Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Elisha Feeds One Hundred Men

⁴² A man came from Baal Shalishah, and he brought the man of God food from the first fruits—twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain—in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.”

⁴³ But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?”

He said, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They will eat and have some left.’ ” ⁴⁴ So he set it before them, they ate, and some was left over, according to the word of the Lord.

To Know the Love of Christ

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, power to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand^(A)

6 After these things Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. ² And a great crowd followed Him, because they saw His signs which He did for the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountain, and He sat there with His disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming to Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?” ⁶ He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

⁷ Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii^[a] worth of bread is not sufficient for each of them to receive but a little.”

⁸ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ⁹ “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are they among so many?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, numbering about five thousand. ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down; and likewise, they distributed the fish, as much as they wanted.

¹² When they were filled, He told His disciples, “Collect the fragments that remain, that nothing may be lost.” ¹³ So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴ When those men saw the sign which He had done, they then said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵ Therefore, knowing that they would come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus departed again to a mountain by Himself alone.

Walking on the Water^(B)

¹⁶ Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea. ¹⁷ They got into a boat and went across the sea toward Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them. ¹⁸ The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. ¹⁹ So when they had rowed about three or four miles,^[b] they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. And they were afraid. ²⁰ But He said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” ²¹ Then they gladly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.