When a Little Is a Lot

SCRIPT TITLE:

AUTHORSHIP:

BIBLE BASIS:

John 6:1-14

SCRIPT THEME:

Jesus can make my small gifts mean a lot.

KEY VERSE:

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. (2 Corinthians 8:12)

CHARACTERS:

Josiah, the boy who shared his lunch

Mom, Josiah's mother

PROPS:

Ceramic dishes (handmade if possible), a large basket stuffed with fish and bread, a broom

COSTUMES:

Biblical garb

SETTING:

A first-century kitchen, with table and chairs

INTRODUCTION
Let's pretend for a few minutes that our class has been chosen to plan a picnic for 5,000 people! Can you imagine the amount of planning and preparation that would be necessary? Let's see. You'd need a place big enough to hold 5,000 people. Paper plates and cups. Plastic forks, knives and spoons. And, of course, the food. Even if you served something really simple like hamburgers, chips and lemonade, you'd need close to $10,000 to buy enough food to feed 5,000 people - and that's not even counting the charcoal!

We might be able to pull it off, IF we had enough time and money. But, it would be almost impossible for one person to plan a picnic for so many people! Yet, that's exactly what Jesus asked His disciples to do one day! And, they didn't have either the time to plan or the money to spend on it. Let's see what happened.

DRAMA

A first-century MOM is at home in the kitchen, setting the table for dinner.

MOM: (to herself) Sometimes I wonder why I even bother setting the table for dinner. It will be a miracle if there's any food for us to eat tonight. (looking heavenward) Lord God, you've always supplied our need. Help me to continue to trust you.

JOSIAH comes rushing into the room, carrying a large basket stuffed with fish and bread.

JOSIAH:   Mom! Mom, you'll never believe what happened to me today!

MOM: Josiah, wherever did you get all this food?

JOSIAH:   Isn't it incredible!

MOM: (angry, suspecting the worse) Young man, if you have stolen this food, if you have brought shame on our family....

JOSIAH:   No, Mom. Of course not!

MOM: (wanting to trust him, but still skeptical) All right, then. How DID you get it?

JOSIAH:   I was following the crowds with Jesus today, Mom.

MOM: Jesus? That rabbi from Nazareth?

JOSIAH:   Yeah.

MOM: Josiah! I sent you to the marketplace to find work, and instead you spend the day listening to some rabbi telling stories?

JOSIAH:   No, Mom. It's not like that at all.

MOM: (picking up a broom to sweep the floor) Go on, I'm listening.

JOSIAH:   I did find work, scrubbing some old fisherman's nets. When I was finished, he confessed he couldn't pay me.

MOM: What! That scoundrel! Taking advantage of a hard-working young man. Why, if your father was alive, he would....

JOSIAH:   Mom, listen. Instead of paying me with money, he gave me his lunch. A dirty old sack with five barley loaves and two tiny little fish.

MOM: Hmmph! Some payment for a morning's work. But, what's all this have to do with Jesus?

JOSIAH:   Well, I was on my way home from the marketplace, to share my lunch with you, when I got caught in the crowd following Jesus.

MOM: Couldn't you have waited until they passed, and then come home?

JOSIAH:   I tried, but there must have been 5,000 men there, maybe another 5,000 women and children too. The next thing I knew, I was walking along with them, following Jesus and listening to Him. He tells the greatest stories, Mom. One reminded me of you. It was about this woman who lost a coin, and swept her house clean until she found it.

MOM: Believe me, if there was a stray coin in this house, I would have found it by now! But what of this Jesus, (gesturing to basket) and all this food?

JOSIAH: Well, it wasn't long until everyone started to complain about being hungry. I guess they had all followed Him for most of the day.

MOM: Are they crazed? Don't they have families to care for or work to attend to?

JOSIAH:   They didn't seem too concerned about all that. They just wanted to be close to Jesus, I guess. I got lucky. I was near enough to hear Jesus talking with one of his closest followers.

MOM: And, I suppose He told another story that reminded you of me? Perhaps about a widow whose son got lost in a crowd?

JOSIAH:   No, Mom. It was so odd. He turned to one of His followers and said, "Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"

MOM: A good question.

JOSIAH:   Philip looked at Jesus like He was crazy. He said, "We'd have to work for eight months straight to earn enough money to buy bread for this crowd. And even then, we'd only have enough bread for each one to have a single bite!"

MOM: I'm only trying to feed the two of us, and it seems just as impossible.

JOSIAH:   That's exactly what I was thinking, when all of a sudden, I saw Jesus staring at me. It was almost like He could hear what I was thinking.

MOM: What?!

JOSIAH:   It's true, Mom. I knew right then that, for some reason, Jesus wanted my lunch. I got the attention of another of His disciples, and the next thing I knew, I was standing right in front of Jesus.

MOM: The nerve! Taking a poor young boy's lunch!

JOSIAH:   No, Mom. It wasn't like that at all. Somehow, I knew that if I gave even that measly little lunch to Jesus, He could do something great with it.

MOM: (looking again at basket of food) He took your lunch and .....

JOSIAH:   Mom, it was a miracle! He fed 5,000 men and at least that many women and children with my lunch, my five little barley loaves and two scrawny fish! And, there was so much food left over, that He told us all to gather it all up. (gesturing to the basket) The leftovers alone filled 12 of these baskets!

MOM: (astonished) It...it is a miracle! And, this Jesus, He gave you one of the baskets to bring home?

JOSIAH:   Yes. I didn't even have to ask. He just seemed to know that we needed it.

MOM: My son, God has always supplied our need, but never like this. (pause) Where is Jesus now? We must go to Him. How will we ever thank Him for this kindness?

JOSIAH:   I'm sure if we leave now, we can catch up to Him. (pause) Mom, there's nothing keeping us here. Let's leave everything behind and follow Him.

MOM: Josiah, what would Jesus want with a poor old widow like me?

JOSIAH:   Mom, I learned today that Jesus can take even the very smallest gift and make it great. Come on. Let's follow Him!

MOM: Yes. I will!

CONCLUSION
Jesus took a small lunch and fed thousands of people. The boy may not have thought he had much to give, but Jesus knew different. Like the boy's lunch, your small gifts - gifts of your time,

your talents and abilities, your friendship, your help around the house - can be used by God to help others.

PRAYER POINTS

Jesus, thank you for caring about us and for meeting our needs.
Please help us to be willing to share all we have with you, so you can use us to help others.