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Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (vv. 28-29)

Hi, everyone! (Let them respond.) We have another story about Jesus today, are you ready? (Let them respond.)

The story begins in the morning, the day after Jesus had done the big miracle of feeding thousands of people with two fish and five loaves of bread. Do you remember that miracle story? (Let them respond.) Let me remind you. Yesterday, Jesus was on a hillside next to the Sea of Galilee when a REALLY big crowd of people came so he could teach them about God. But the problem was that they were a far away from any towns and restaurants and some of the people were starting to get hungry. The disciples went to Jesus and told him that the only food they had was two fish and five loaves of bread, and that sure wasn’t enough to feed thousands of hungry people. Who remembers what happened next? (Let them respond.) Yes, Jesus told them to put the fish and bread in a basket and let everyone come up and get some food out of the basket. People kept coming up and getting food out of the basket until everyone there got enough to eat. There was even a pile of food left over in that basket. While everyone was talking and finishing their food, Jesus and the disciples slipped away so they could get some rest. When the people realized Jesus was gone, they all started looking for him.

Well, that was the story about what happened yesterday. Those people kept looking for Jesus all night, and finally this morning, someone found where Jesus was staying in the town of Capernaum. And you know what happened then, don’t you? (Let them respond.) Yes, all of the people went to find him again. And the crowds were even bigger this morning, because more people had heard about what Jesus did with the fish and bread and everyone wanted to come and see him do it again and get some food from his miracle basket.

They were all excited and shouting, “We are so glad we have found you again!”

Let’s look at the crowd for a second. There are a lot of people in the street, all pushing and shoving to try and get closer to Jesus. Some of them were holding their hands out like cups, hoping that Jesus will give them some more food. (Show your hands held together like a cup and have the children try it.) Some people in the crowd had even brought their own baskets hoping Jesus would give them enough food to take some home for later.

Jesus looked at them and said, “You didn’t come here to see me because you believe I am from God. You came because you thought I would give you more bread and fish to feed yourselves. You didn’t come here because you believe in me and what I am saying, but you came because you want me to give you something. You people need to stop thinking about bread and fish and start doing what you need to do to follow God!”

I think everyone was a little surprised, don’t you? (Let them respond.) They thought Jesus was going to do another big miracle or something for them, but instead, Jesus sounded like he was upset with them. Someone in the crowd finally said, “What must we do to follow God?”

And Jesus said, “If you want to follow God, you have to believe in me. And if you believe in me, you will stop worrying about yourself and you will take care of God’s sheep.”

Jesus was saying that if you want to follow God, you will turn your hands over (show your cupped hands) from a cup for you to keep stuff in (show your reaching-out hands) to hands that are reaching out to help take care of someone else. Why don’t you do that with me. We turn our cupped hands (have everyone show cupped hands) into reaching-out hands to help others (have everyone show reaching-out hands).

That is what it means to follow God.

You know, I think Jesus made some of the people in the crowd uncomfortable, especially those people who had brought baskets to fill-up, or were standing up front with their cup-hands sticking out. And I think it might make us a little uncomfortable sometimes, too. Why do we want to follow Jesus? Why are we here? Are we here to get something from Jesus, or to learn how we can do more to take care of the people around us (God’s sheep)?

Maybe this story will help us remember that if we are going to be like Jesus, our job is to help take care of others the way Jesus takes care of us.

I hope you will remember how much God loves you, and how much God wants us to show everyone around us how much we love them, too.

Let’s have our prayer and ask God to help us remember to do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.