Of Crumbs & Slumber

all these victims stand in line for

crumbs that fall from the table

just enough to get by

all the while your invitation

wake on up from your slumber

open up your eyes

This new NeedtoBreathe song led me to Matthew 15: 21 -28 where we read about the faith of a Greek woman.

For those of you who aren't going to run to your bibles to read the story. This is a quick exchange between Jesus and a Greek lady in which the lady is begging Jesus to remove a demon from her daughter.  Jesus ignores her at first, because he refuses to give her the children's bread.  She then asks for the crumbs.

Jesus states" O woman, your faith is great."

If you read the passage you can see the obvious faith that this lady has.  She trusted and knew that the Lord could help her daughter.  Unlike so many of the Jews present, she didn't implore the Lord to come, lay hands on her daughter, and she didn't bring her daughter to Him.  She knew that he could send out the demon without needing to be present.

The largest evidence of her faith, and to me the hardest to grasp, is that she knew that the crumbs from Jesus would be enough.  Most of us would turn sadly and leave when Jesus said that the bread was for someone else, but she didn't.  Somehow she knew that what she was asking of the Lord was a crumb issue.  

This one gets me.  How many Jews came to Jesus only for the healing that he offered?  How many settled for the crumbs when they could have what is on the table?

Does this story not make you ask:  If the cast off crumbs can do this, what can the bread that Christ offers us do?  Why aren't we asking for the bread instead of the crumbs?  They are available to us, all we need to do is wake up from our Slumber and receive the full meal that God has prepared.