A Boy and His Lunch- Feeding of the 5000
This is a new song and lesson that I wrote. After the song, I created a ready to use lesson plan. This would work great for Sunday School teachers, Children’s Church leaders, Awana leaders, Homeschoolers, Road trips or just something to help bring this story to life. The lesson is ready to teach, just follow along. No extra work involved unless you want to. This could be used as a full lesson or a filler if you need 10-15 minutes or more.
STORY CLUE: Lad-loaves and fish-large crowd Who do you think we are going to learn about today?
Lyrics: These can be used to teach the children the song or can be used as a bible story for younger children or as a poem.
A BOY AND HIS LUNCH
Verse
He was just a young lad who gave all he had
An Adventure that had to be told
A sight to see by the shore of Galilee
It was something to behold
Chorus
A Boy and His lunch
fed a bunch
When he put it in
the hands of the Lord
Who gave thanks broke the bread and many were fed
Verse
He went to see at the sea
the sea of Galilee
He heard Him say
whatcha gonna feed em today
For Him I cared
with my lunch I shared
Break
The large crowd said “This sure is delicious
These 5 barley loaves and 2 small fishes”
Verse
As evening came he told his story
bout his day by the Galilee shore
he said “I had a hunch
bout my lunch”
When I saw the big crowd
I thought I should
have packed more
Chorus
A Boy and His lunch
fed a bunch
When he put it in
the hands of the Lord
Who gave thanks broke the bread and many were fed
Verse
Oh what a tale he did tell
can it be true?
Maybe ask John and perhaps Andrew?
Break
The large crowd said “This sure is delicious
These 5 barley loaves and 2 small fishes”
There was even leftovers
A BOY AND HIS LUNCH
Bible Story: Zacchaeus
Scripture Reference: Luke 19:1-10
Memory Verse: So, he made haste and came down and received Him joyfully. Luke 19:6
Matthew 14:13-21 NKJV
13 When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. 14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Mark 6:30-44 NJKV
30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. 33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.” 37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?” 38 But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. 41 And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. 42 So they all ate and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. 44 Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
Luke 9:10-17 NKJV
And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 11 But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who had need of healing. 12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat. “And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
John 6:1-14 NKJV
After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”10 Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
QUESTIONS
- How many were fed that day? 5000 besides women and children. (Most of the time the only ones that were counted were the men so if you include women and children the crowd could have been close to 10,000)
- After Jesus took the loaves and fish what did He do? He blessed it and gave thanks
- How many leftovers were there? 12 baskets
- In the song, who do you think John and Andrew were? John is the only Gospel writer who mentions where the loaves and fish came from. Andrew is the Disciple mentioned that brought the lad to Jesus.
- Fill in the blank God will take a little and make much out of it, we only have to ___________ it to Him. (offer/give)
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE (FUN FACTS/TIDBITS)
*This is the only miracle that is mentioned in all 4 of the Gospels besides of course the Resurrection.
*This is 1 of 3 miracles in which food or drink is provided. Do you know what the other 2 are? The feeding of the 4000 and the wedding at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine.
*The approximate size of the barley loaves would have probably been like that of Pita bread.
*The word lad means “a boy, a young man.”
*The type of fish the lad had was probably Tilapia as that was a fish that was in the Sea of Galilee and was a small fish.
*The Sea of Galilee is a vast freshwater expanse located in the Jordan Valley about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. Approximately 13 miles long and 7.5 miles wide at its broadest point near Magdala, the sea resembles the shape of a harp.
*Significance of the Sea of Galilee: Jesus called His first disciples there, He calmed the storm, He walked on the water and performed many other miracles around and by the Sea of Galilee
*Were the baskets the same in the feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 4000? No
The size baskets used at the feeding of the 5000 and the baskets used at the feeding of the 4000 were different in size. The Greek word used in Matthew 14:20, 16:9; Mark 6:43, 8:19; Luke 9:17; and John 6:13 is KOPHINOS. The Greek word used in Matthew 15:37, 16:10; and Mark 8:8, 8:20 is SPURIS1. KOPHINOS, was “a wicker basket,” (made of twigs or branches) originally containing a certain measure of capacity. This was a relatively small basket that could be carried on the back to hold provisions, it is believed that they were Ephah size, about 3/5 bushel, (like a knapsack size.)2. SPURIS, was “something round, twisted, or folded together (anything rolled onto a circle)”. So this is a reed basket, plaited, a capacious (spacious) kind of hamper, sometimes large enough to hold a man. It was considerably larger than the KOPHINOS. This is the same size basket that was used to let Paul down from the wall at Damascus according to Luke. (Acts 9:25) This was about the size of a Homer, (a donkey load of about 6 1/4 bushels.) http://www.barr-family.com/godsword/baskets.htm
DISCUSSION POINT
*Do you think this was a snack or a meal?
*Do you think the lad was by himself?
SUGGESTED ACTIVITY
*Have someone retell the story from the Boy’s perspective. Ask the kids “How would you tell the story if you were the lad”
STORY CLUE REVIEW: OK kids, now that we have finished the lesson, does the Story Clues make sense? Can anyone explain the Clues and why those clues were given. (Lad-loaves and fish-large crowd)
Does anyone have any questions about the story today?
Picture of a Kophinos Basket
Picture of what a barley loaf may have looked like
CREDITS: The Woman’s Study Bible, Who’s Who and Where’s Where in the Bible (Stephen M Miller), The Complete Book of People and Places of the bible (Pamela McQuade), The Essential Bible Companion (Walton-Strauss-Cooper Jr), The Ultimate Infographic Guide to the Bible (Joseph M Holden), The Everything Bible. Song written by Robin McMullen, produced by Suno.com and AITubo.com.
