Come, Drink and Eat! Isaiah 55:1-5

Grace, mercy, and peace…

When you’re thirsty, there’s nothing better than a good, long drink of cool, refreshing water.

When you’re cold and hungry, a warm, hearty meal fills your stomach; it takes away the hunger, and makes you feel warm and secure.

When we need water, desperately so, if dying of dehydration, we’ll do everything we can to get to the water; and when people are starving, they’ll do all they can to find food.

When the soul is thirsty and hungry, we need to do the same; not ignore that hunger and thirst but go to where the spiritual food is found so that faith is fed. For that reason God has given us His Gospel and Sacraments.

In our Gospel today, we hear the story of the miraculous feeding of the 5000.

News is brought to Jesus that King Herod has beheaded John the Baptist. Jesus feels the grief, partly at the loss of his relative and coworker in the Kingdom of God, but also perhaps because it’s a reminder that he would have to die to redeem the world, and in a far painful way than John did.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Jesus tried to leave the crowd that was pressing around him, so he got in a boat and went up the lake a ways, but the crowd followed him, bringing their sick family and friends for him to heal.  When he saw the people, thousands of them, it moved his heart; he felt compassion for them. So he got out of the boat and came ashore and healed many of them.

It was a long day for him and for the crowd; they had come a long way with no food to eat, and they were in a pretty desolate area. Jesus’ disciples said to him, “You need to send them away now so they can go to the villages and buy some food to eat before it gets dark, and they get too hungry and weak to make the journey.”

Jesus said to his disciples, “I have a better idea. It’s going to be really hard for them to make that journey. Why don’t you feed them.” They said, “We only have five loaves of bread and two fish, and there are thousands of them.”

Jesus was giving them an opportunity to say, “You can supply the food.” But they weren’t quite to that point yet where they had that level of confidence in him.

So Jesus told the crowd sit down and get ready to eat. So he was basically promising them a miracle. If he couldn’t do it he would look like a fool. But he had no doubt; he knew who he was and what he could do.

He prayed and broke the bread into pieces and told the disciples to hand it out.

They did and had enough food for everyone, 5000 men, plus the women and children. Then, they collected the leftovers and it was 12 baskets full, more than they started out with.    

In doing this miracle Jesus showed that he’s the all-powerful Son of God, but also that he cares for people in every way, not just in soul, but also in body and mind.

In our Old Testament, spiritual food and drink is promised to all who hunger and thirst for God.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!

Buy without money?

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

What feeds the soul can’t be bought; no amount of money can heal your heart toward God, or buy His love. It’s a gift he gives: grace. Jesus bought it with his life-blood.

Verse 2 -- Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

In other words, the bread we can buy, and anything we can buy, or earn, or do, can’t satisfy the eternal soul; it takes the gospel to do that. That’s why we major in the gospel here; we teach God’s good Word, His law and His gospel.

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Again, the food of the gospel, which is too precious to buy, but is received in abundance by repentance and faith.

Verse 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.

God has food to give that your body may live, but more so, water and food that your soul may live; the Gospel to quench your spiritual thirst, and to satisfy your hunger for righteousness. 
                                                                                                                                                                      So drink deeply of the Gospel, but still stay thirsty for it. Feed your soul every day with God’s Word, but always stay hungry for it.

After confessing your sins, when you hear Christ’s Absolution, drink it in, but still stay thirsty for the next Sunday when you’ll hear that pardon again.  

When you receive Christ’s body and blood at His altar to strengthen you, leave with your soul well fed, but stay hungry to receive it the next time it’s offered.

In our Epistle today we heard Paul’s grief for his countrymen, many who rejected Christ and didn’t feel that they needed His grace. He said he would give up his place in heaven, if they would only believe. But he knew he couldn’t do that. Only Christ can save others.

This is a warning for us to never lose our hunger and thirst for the Gospel. If we do, we end up having what we need least, and lacking what we need the most.  

This is what Isaiah is getting at when he says, Why do you spend your money on what is not bread?

Why chase after what can’t satisfy the soul? Why care for the body, just to neglect the soul? What have you accomplished, in a meaningful, lasting way?

Always stay thirsty and hungry for God; look to Him and go to Him. He says “come to the waters”, and he will satisfy your soul.

 Psalm 23 says, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

He’s more than the Savior of just your body, he’s also the Savior of your soul. He feeds your soul, that your body may be raised in glory and live forever.

Stay hungry and thirsty for Him; His gospel; his Word; his body and blood for you.

In the Small Catechism, Christian Questions and Answers, Martin Luther addresses the need to stay hungry for the Sacrament, and what to do if we start to lose that hunger.

“What shall a person do if he…feels no hunger and thirst for the Sacrament?

To such a person no better advice can be given than that he, first of all, put his hand on his chest and feel whether he still have flesh and blood, and that he by all means believe what the Scriptures say of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7.

Touch yourself to see if you’re still alive. If you’re alive you need what Jesus offers.

Examine your life and see if there’s still sin in it. If you’re alive, there is; and you need the forgiveness Jesus won on the cross, and gives in His body and blood to those who repent and believe.

Secondly, that he look around to see whether he is still in the world, and keep in mind that there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the Scriptures say in John 15 and 16; 1 John 2 and 5.

The world is still a difficult place, and we still need the comfort and help of the Gospel, and as long as we live here, we always will.

Thirdly, he will certainly have the devil also about him, who with his lying and murdering, day and night, will let him have no peace within or without, as the Scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16; 1 Peter 5; Ephesians 6; 2 Timothy 2.

The devil is still alive and well, in an evil kind of way, still hating you, resenting your relationship with God, despising your faith.

You need something greater than the devil to be able to face him down every day. The devil can’t stand up to the Gospel. So stay thirsty and hungry for it; fill your heart and mind with it every day.

As you drink deeply of the Gospel, and feast on the Word of God, your soul is satisfied; your heart is filled with love, and your mind with peace.   

May the peace of God which passes understanding, guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.