We might be a bit cautious and suspicious when we read Isaiah’s proclamation that God offers free and abundant food and drink to everyone. What is the catch? But the food and drink offered by God is of an entirely different sort than we might expect. Isaiah wonders at the fact that people are so obsessed with what is fleeting and incapable of long-term sustenance or satisfaction. Television and media commercials provide us with abundant evidence of this dead-end obsession. We seem to be possessed by a frantic pursuit of more or better of everything. Ironically, psychological misery, addictions, economic difficulties and failed relationships seem to have become the new normal. In this context, what does God’s invitation mean?
Water and bread are biblical metaphors for God’s sustaining Spirit. God promises us the necessities of healthy spiritual and psychological life in abundant quantity and quality. This gift will never wear out or let us down. God does not set any preconditions or place any hurdles in our path. No one is deemed unworthy of the divine gift. There is no prescribed ascetical regimen or ritual observance. Everyone is invited to draw near, incline their ear and listen carefully to what God tells them. This is not about reward or punishment but relationship. God will always be there for us and will give us abundant life. All we need do is heed God’s guidance and live by divine principles. The human way of life is strewn with wreckage and pain — the time has come to do things God’s way.
The words from the Letter to the Romans are some of the most important in the Bible. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. No human being can control or block our access to God’s love. The pain and struggles of life are not signs of God’s displeasure and cannot cut us off from God. People have a tendency to blame practically everything for their spiritual or physical predicaments: genetics, society, other people, parents or the failings of others. All of those things certainly have an influence, but in the end we can be sure that the love of God for us is unshaken and unaffected. We are never promised a life without difficulties but we are promised a life in which the love of God will never leave our side. Believing that in our hearts and living by it could transform us completely.
The compassionate care and sustaining love proclaimed in Isaiah was demonstrated clearly in the Gospel accounts of the miraculous feedings. They were not designed to dazzle the crowds but to reveal the nature of God. Jesus had intended to get away for a rest and some quiet, but it was not to be. A desperate crowd followed Him wanting to be healed and encouraged. As usual the compassion of Jesus prevailed over His own desires or plans. At the end of a long and exhausting day, the disciples asked Him to send the people away so that they could find something to eat. Jesus’ response must have surprised them — He challenged them to provide for the crowd. They could only think in negative terms and so they focused on the tiny amount of food available in the form of five loaves and two fish. This is the typical human reaction and it is when fear and the pursuit of “more” usually kick in.
But God’s promise to the people of God was not forgotten. Just as God had provided for them in their journey through the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt, so God provided for them that evening through the hands of Jesus. When people walk with God and entrust themselves entirely to God marvelous things happen.
The greatest miracle is that fear dissipates and along with it competition and selfishness.
In God there is more than enough for all.