Jesus with his disciples, standing right in front of them! Jesus had stopped speaking. The crowd was taking a break to drink some of the water everyone carried in leather pouches. Everyone knew how important water was in this heat.

The boys could hear Jesus speaking with the disciples.

JESUS: “Well, friends, where are we going to get bread to feed these people? There must be at least 5,000.”

NARRATOR: Philip, a big, strong-looking disciple answered Jesus.

PHILIP: “Master, it would take every penny a man makes for half a year for each just to taste the bread!”

NARRATOR: They all looked worried; everyone except Jesus––he was quiet.

Then James jumped up.

TIMOTHY: (Whispering) Where are you going? You can’t go up there! Sit down! (pause) James, come back!

NARRATOR: James didn’t listen. He found a disciple––he had heard someone call him “Andrew.” Andrew was young. He looked like someone who laughed a lot.

JAMES: Here, sir! Jesus can have my lunch to feed the crowd.

ANDREW: Thank you, James!

NARRATOR: James looked up––Andrew knew his name.

ANDREW: I heard your friend call you “James”. You’d better give this to Jesus.

JAMES: (Surprised!) Me?

NARRATOR: James suddenly felt that his little offering of his lunch looked foolish, but Jesus was already there.

ANDREW: “Here is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.”

NARRATOR: Andrew blushed. Looking on, James saw that Andrew realized that this lunch was nothing.

ANDREW: (Whispering, but loud enough for people to hear) But what are these among so many people?

NARRATOR: Jesus carefully took James’ lunch, smiled, laughed, then let out a “whoop” shouting,

JESUS: (Loudly, with enthusiasm) Make the people sit down.

NARRATOR: It sounded as if Jesus meant (shout) “Lunch is served!” Jesus prayed. Then the disciples
handed out James’ lunch. There was plenty of food for everyone, and twelve baskets of leftovers!

Jesus had only needed one thing to feed this crowd: He didn’t need a truckload of bread or a barrel of fish. He just needed a gift from someone who loved God and, because of that love, cared about other people.

Everything was ready; God needed only one thing, and James gave it: a loving heart!

Scripture quotations paraphrased

Copyright 2013, Richard Niell Donovan