Posted 674 days ago
Kingdom Scraps
by Daniel Medina-Hernández
I never thought of abandoned blessings. Have you? In The Message translation of Matthew 15: 27, Jesus replies to the Canaanite woman, “It’s not right to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to dogs.” The woman answered, “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table.” If we continue to read we find Jesus heals the woman’s demon possessed daughter as a consequence of her faith. Later on, we find in Matthew 15: 34-39, that from a small amount of food (seven loaves plus a few fish) Jesus is able to feed over four thousand people. They ate to their hearts content and there were leftovers and in some cases, to be sure, scraps.
This is so like the kingdom, it is from discarded or insignificant remnants that we find God breaking into human history, overturning oppressive circumstances and bringing healing to brokenness. It is in the leftovers & scraps that we find hope.
Perhaps we desire God to provide us with fresh, out of the oven opportunities. If we conceive of our ministry as being unconventional and in some fashion challenging the status quo of “Churchianity”, then we would arguably pray for God to present innovative and “prophetic” avenues of ministry for us. However, I believe that it is in finding kingdom scraps, the discarded blessings God presented to other servants which somehow they felt weren’t going “anywhere” (or God took out of their mouths), and see them as the exact opportunities God intended for us to gladly receive and prayerfully work with satisfied and contrite hearts.
If those pieces of bread taken from children’s mouths happen to fall on the floor underneath the Master’s table, then it is for us – in humility and obedience – to get on our knees and be content with all but a foretaste of the kingdom. For if we are willing to receive only but the leftovers of what God’s intended for others, then we will be ultimately blessed with results beyond our wildest imaginations.
The other day, a friend shared her reflection on this same passage. She suggested the following, “The children who the bread was meant for did not consume the bread as real hungry children in some third world country . . . They could afford to let crumbs fall. . . Like those children, there are many that God has blessed who have not hungered for the total bread and have not utilized the God given meal to the fullest. When we abandon ourselves at God’s feet we will not only be able to benefit from abandoned blessings that others have not used fully for the glory of God – blessings that now fall to us, but we will be elevated to equal and even higher positions because of our humility and submission.”
How have we been humble, obedient and diligent stewards? How have we appreciated the meal God so lovingly prepared for us? Have we shared this meal with others to such an extent that the dishes are clean and there are no leftovers? Let us pray for God inspired leftover recipes and let us share the meals with all who hunger for justice, healing and righteousness.
Daniel Medina-Hernandez was born in 1969 of Cuban parents. He is a Benedictine Oblate and a proponent of the house church movement. Daniel work at Trinity International University-Florida Regional Center and serve in local ministries throughout South Florida. He have been married to his best friend, Kerri, and I for twelve years and have a nine-year old son, Elias.
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