In Matthew 13:45 and 46 the Lord Jesus says, “The kingdom of the heavens is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all, whatever he had, and bought it.” The merchant in verse 45 is Christ, who was seeking the church for His kingdom. After finding it in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17, He went to the cross and sold all He had and bought it for the kingdom.
In Matthew 13:46 we see Christ’s work in gaining the one pearl of great value. At the cross He sold all, whatever He had, and bought that pearl. The pearl, produced in the death waters (the world filled with death) by the living oyster (the living Christ), wounded by a little rock (the sinner) and secreting its life-juice around the wounding rock (the believer), is also the material for the building of the New Jerusalem. Because the pearl comes out of the sea, which signifies the world corrupted by Satan (Isa. 57:20; Rev. 17:15), it must refer to the church, which is constituted mainly of regenerated believers from the Gentile world and which is of great value. After wounding Christ, the living oyster, we stayed at the cross, remaining at His wound. Then His resurrection life was secreted, covering us again and again, and made us the pearl, the church, taken out of the water of death.
The parables in Matthew 13 reveal that the Lord Jesus came as the Sower to sow the seed and that eventually He gained the pearl. The pearl comes out of the seed. Christ is the seed, and the church is the pearl. The pearl is precious, and the price paid for it was great. The Lord Jesus paid the price, selling all that He had to buy the church. According to Acts 20:28, He purchased the church with His own blood. The Lord Jesus sowed Himself as the seed, paid the price, and eventually gained the pearl.
One day a Canaanite woman cried out to the Lord Jesus saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is badly demon-possessed!” (Matt. 15:22). The Lord told her that He “was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 24). Then, realizing that she was not a child of Israel, she said, “Lord, help me!” (v. 25). The Lord answered, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (v. 26). The “children” are the Jews, and the little “dogs” (pet dogs, house dogs) are the Gentiles. Here Christ reveals Himself as the children’s bread. The Canaanite woman considered Him the Lord, the Son of David, a royal descendant, great and high to reign. But He unveiled Himself to her as small pieces of bread, good for food. Although the woman’s request has nothing to do with eating, the Lord purposely referred her to the matter of eating in order to show her that she needs inward nourishing. He caused her to realize that He was bread for the feeding of the hungry children, that He was dispensing Himself to others as their inner life supply.
When the Lord Jesus referred to the Canaanite woman as a little dog, she said, “Yes, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (v. 27). The Canaanite woman, not offended by the Lord’s word, but rather admitting that she was a heathen dog, considered that at that time Christ, after being rejected by the children, the Jews, became “crumbs” under the table as a portion to the Gentiles. The holy land of Israel was the table on which Christ, the heavenly bread, came as a portion to the children of Israel. But they threw Him off the table to the “ground,” the Gentile country, so that He became broken crumbs as a portion to the Gentiles. What a realization this Gentile woman had concerning Christ! We also need to realize that Christ has been cast off the table by the Israelites and is now in the Gentile world, that He, the bread of life from heaven, is where the dogs are. As the crumbs under the table, the edible Christ is near to us.
Feeding is a matter of dispensing. The Greek word for economy, or dispensation (oikonomia), comes from a root that means to distribute food. In chapter fifteen of the Gospel of Matthew we see Christ dispensing Himself as bread, as nourishing food, as the element of the life supply, to satisfy the hungry ones. This indicates that God’s economy is not a matter of outward things but of Christ coming into us as food. For this, we need to take Christ in by eating Him as bread, even as the crumbs under the table.