I really can’t resist the first reading from Isaiah because I have heard it at many funerals, including those of my parents. How could one not be drawn to a reading that describes a table carefully and lovingly set with “rich food and choice wines?” It sounds like a meal at my grandparents’ home at Christmas. Isaiah goes overboard in his description as he elaborates, “… juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” It makes one want to smack one’s lips in anticipation of this feast God is so carefully preparing “on this mountain.”
Last week we heard the image of the vineyard which portrayed God’s loving care for the people of Israel and for all humankind. Today, we are invited to imagine a rich banquet on a holy and safe mountain, as another sign of God’s endless love and care for us. The meal is also a type for the messianic banquet God will prepare for people who feel hopeless and who long for the day of the Lord. It is a longing expressed throughout the Hebrew scriptures, especially in the Psalms (e.g. “My soul waits for the Lord who is our help and our shield.” Ps 33:20)
In the previous chapter Isaiah described the coming of the day of judgment. Even the earth will suffer the consequences of people’s sins: “the earth lies polluted (24:5)…the wine dries up, the vine languishes (v. 7)…all joy has reached its eventide; all gladness of the earth is banished” ( v.11). Israel felt divine judgment in a very special way, she was taken into exile. The preceding chapter 24 ends with the prediction of cosmic collapse, a punishment for breaking the covenant.
As God’s mouthpiece Isaiah spoke a word of hope to the Israelites who had returned from their exile, but were now under Persia, the ruling world power (Isaiah chapters 24-27). He reminded the people that just as God had freed them from slavery, so God would do it again and bring the people to a place of safety and encounter with God. There, God would care for them and serve them the best food and drink. Isaiah, like preachers today, spoke a word of hope, on God’s behalf, to people under harsh circumstances.
Isaiah said the banquet would be on a mountain. Mountains were special places primitive people would go to be and converse with the deities. Today, we come to this worship place, this “holy mountain,” where we listen to and converse with our God in the liturgy of the Word. Then, on this mountain, God fulfills the promise to feed us the best food and drink God can provide, Jesus our Messiah and Savior.
What word of hope do those who come to church today need to hear? We all need to hear God’s intention to bring us some relief from what presses us down and what scatters our minds with anxiety. The God Isaiah presents to us today is a God of surprises and reversals, whom we can hope in with confidence for what we have not yet seen, nor imagined at this moment?
The prophet is not out of touch with our human condition. In the previous chapters he gave a catalog of hardships we humans suffer: war, deprivation, natural disasters, etc. But he holds up hope for us as he presents the “God of Reversals.” We hear many references to this God in the Scriptures. For example, in Mary’s “Magnificat” and in the angel Gabriel’s promise to her, “For nothing will be impossible with God” (1:37). Today we are promised that God is preparing a table for those who are “veiled” by death and who weep tears of pain and loss. God can break in at any time in our lives and change what seems impossible in the light of current events. This “God of Reversals” is the one Isaiah invites us to listen to and hope in at our at the banquet table today.
Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s promise. He provided a rich meal for all people. During his lifetime he showed preference at his table for the poor, despised and unacceptable. Those with whom he ate reveal his desire for us. We who gather at this Eucharist, the table of “rich food and choice wine,” must also welcome the least, not only to our table, but also into our lives, as Jesus did. At our table should be his favored guests — the poor, outsider and disregarded.
In the gospel today we seem to leave Isaiah’s hospitable and peaceful banquet table. Matthew also emphasizes the importance of the meal. But it is not just a feast, but a wedding banquet for a king’s son and there is an urgent need for those who receive the invitation to respond. In Jesus, God has inaugurated a new reign.
and set a table for the long-awaited messianic banquet. Isaiah promised God’s actions in the future, but Matthew proclaims the presence now of God’s reign and a response to the invitation, to come, eat and celebrate, is required.
Jesus tells the parable because his ways have been criticized by the “chief priests and elders of the people.” They have rejected him so now he turns to and welcomes the poor, sinners, and outsiders. Matthew emphasizes, not only the importance of the meal, but the urgent need we have to respond to God’s invitation to feast. In the parable those who did respond to the invitation, “bad and good alike,” did so with alacrity and enthusiasm. They knew a good thing when they heard it and so grasped it immediately, filling the banquet hall just as the king had wanted for his son.
As we gather at the banquet table in worship today look around. Who is at the table with us? Is it an inclusive table where all are respected and fed? Do we feel welcome, if we are an “outsider?” Or, if we are one of the “regulars,” how do we welcome people we do not recognize or who, from their clothing, race and language, differ from us?
Isaiah tells us the feast is meant for all people. As Jesus’ disciples we are called, not only to the table, but to make sure it is a table of welcome for all