Have you ever noticed how true it is that “time flies when you’re having fun?” The church year is winding down. Advent is fast approaching. We have not yet celebrated Reformation Day and this year it is the big one, the 500th anniversary of the reformation. We have not yet celebrated Thanksgiving Day and the stores are already being decorated for Christmas. Our text for today is one which reminds us that there is a reason for our lives and that our lives are not just “here today and gone tomorrow.” As Christians, as believers in Jesus Christ, we live our lives looking forward to tomorrow, especially the tomorrow of heaven where we will eat eternal manna and drink of the river of pleasure forevermore. Our text for today gives us a picture of the eternal feast with the Lord, a heavenly banquet.
Our text begins with a partial description of the banquet of heaven. We begin at verse six, “6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined” (v. 6). The mountain on which the Lord Almighty will prepare His feast is heaven. In the Bible, heaven is often depicted as a mountain, high above the earth, where the Lord reigns and watches over us.
To help us get a better idea of what will be served at this feast, I want to read verse six from the Revised Standard Version. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.” From the Revised Standard Version we see that fat and cholesterol will apparently not be a concern on this mountain, at this feast, in heaven. This feast will consisted of the richest of foods, the fat things. The best, prime cuts of meat are those with lots of fat called marbling which makes the meat tender and good to eat. It is from the richness of the marrow that our blood cells get their start. The rich bone marrow is what builds and sustains life. And there will be the best wine. “Wine on the lees,” was that wine that was at the bottom of the barrel. When it was strained, it was the strongest, clearest, and most flavorful. What an awesome feast the Lord has prepared for us. Well, what should we expect at a banquet the Lord is giving, only the best!
This is a banquet given by the Lord. This banquet shows us that the Lord always gives the best. Usually these best parts, these fat parts were saved and sacrificed to the Lord. But, here at His banquet, He gives the best, the best parts, the fat parts, for us to eat. He gives the best wine, the strongest, the clearest, the most flavorful, for us to drink. It is interesting, we may talk about what we give to the Lord, we may think well of ourselves that we give our first fruits, our tithes and our offerings, and even what we may believe to be our best to God, but when we think about it and admit it, it is God who is always giving His best to us. And it is God who always gives first.
Our text continues with more of God’s giving. Picking up at verse seven we read, “7And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations” (v. 7). The word that is translated as “covering” is literally, “the covering of the face” which comes from the word for secrecy. And the word “veil” literally comes over into the English as “mask.”
The shroud, as some translations give us this word, was used to cover the face of a person who had died. Truthfully we should admit that the shroud was used not so much to cover the face of the dead person, so much as it was used to cover the face so as to hide us from death. We do not like to see death. We do not like to talk about death. Death reminds us of our sin, perhaps that is why so many churches only talk about a theology of glory, only talk about what good Christians they can be, how God wants them to be well off and so forth. Not too many people want to talk about a theology of the cross, that is about death and especially about Jesus’ death because that reminds us that it was because of us, because of our sins that Jesus had to die, that death is in the world. So, how do you keep from seeing death? You cover the face of death.
This is also the shroud that hides God. This is the shroud of sin and unbelief. Sin separates us from God. While we are in our sin we do not want to be seen by God. Why do we speak in secret? Why do we try to cover our sins? Why do we try to hide from God? For some reason we believe we can actually hide our sins from God as if there is someplace He cannot see or hear. When we are in unbelief we cannot see God, because of our own spiritual blindness. Fortunately for us, our Lord destroys this shroud.
This verse and the next verse serve well to remind us that the fear of death, the fear of our being eternally separated from God, is removed by Christ. The “veil that is spread over all nations” brings to mind the splitting of the curtain in the temple at Jesus’ death. It was Jesus’ death that brought us back into a right relationship with God the Father in heaven. Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, before the curtain in the temple was split in two, a person could not go directly to God, but had to go through a priest, a representative of God. Now, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the way has been cleared. Now we can go directly to God and pray to Him and He will hear and answer our prayers.
