"Who's Bringing Lunch?"

Sermon – Aug 2, 2026
Title: Who’s Bringing Lunch?
I think we are all pretty much familiar with the New Testament scripture regarding the Feeding of the 5,000. We
have a little skit for to you today to demonstrate an important part of the passage. I wasn’t sure how to present it
along with the sermon so I decided to incorporate it into the sermon. We will begin the skit and then at a point we
will pause it and I will present some other information about the story of the event. Then we will resume the skit as
it has a valuable message which is important for you to take home with you.
Let’s begin. The members of the cast include Jesus, the disciples - Phillip and Andrew, a Youth, hungry crowd
members and the narrator.
Skit – Who’s Bringing Lunch?
Narrator:
Jesus had been teaching all day. The crowd kept growing… and growing… and growing. Everyone was listening
so carefully that they forgot one very important thing…
Hungry Person #1:
Lunch!
Hungry Person #2:
Actually… I think it’s dinner now.
Hungry Person #1:
I knew I should’ve packed snacks.
Jesus:
The people are hungry. We should feed them.
Philip: (looking around dramatically)
Feed them? There are thousands of people!
(Counts imaginary people.)
One… two… three… four… okay, I give up.
Hungry Person #2:
I vote for pizza.
Hungry Person #1:
I’d settle for a cookie.
Jesus:
Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people?
Philip: (pretends to calculate on fingers)
Let’s see…
Five thousand people…
One sandwich each…
Plus drinks…
Plus dessert…
(Looks shocked.)
We’re going to need… ALL the money!
Andrew: (walking in)
Well… I did find one lunch.
(Brings forward the child.)
This young person has five loaves and two fish.
Child: (holds up lunch proudly)
My mom packed extra.
Philip:
Extra? That’s not extra. That’s… tiny!
(Looks into bag.)
I’ve eaten bigger breakfasts.
Narrator:

The child had a choice. Keep the lunch…Or trust Jesus with it.
Jesus:
Would you share it with everyone?
Child: (after thinking) It’s not much… but if You can use it…You can have it.
(Hands lunch to Jesus.)
Jesus:
Thank you.
(Raises basket slightly.)
Let us give thanks.
(Pause briefly.)
Narrator:
Jesus blessed the food…and began giving it to the disciples.
The disciples gave it to the crowd.
The crowd kept eating…and eating…and eating…
Hungry Person #1: (pretending to chew)
This is the best bread ever!
Hungry Person #2:
I even got seconds!
Philip: (looking into basket)
Wait…There’s still food left?
Andrew: (pretends pulling out more bread)
And more…And more…And more!
Narrator:
When everyone had eaten until they were full…
there were twelve baskets left over!
(Everyone looks amazed.)
Here we are going to pause for a Sermon break….
First of all, the story of the event is recorded in all four gospels. And, it is the only miracle that is recorded in all
four so you can imagine how impressed the disciples were by it to remember it well. The retelling of the event has
some variations in the gospels with some providing more details than the others. Our reading today was from
Matthew but I am also going to refer to the version in John, which gives us some more information, and reference
the other two as well.
There are 4 points revolving around Jesus that we are going to explore.
The first one is Jesus’ compassion for the people. You see, in Matthew it mentions that Jesus and the others
had recently heard about John. Matthew is referring to the news about the horrific death of their beloved John the
Baptist. They are sad and really want to go off and be alone and probably mourn their loss. And, to get away from
the crowds following them they decided to get in a boat and sail across Lake Galilee. But, the people realized
where they were going and decided to walk around the lake to be there when they arrive. Now, Jesus could have
just stayed on the boat for some solitude when he saw them or turned the boat to go to a different area or he
could have told them to leave but as the scripture says, He saw the large crowd and felt sorry for them and he
healed everyone who was sick and Mark reports that Jesus saw the crowd was like sheep without a shepherd so
he started teaching them things. So, we see Jesus’ compassion. He put the needs of others before himself and
He recognized not only their physical needs but their spiritual needs as well.
The second point is Jesus testing the disciples. As we have heard, it is getting late and the disciples are
concerned about the people getting hungry. And, they think Jesus should send them away. In the book of John,
Jesus asks Philip, “Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?” It continues to say, “He said this to
test Philip, since he already knew what he was going to do.” The disciples are concerned about how they would
get the food and also how they could pay for it all. Then Andrew announces that there is a boy with five small

barley loaves and 2 fish. A very small amount but Jesus tells the disciples to have people get into groups of 50 to
make distribution easier. Then he takes the bread, raises it to heaven blessing it and gives thanks for it. Then he
breaks it and gives it to the disciples to pass out. And, we know all were fed to satisfaction. Plus, there was an
abundance of leftovers!
We can apply this to ourselves by asking when we face problems, do we seek human resources first, like Philip?
Do we forget who is standing before us? When we are faced with trials, we shouldn’t focus on the enormity of it
but instead, be quick to turn to the Lord for assistance and guidance. With our human nature, it is not easy but
something we can practice.
The third point is the sufficiency of Jesus. Jesus asks that the meager amount be brought to him and after
offering a blessing, multiples it and multiples it. This is a very encouraging passage because we learn that from
the feeblest of resources when place in the hands of Jesus it can be turned into a glorious amount. The lesson
here is that even a small insignificant action or thing, even by an insignificant person or source can become very
significant and abundant when placed in the hands of Jesus. This should teach us to trust God to take our meager
offerings of skills, time, efforts, resources, and more and to make them useful to His purposes. God can use
whatever we have to offer and when he does, we should make sure we give God the glory, not ourselves. Do you
think the people thanked the disciples for the food? If so, perhaps they might have said, thank Jesus, he is the
one - praise God. We should remind ourselves to thank God for all He does in our lives. For, everything we
accomplish is due to God.
The fourth point is the identity of Jesus that we see in this reporting. John reports that “after the people had
seen Jesus work the miracle, they began saying, “This must be the Prophet who is to come into the world!”. In
Luke, it says that Jesus asked his disciples “What do the people say about me?” “They answered, some say you
are John the Baptist or Elijah or a prophet from long ago who has come back to life.” And Jesus asked them, who
do you say I am, and “Peter answered, “You are the Messiah sent from God.”
The very next day, it is recorded in John 6:35, that Jesus declares to his disciples that “I am the bread of life! No
one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty.”
And now, back to the skit for an important message - if you recall, we left the skit when everyone has been fully
fed and they realize there are 12 baskets of leftovers.
Philip:
I learned something today. I kept looking at what we didn’t have. Jesus looked at what we did have.
Andrew:
I thought the lunch was too small. Jesus showed that nothing given to God is ever too small.
Child:
I only brought my lunch…Jesus made it enough for everyone.
Jesus: (to congregation) When you place what you have in God’s hands…God can do far more than you
imagine.
Narrator:
Sometimes we think… “I’m only one person.” “I don’t have enough.” “I can’t make much difference.”
But the miracle wasn’t only about bread and fish. It was about trusting Jesus.
When we offer Him our time…our gifts…our kindness…our prayers…our love…
He multiplies them in ways we could never imagine.

Jesus: (asks the congregation)
“What do you have that you could share with God this week?”
3 adults in the congregation answer: “my kindness,” “my allowance,” “my time,” “helping my neighbor”,

Cast - All Together:
Little is much… when it’s placed in God’s hands!
The End

credit to unknown for the skit.