by Jilene Scherenske
Andrew Brings a Little Boy (John 6:1-11)
Joh 6:1 After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. 2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. 4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. 5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
Now let us move to a different scene. Jesus has preached all day to the crowd gathered in the wilderness. Evening is fastly approaching and the people are now hungry and without food and there are no near places from which to obtain food. Some disciples come to Jesus and urge Him to send the people away (Lk 9:12). Philip reasons that if they had 300 day’s wages they would still not be able to feed these people but a few bites. Then comes Andrew. He simply brings a little boy to Jesus who has 5 loaves and 2 fishes. I am sure Andrew had made friends during the day with this little boy. Perhaps he noticed that he was by himself, for there is no mention of his parents. He could have put down the presence of a little boy who most likely could not understand the teachings of Jesus. Remember some of the disciples on another occasion looked down upon the children and forbade them come to Jesus. Not Andrew. He saw the wealth of this little soul. He must have befriended him that day, loving on him, winning his friendship and confidence. I suppose at one time he might have even asked the boy, “What do you have in your sack? Did your mother send you with a little lunch?” And then….he brought him to Jesus. How the boy must have trusted Andrew in that he allowed Andrew to take him to the Master and he even offered Jesus his lunch, though his own tummy must have been aching to eat it. I wonder if Andrew’s influence upon this lad won him to Jesus, or, for sure, the miracle of his meager lunch multiplying over and over again convinced him of Jesus? Imagine that little boy watching his small lunch being blessed by the Master and then multiplied to feed over 5000! I believe that boy was saved that day, but I wonder if he would have been saved had not the quiet, compassionate Andrew made friends with him that day and then led him to Jesus?
Andrew’s faith was convincing. He did not know what Jesus was going to do with the lunch, he just knew His Savior would do something good. He knew Jesus was able and he did not try to figure out with his own reasonings what that meant. He just obeyed God’s prompting (John 6:38) and brought what he found to Jesus. He knew that no gift was insignificant in the hands of Jesus. He knew he was not wasting Jesus’ time by bringing such a small thing before Him.