Meditation on John 6:1-14
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY
Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford
Sept. 13, 2026: Rally Day!
Kathy and her daughter, Jessica, left a present for me on my desk a week or so ago. I didn’t know why, at first, the Sunday School teachers gave me a plastic bag filled with rolled up papers. Looking more closely, I realized that they were the prayers their students wrote last fall. Those who couldn’t write, dictated them. They wrote on stationary printed with a Bible verse about prayer. They drew and colored pictures with them, rolled them up, and taped them shut, before including them in a bulletin board on prayer. I treated the prayers gingerly as I opened the sacred gift. I wonder, would you like to know the prayers of our children? As I unrolled and picked off tape, I prayed with them, beginning with a teacher’s “Please guide me in Sunday School.”
One child’s prayer had G-O-D sprawled at the top in capital letters, with a smiling-faced figure, draped in red, floating with a halo. Another was simple and sweet—a smiley face and a heart. Another was a circle with an old school clock face with numbers and hands. I was puzzled, and then I understood. The stationery was printed with I Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances.” It’s about time, isn’t it? Every hour, every minute, every second of our lives should be filled with prayer. Two of the prayers contained colorful rainbows coming out of pencil clouds. Another was a winged creature with long, flowing hair, framed by a triangle of yellow light, surrounded by a blue sky. Two children carefully printed, “I Love God” and one added a child walking hand in hand with an adult through a grassy area with flowers. Another child prayed, “Dear God, we love you so much. You gave everyone a good life.” Another said, “Dear loving God, thank you for helping me have a great teacher.” Another wrote, “Deare God, thank you for the world and pls 4give me 4 asking 4 a sister.” Smiley face. Still another prayed, “Dear God, please keep Miss Kathy happy. Thank you, God.” The child added a self-portrait with his teacher and a flower, with the dictated words, “a tulip for Miss Kathy.”
The Amazing Children of the Bible series continues today with an anonymous boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Except that he may not be a boy. The Greek word translated boy really means child—girl or boy, but could also be a small child, teenager, or slave. I will try to explain. Four Greek words are translated child or slave in the gospel of John. Teknon (τέκνον) in John 1:12 emphasizes a family relationship, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children (teknon) of God.” Teknion (τεκνίον) is the diminutive, affectionate form of teknon, meaning “little children” or “dear children,” but John doesn’t use the word to describe an actual child. Jesus addresses his disciples in John 13:33, saying, “Little children, I am with you only a little longer. … ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’”
The third word translated “child” is paidion (παιδίον), which means a young child, possibly an infant. The risen Christ uses this word when he calls from the shore to his grieving disciples in their boat in John 21:5, saying, “Children (παιδίον), which could also mean infants, “you have no fish, have you?” They answer him, “No.”
A fourth word that may be translated “child” is the affectionate, diminutive form of paidion. Andrew calls the child in this passage παιδάριον (paidarion). This form of the word is found only here and nowhere else in the New Testament. The child, one scholar says, could be the same young, female slave who will make a brief appearance in the passion narrative in John 18:17, “a servant girl–paidiskē (παιδίσκη)– at the door asks Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” and Peter replies, “I am not.” But really, we can’t know if this is true. Especially when other Greek words are commonly used for slave, such as when Mary calls herself δούλη (doule) as she sings her song of praise in Luke.
The only thing that can be known about the child is that they were probably quite young. Indeed, the child doesn’t speak here. He or she approaches Andrew, not Jesus, with his gift, and Andrew speaks for him. In any case, “the ‘child’ was old enough to carry the food for at least one family.”[1] I got to thinking yesterday… without this child in this place, at this moment, when everyone is hungry and there’s nothing to eat, would there be any miraculous feeding of a multitude? Everything hinges on the faithful act of a child, doesn’t it?
Jesus already knew the miracle he was going to do when he says to Philip, testing him, pushing his buttons, “Hmmmmm. Where shall we buy loaves so that these shall eat?” You can imagine the twinkle in his eyes. Philip answers like any good engineer. He does the math. “Two hundred denarii’s loaves are not enough for each of them to get even a little to eat.” Two hundred denarii are about 7 or 8 months’ worth of wages for an ancient laborer.
You and me, we know what’s going to happen as soon as Andrew, identified as Simon Peter’s (probably younger) brother, says, “There is a child here, παιδάριον (paidarion), who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”
We know that this story is important to the ministry of Jesus because it is told in all four gospels; only in John is there mention of a child. His telling emphasizes how the Lord wants to use small, humble, insignificant people to do mighty things that the rich, powerful, and worldly cannot. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:26-28, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…” Does God care about children in the ancient world, when others overlook them and their gifts? Yes. Once again, we see how the Lord historically uses children for God’s loving purposes. Does the Lord love our children today and hear, treasure, and respond to their prayers? Most certainly!
I am glad Kathy and Jessica saved the prayers for me! I will keep them! It is good to see that our young children trust in God’s power and love enough to ask for healing for their loved ones. Sometimes, we might worry that we aren’t doing enough to prepare our children and youth for all that they will face in this world. Will their faith be strong enough to weather the storms? But then we read how one prayed, “Watch over, help and cure Alison!” “Dear God,” prayed another, “Please watch over my family, friends, and especially my papa, who is struggling with Alzheimer’s.” Another, for a grandfather recovering from surgery. “Dear God,” says still another, “I really hope that you can let Uncle Jar live for a long time. Amen.” While all the prayers touched my heart and made me smile, especially as I read the names, some brought tears. I could see how one boy’s growing faith is helping him live out Christ’s call to love God and neighbor and defend the oppressed. He prayed, “Dear God, thank you for helping me and my friend help a kid that was being bullied.”
The child in this passage may have been the only one in the crowd with any food. That’s what we assume. But then again, what if they weren’t the only one with food? What if they were simply the only one to do the right thing? They placed their trust in Jesus and gave generously—all that they had, holding nothing back. Christ multiplied what seemed to be a tiny gift to feed thousands of people, with baskets of food left over! Just think, dear friends, what God can do with all the gifts that we could give the Lord! Can you imagine, sisters and brothers, the countless generations who have heard this story and come to believe because of the faithful act of one child? Now take a moment and consider all who may come to believe when they hear the story from you, in your own words. Imagine how it will be when they come to know and love the Messiah, Son of God, Living Bread, and prophet who has come into the world.
Let us pray. Gracious God, thank you for our Sunday School children and their teachers and families who are leading them to pray and grow in faith, hope, and love. We praise you for the way that you use what seems to be a tiny gift of one child to bless a multitude with abundance—baskets of bread left over. Thank you for this child’s example of generosity and trust. Help us to do the right thing, too. Teach us to rejoice, give thanks in every circumstance, and pray always. Move us to give of ourselves freely, generously, and gratefully, without holding back in fear that we won’t have enough. Stir us to share the stories of Jesus in our own words so that others will come to know and love your Son, the Messiah, Living Bread, and prophet who has come into the world. Amen.
[1]J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John in The New International Commentary of the New Testament series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 346.
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