Advent Day 23: The Free Feast (Isaiah 55:1-13

Isaiah 55:1-13 (ESV)
“Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.
² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.
³ Incline your ear, and come to me;
    hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
    my steadfast, sure love for David.
⁴ Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
    a leader and commander for the peoples.
⁵ Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
    and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has glorified you.

⁶ “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
⁷ let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² “For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

 

I posted the whole chapter because it contains such amazing promises.  But I want to focus closely on the first verse.

Our entire world economy is built on capital.  Very few countries in the world do not have some sort of currency that is exchanged for goods and services.  Nothing is free.  Everything costs someone something. 

But in God's economy money is no good.  Money cannot buy God's favor or blessing because... God already owns everything!  This is one of the reasons why Jesus said, "only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:23).

 

 

It shocks us when we get nice, valuable things, for free.  We wonder: "what's the catch" or "this must be worthless if they are just giving it away."

But consider the 1987 film adaption of the story "Babette's Feast." It gives a wonderful glimpse of what God's economy is all about. 

One day a woman by the name of Babette appears at the door of two elderly women in rural Denmark.  She offers to be their housekeeper for free and lives with them for 14 years.  One day Babette finds out that she has won the lottery in her native France.  Without telling anyone she begins preparing a feast for the two women and the members of the Protestant pietist sect that their father had started many years ago.  The feast would be in commemoration of their father's 100th birthday.  

At the end of the story the sisters and their guests find out that Babette had once been the head chef of a great restaurant in Paris and had spent all 10,000 francs she had won to pay for the meal they had just eaten.  It was an extravagant act of love.  The people sitting their paid nothing for it.  (This very brief synopsis does not do the film justice.  Please go watch it!)

Jesus has prepared an incredible feast for us.  He offers pure water that quenches our thirst for free.  He prepares the best wine we will ever taste at no cost to us.  Our money is no good in God's economy. 

But there has to be a catch, right?

Heavenly Father, help us to understand and live in your new economy.  Give us faith to trust that Jesus has given us everything we will ever need and is preparing a life for us that we cannot even begin to imagine.  Thank you for the first Christmas when you showed us how much you love us and prepare us for the day when Jesus will come again.  In Jesus' holy name.  Amen.