The greatest victory is the swallowing of death, physical death and most especially, eternal spiritual death, hell. We pick up at verse eight, “8He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken” (v. 8). Here we see that this banquet will be an eternal banquet, because in heaven there will be no more physical death. Jesus’ death and resurrection defeated death. The greatest victory is that death is swallowed up forever.
There will be only joy in heaven. There will be no more sorrow in heaven, for the Lord will wipe away every tear. But, not only will our tears be wiped away, so will whatever causes our tears. To wipe away a tear is one thing, but there is always the chance that some bit of sadness might bring it back. With God, He does not just tend to the symptom, He goes right to the heart of the problem. He wipes out the cause of the tear. With nothing to cause tears, sorrow will be eternally wiped away.
In heaven it will be a joy and it will not be a disgrace to be a Christian. We will not have to worry about persecution, even little persecutions, for letting our lights shine, for letting our faith show forth in our lives. Instead heaven will be a place of perfect joy and happiness.
In verse nine we hear the voice of faith “9It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation’” (v. 9).
We are bold to say, “This is our God.” Knowing that God chose us, that He put His name on us at our baptism, that He put faith in our hearts, that He forgives our sins, that He has written our name in the book of life, that He continually strengthens our faith and keeps us in faith, that He tells us that He is our God and we are His people. Knowing all this it is easy for us, in heaven to say, “This is our God.”
We say, “we waited for Him.” Knowing that God does all things according to what He knows is best, according to His perfect knowledge and timing. Knowing that at just the right time, Christ died and rose for us, we say, “we waited for Him.”
We say, “He saved us.” Knowing that God sent His one and only Son, Jesus to be born as a human being (one of us), to live perfectly for us, in our place, to take all our sins upon Himself, to suffer and die for our sins. Knowing that it was by the blood of Jesus that all our sins have been forgiven we say, “He saved us.” We cannot and we do not save ourselves. Our salvation does not come from inside, it does not come from our works or actions. Our salvation comes from outside of us, it comes from God alone. He saved us!
We say, “Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” Literally it is the Lord’s salvation. He has done everything, He has given everything and we have been given everything. Think about what we have been saying. God gave us all life at the creation of the world. Adam and Eve fell into sin, destroying the very life God gave. God gives each one of us life, personally, at our conception. God gives us new life at our baptism. God gives the world new life through the gift of the blood His one and only Son, on the cross. Now we understand that God gives us life in heaven. He prepares and invites us to His banqueting table. He is there serving us the finest and best of meats and wines. And to top it all off, He allows for us to be glad and to rejoice in His salvation.
Even our Gospel reading for this morning gives us this image of the heavenly banquet as well. In our Gospel reading we are encouraged in our faith-life, that is in the fact that it is by God’s grace, through faith that we have a share in His eternal kingdom and in His eternal banquet. God’s will is that all people are given faith, yet He knows that there are those who refuse the gifts He has to give. His gifts are given out of His grace and love for His people, yet to all those who refuse and reject the gifts He has to give, they are excluded from His gifts and His kingdom. They are cast out into the outer darkness of eternal spiritual death in hell. Jesus’ words are a stern warning to us to not refuse the good gifts and blessings He has to give, rather they are words encouraging us to make regular and diligent use, that is encouraging us to be given the gifts He has to give at every opportunity we have of being given the gifts through the means of grace, the means through which He gives us His gifts.
What a great God we have. We have a God who gives and gives and gives. He has given since the beginning of creation. He has given throughout history. He continues to give to us today. He will continue to give to us even into eternity, where He prepares, invites us to attend and serves us at His eternal banqueting table. It is the fact that we live our lives, rushing from day to day, rushing through each day, anxiously awaiting something, and all that rushing makes our lives seem like they are rushing to the end, to our physical death. And yet, as we keep our eyes focused on the end, that is on heaven, on our faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, then our days become days of declaring that the Lord “is our God, we trusted in him and he saved us . . . let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” To God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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