Jesus and His disciples were tired. Jesus had been traveling and teaching throughout the region and many people were following Him with the hopes to see a miracle performed by Jesus. To get a break from the crowd, Jesus went up a nearby mountain and sat down on the grass, His disciples following His example. Jesus then put His hands behind His head and fell asleep.
He awoke when one of His followers, a man named Philp, shook Him saying,
“Master, the crowds have caught up with us again. Should we go?”
Jesus pushed Himself off the grass back to a sitting position.
“No. These people are following Me because I am the Bread of Life, the only way to Heaven. And rather than sending them away or leaving ourselves, we must welcome them.” Jesus stood, then turning to face Philp, He asked, “Speaking of welcoming, do you know of anywhere we can buy bread for these people. They are most certainly hungry from traveling such a great distance.”
Philp gaped at the Teacher.
“Surely you know, Master, that 200 days worth of money wouldn’t even give each of these people a bite to eat.”
“Rabbi,” (Which means “teacher”) another disciple spoke up. “Here is a boy with five loaves of bread and two fish. But that cannot be nearly enough for so many people.”
Jesus faced the second disciple, whose name was Andrew, and said,
“It will be sufficient. Now, my disciples, please instruct the hungry travelers to sit down on the grass and wait for some bread and fish to eat.”
The disciples, knowing better than to argue with Jesus, split up among the crowd telling everyone to sit down and wait for food.
Once everyone was seated, Jesus stood on a rock so everyone could see Him. And holding the bread in His hands, He gave thanks to God, saying, “Our Lord in Heaven, thank you for providing all our needs. Amen”
Then Jesus passed the bread to the people seated until everyone had some. Likewise, Jesus stood up again and blessed the fish, and like before, everyone got enough and was full.
Jesus then turned to face His disciples, who were standing behind Him, awestruck at how everyone got enough food to eat.
“Put all the leftover bread in these baskets to prevent us from wasting it.” Jesus said before beginning to teach the crowds of about 7-10 thousand.
While Jesus was speaking, the disciples went about the crowd and collected all the broken pieces. By the time they were finished, they each had a basketful, which totaled twelve.
Some people had watched the disciples pick up the pieces and when they saw the twelve baskets of the leftover pieces of bread, they began speaking earnestly among themselves.
“How did He do it?” wondered one.
“There’s no way anyone could do what He did.” said another.
“Unless God was with Him.” finished a third. She grinned at the others. “I think that this is the Prophet that will rescue us from the Romans!”
Philp had overheard what they were saying and immediately ran to tell Jesus.
“Jesus! Jesus!” Philp gasped when he reached Jesus. “There are people who-“
“Believe I am the Prophet that will rescue them from the Romans.” finished Jesus, looking Philp in the eye. “That’s what you were going to say, was it not?”
Philp nodded, not a little unfazed by this comment.
“I was about to go tell you that I am leaving here.” Jesus continued.
“Alright, let me just go get my bag-” Philp began, but Jesus cut him off.
“I must go alone, Philp.” Jesus said quietly.
With that final remark, Jesus picked up His staff and headed off towards a mountain in the distance.