Long Ago and Far Away
A curriculum by Dan Harper currently in development, v. 0.1
Copyright (c) 2026 Dan Harper
How To Feed Five Thousand People
Once upon a time, Jesus and his disciples (that is, his closest followers) were trying to take a day off. Jesus had become very popular, and people just wouldn’t leave him alone. Jesus and the disciples wanted a little time away from the crowds that followed them everywhere, so they rented a boat and went to a lonely place, far from any village.
But people figured out where they were going, and by the time Jesus and his friends landed the boat, there were five thousand people waiting there for them. So Jesus started to teach them, and he talked to them for hours.
It started getting late, and the disciples of Jesus pulled him aside and said, “We need to send these people to one of the nearby villages to get some food.”
“No,” said Jesus. “The villages around here are too small to feed five thousand people. You will have to get them something to eat.”
“What do you mean?” his disciples said. “We don’t have enough money to go buy enough bread for all these people, and even if we did, how would we bring it all back here?”
“No, no,” said Jesus. “I don’t want you to go buy bread. Look, how many loaves of bread have we got right here?”
The disciples looked at the food they had brought with them. “We got five loaves of bread, and a couple of fried fish. That’s it.”
“That’ll be enough,” said Jesus.
His disciples looked at him as if he were crazy. There was no way that would be enough food for five thousand people!
But Jesus had spent the whole day teaching people about the Kingdom of God, teaching them that everyone is dependent on someone else. And while he was sitting up in front of the crowd teaching, he looked out and saw that many of the five thousand people had brought their own food with them. He watched them as they surreptitiously nibbled away at their own food, ignoring the fact that many of the people around them had no food at all.
Jesus told everyone to sit down on the grass. All five thousand people sat down. Jesus brought out the five loaves of bread. Being a good Jew, he blessed the bread using the traditional Jewish blessing: “Blessed are you, O Holy One, Creator of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” Then, so everyone could see, Jesus broke the bread, and cut up the fish, and divided it up, so the disciples could hand it around.
Everyone saw that even though Jesus and his disciples had barely enough food for themselves, they were going to share it with everyone. From where he sat, Jesus could see the truth dawning in people’s eyes. All day long, Jesus had been teaching them that the Kingdom of Heaven existed here and now, if only people would recognize it. Now Jesus was giving them a chance to show they understood, and to act as if the Kingdom of Heaven truly existed.
The disciples began to pass around the bread and the fried fish, shaking their heads because they knew there wasn’t going to be enough food for everyone. Yet, miracle of miracles, there was plenty of food to go around. People who had food put some of their food into the baskets so it could be shared. People who hadn’t brought food with them took some food from the baskets. By the time the followers of Jesus had passed the baskets to all five thousand people, everyone had gotten enough to eat, and there was so much food left over that it filled twelve baskets.
And that’s the story of how Jesus fed five thousand people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fried fish. Many people believe that Jesus performed a magical miracle when he blessed the bread and fish, and that somehow God turned a dozen loaves of bread and two fish into thousands of loaves of bread and thousands of fried fish.
It’s easier to believe that God performed the miracle, than to believe that humans could perform the same miracle. Because if humans performed the miracle, that means we could do the same thing today: to share with those who need it, and to live as if the Kingdom of Heaven existed here and now.
SESSION 7: How To Feed Five Thousand People
Top-level educational goals:
(1) Have fun and build community;
(2) Increase “Biblical literacy”;
(3) Build skills associated with liberal religion, e.g., interpersonal skills, introspection, basic leadership, being in front of a group of people, etc.
Educational objectives for this session:
(1) Get to know other people in the class;
(2) Hear a story from the Hebrew Bible;
(3) Be able to talk about one or more incidents or themes from the story, e.g., if parents ask what happened in Sunday school today.
Preparation:
Coming soon.
I/ Opening
Take attendance.
Light chalice with these or other words: “We light this chalice to celebrate Unitarian Universalism: the church of the open mind, the helping hands, and the loving heart.”
Check-in: Go around circle. Each child and adult says their name, and then may say one good thing and one bad thing that has happened in the past week (anyone may pass).
II/ Read the story “How To Feed Five Thousand People”
Read “How To Feed Five Thousand People” out loud.
III/ Act out the story
We will help the children internalize the story by acting it out.
Ask: “Who are the characters in this story?”
Set up the stage area, and have the audience sit facing the stage area. The lead teacher reads the story, prompting actors. At appropriate moments in the story, you may want to prompt the children to think through the following things:
Coming soon.
IV/ Conversation about the story
Sit back down in a group. Now ask some general questions: “What was the best part of the story? Did the story make sense to you?” — or questions you come up with on your own.
Now some questions specific to the story.
Now open-ended questions about the moral of the story. Note that I’ve chosen Bible stories that are also great literature; and great literature resists easy interpretations.
V/ Other activity or free play
Activity specific to the story. Share bread or snacks?
Free play.
VI/ Closing circle
When time is almost up, have the children stand in a circle.
When the children are in a circle, ask them what they did today, and prompt them with questions and answers, e.g.: “What did we do today? We heard a story, right?” — etc. You’re not trying to put any one child on the spot, but rather drawing on the wisdom of the group as a whole.
If any parents have come to pick up their children, invite them to join the circle (so they can know what it is their children learned about this week).
Say the closing words together, or other words of your choice:
Then tell the children how you enjoyed seeing them (if that’s true), and that you look forward to seeing them again next week.
If any children left any drawings or completed coloring pages, post them on the bulletin board before you go.
LEADER RESOURCES AND BACKGROUND:
1. Source of the story
Source: Christian scriptures, Mark 6.32-44. Theological interpretation inspired by Bernard Loomer, Unfoldings (Berkeley, Calif.: 1985), pp. 3 ff.; and Latin American liberation theology.
2. Other
Coming soon.