A Seat at the Banquet

Reflection

I recently read this passage from Isaiah at a young woman’s funeral; she was only fifty-three. It was a sad moment: her mother, from whom she was estranged, didn’t come to mourn her daughter and friends who should have been at the service chose not to come.

The deceased woman, I’ll call her Kate, had made many mistakes. She had been in the thrall of drugs, substances that ended up killing her. Kate’s stepmother, who arranged her funeral, told me that if there was a mistake to be made, Kate would make it: bad choices, bad friends, bad habits.

It wasn’t always like this for her. There was an array of pictures showing Kate as a beautiful child with sparkling eyes and so much to look forward to. Her smile as a teenager was radiant, and I could see the joy in her face in a picture taken on a trip long before. There had been such potential, but in the end, so much of it was squandered, and Kate ended her time on earth as a lost soul—at least as the world saw her. She may have been lost in the world’s eyes, but in the end, Kate put her trust in Jesus—the Good Shepherd found his lost sheep and carried her home.

Israel, in the time of Isaiah, also appeared lost: it had betrayed its God, failing to live in his righteousness. It had broken its covenant with him and disobeyed his law. In its dereliction, Israel neglected the poor, the marginalized, the broken. God’s holy people abandoned true worship and turned to worshiping idols of silver and gold for their comfort.

Where there is sin there will be punishment because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6: 23). In the passage above, Isaiah looked beyond the sin of his people to the love and forgiveness of their God. He focused on repentance  and restoration: they only needed to turn back to the Lord and he would relent, forgive, and restore. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). If Israel persisted in its folly, though, then punishment was inevitable. The choice was theirs.

In the last days, though, Isaiah saw better things. All nations will turn to God and he himself will teach us his ways, not merely so that we know what is right, but so that we might actually do what is right and pleasing in his sight. In that day we will BE His holy people.

At the end of Kate’s funeral a soprano sang the It Is Well With My Soul. I held up the beautiful ceramic urn holding Kate’s ashes. The urn had a picture of a butterfly on it, symbolic of God’s transforming her soul. Here is the second verse of the hymn:

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,

Let this blessed assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, it is well with my soul.

When I heard those words I knew that Kate was safe. The One whose death and resurrection swallowed up death forever wiped away this young woman’s tears, removed her disgrace, and gave her a seat at his banquet.

He is the one for whom we wait.  So what do we do now? “Let us walk in the light of the Lord.”