This feast in Isaiah is the victory feast of God!
My family and I recently went on a long road trip and my wife and I did something risky. We made the car trips longer than we had usually done in the past. Our reasoning seemed perfect when we planned it out, but the one thing we did not account for was the long stretches of wasteland between places to eat. Soon, a familiar sound became a refrain in our journey, complaining from our kids about food. We sure learned our lesson for the way back. We needed to account for food as much as we wanted to account for speed.
Now, do not worry, none of our children’s needs were neglected. But it did get me thinking about our Old Testament reading for this Sunday. God understands our needs and accounts for them even at the most basic level. God provides “the richest of fare.” Did you know that phrase comes from our reading (55:2). If you have ever heard someone at their fanciest speaking of the best of food and referring to it as “the richest of fare,” they are getting it from an older reading of our text. Food is important to us all, just ask my kids, but God goes one step further and He gives us the finest and fullest of provision in unending supply, and totally free.
Connecting this passage over to Isaiah 25:6-8 is not a bad idea at all. Because in that feast God is doing the same exact thing, but then it is when we look down the table to where God is sitting. When we look under the covering/pall that is over His plate, we see what He is gobbling up at this feast. He has death, Mot, on His plate. Mot is often portrayed in the ancient world as a great mouth, an eater. Death itself is personified as the thing sent to eat you up, but what is God doing? He is eating the eater! What blessed irony. Even the Apostle Paul points this out when talking about what God did for us in Christ through His sacrificial death and resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:54–57. He says:
“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’
‘O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?’
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This feast in Isaiah is the victory feast of God! There have been many times when God’s people got a foretaste, a sampler of this unending gracious provision, in the Bible. It tasted like Manna, milk, and honey. It tasted like the best of wines at Cana in Galilee and, if you look at our appointed Gospel lesson for today in Matthew 14:13-21, it looked like fish and loaves. God is always giving us a foretaste of that feast before the big day. He made a promise (Isaiah 55:3) all the way back to David and beyond. Graciously and lovingly, He gives us a taste every now and again, here, in church. Every time we come to the altar, we get a foretaste of the feast to come. It is the victory feast of our God in, with, and under the bread and wine which never runs dry. It is more than just a little reminder. It is a remembrance meal of what Christ is really present here to give, when He destroyed death on our behalf. And we get to sneak away with a little from His plate and then rush back to our spots, satisfied for the moment but still hankering for the heavenly feast of eternity with Jesus.
Graciously and lovingly, He gives us a taste every now and again, here, in church. Every time we come to the altar, we get a foretaste of the feast to come.
The Central Image Structure will help you craft the experience of the hearer in the sermon around the central image of food provided by Isaiah in our Old Testament reading and Jesus in our Gospel lesson.
“This sermon structure uses a single image throughout the sermon and fosters devotional contemplation of an image.
In the opening of the sermon, the preacher describes the image for the hearers. The preacher then uses that image as a source for continuing devotional contemplation throughout the sermon: The image serves as a lens through which one views the textual exposition, the theological confession, the evangelical proclamation, and the hearer interpretation of the sermon. Having a single image lends coherence to the sermon.
As the preacher returns to the image periodically throughout the sermon, he may approach it in one of two ways: Through a single focus or a multiple focus.
With a single focus, the image remains the same throughout the sermon. The preacher may approach that image from one perspective (for example, viewing the image from the perspective of the artist who created it) or the preacher may approach that image from a variety of perspectives (for example, viewing the same image from the perspective of different people who come into contact with it), but the image itself remains the same.
If approaching the image from one perspective, the sermon can reinforce a single theme in a variety of situations. For example, the first encounter with the image can establish a theme and then, as the preacher uses the image again in the sermon, it can locate that theme in relation to the text and then, later, in relation to the hearers.
If approaching the image from a variety of perspectives, the sermon can develop or unfold the theme. For example, the first encounter with the image could evoke an interpretation that will later be expanded or even corrected in the sermon. By changing how the image is seen, the hearers are able to track the basic development of a larger theme in the sermon. Each stage of development (like moving from a misconception to a clearer vision, moving from application in terms of one’s relationship to God to application in terms of one’s relationship to others, or moving from repentance to forgiveness and finally to restoration) is captured by preaching the image through a different perspective.
With a multiple focus, each time the preacher returns to the image, he focuses on a different aspect of that image. The preacher may begin by looking at the whole image and then focus upon one detail and then another. Or he may look at smaller details and, at the conclusion of the sermon, consider the image as a whole. If the image is displayed, the preacher may crop the image so only a small detail is revealed, helping the hearers focus on that particular aspect at that point in the sermon. In terms of the progression of the sermon, the image itself serves as a map of the ideas of the sermon, each portion meditated upon at different points in the sermon. For example, the preacher may use an artistic representation of a biblical event to walk the hearers through the text, slowing down the progression of the story to meditate upon various individuals and their experience of the event.”[1]
------
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 55:1-5.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 55:1-5.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/dynamic/imagistic-structures/central-image/
