John 6:4-21

4It was nearly the time for the Jewish Passover Festival.

5Jesus looked up. He saw a large crowd of people who were coming towards him. He said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough bread to feed all these people?’

6Jesus himself already knew what he would do. But he asked Philip this question because he wanted to know what Philip would say.

7Philip answered, ‘A man could work for eight months to get 200 silver coins. But he still would not have enough money to buy bread for all these people. There would not be enough bread for each person here to have even a little piece.’

8Then Andrew, another one of Jesus' disciples, spoke. He was Simon Peter's brother.

9He said to Jesus, ‘Here is a boy who has five small loaves and two fish. But that will certainly not be enough food for so many people.’

10Jesus said, ‘Tell the people to sit down.’ There was plenty of grass in that place, so the people sat down. There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.

11Jesus took the loaves of bread and he thanked God for them. Then he broke the loaves into pieces. He passed them to all the people who were sitting there. Everyone had as much bread as they wanted to eat. Jesus did the same with the fish.

12When everyone had eaten enough food, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not waste anything. Pick up all the little bits of food that people have not eaten.’

13So the disciples picked up all the pieces. They filled 12 baskets with the bits of bread that the people had not eaten.

14The people saw this miracle that Jesus did. So they began to talk about it. They said, ‘Certainly, this man is the Prophet who must come into the world.’

15The people wanted to take hold of Jesus so that they could make him their king. But Jesus knew that they wanted to do this. So he went away to the hills again by himself.

16When it was evening, Jesus' disciples went down to the lake.

17They got into a boat and they started to sail towards Capernaum. It had become dark and Jesus still had not come to them.

18A very strong wind was blowing and the waves became dangerous.

19The disciples were trying to move the boat through the water. When they had gone about six kilometres they saw Jesus. He was walking on the water and coming near to the boat. They were very afraid.

20But Jesus said to them, ‘It is I. Do not be afraid.’

21So the disciples were happy to let Jesus get into the boat. Immediately, the boat came to the shore where they wanted to be.