It surprises some people to learn there's another story about Jesus feeding thousands with a few pieces of bread and fish. In Matthew, it happens only one chapter after the more familiar feeding of the 5,000.
Why do we tend to remember the 5,000 and forget the 4,000? Maybe we just like bigger numbers.
But I've been wondering if Matthew wants us to connect this second feeding story not only to the first one, but also to the story immediately before it.
Jesus encounters a Canaanite woman desperate for her daughter to be healed. Their conversation sounds like a debate about dinner. Jesus tells her, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."
Ouch.
But she doesn't walk away. "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
Touché.
Jesus heals her daughter, a Canaanite daughter.
Then Jesus keeps walking and soon thousands of people surround him. Matthew says that after Jesus heals them, "they praised the God of Israel." That line seems to suggest that Jesus is now surrounded by Gentiles.
And the conversation about crumbs becomes a feast.
Jesus looked at this crowd and said, "I have compassion for the crowd." He took seven loaves and a few fish, gave thanks, broke the bread, and started passing it around.
Nobody gets crumbs. "They all ate and were filled."
Maybe the Canaanite woman saw something about Jesus' table before anyone else did. She believed there was enough grace spilling over even for someone like her. Then Jesus showed just how big the table could become.
That's the strange mathematics of grace. The more Jesus gives away, the more there seems to be. The table gets bigger. The bread keeps breaking and the baskets keep filling!
Let that be a reminder to us when we are sometimes satisfied with handing people crumbs when Jesus is still setting the table for a feast.
Stay blessed...john
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