“And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces….”
Isaiah 25: 6
Negative discourse predominates today’s world. Food has not escaped such contamination.
Deliberation over what not to eat and agony over how to pay for food occupies many people. With less money and higher prices, we face less food, less abundance. Economists may worry about inflation and currency and prices—but what of the human soul? One may focus on the bad at this time—on what we lack. Yet an alternative path lies before us—that of the good. Feasting is not just very good; by its essence, feasting celebrates. And what do we celebrate but goodness?
Feasting is eating an abundance of good food with good company as an act of celebration for a special occasion.
A few words on the necessary conditions of a feast: nutrition, self-restraint, the actual goodness of the people, abundance, a special occasion are all assumed. Feasts are occasional (feasting all the time would just be diet). They celebrate great goods in community, like a promotion, a great personal accomplishment, a healing, a wedding, a baptism, a birthday. Indeed, the best opportunities for feasting are traditional societal feasts—at Thanksgiving, at weddings, at Christmas. Make participation in goodness easy by attending one of these celebrations. Importantly, too, we must note that abundance is relative. Even the poor can feast by bringing forth what goods they have to share.
But your time is precious. What’s so good about a feast? It is essentially a sign of a community’s good will towards one another, expressed in actions and talk. The one who loves is one who affirms the existence of the beloved and desires their good—and thus affirms the means to their existence and good. Food is good for human beings—it nourishes our existence. Without it, we cannot live, much less live well. Poet Christopher Cristo is right to say,“I love you. I want us both to eat well.”
Chatter around a feast signifies the comfort and ease of a healthy community. Something is wrong at the Thanksgiving feast filled only with angry political discourse—a shout of celebration or comfortable silence should replace it. Silence, too, can express safety and love in community. After a great successful effort, we may rest from labor as we step back and appreciate the great good—with or without words. Both silence and speech find a home here, at the table.
Feasting is not just an earthly act of love—it also is a way of living in eternity now. An old Chinese proverb describes both Heaven and Hell as a feast. In both places, there is a large, round table decked with a mighty feast, at which all the inhabitants sit armed with twelve-foot chopsticks. Disparity between the two consists in what they do with this environment. In Hell, each feaster vainly tries to use his twelve-foot chopsticks to feed himself (physically impossible!). In Heaven each feaster feeds another, reaching to others’ mouths.
Making and bringing food, serving it to others, making sure others have enough by not taking too much are representative actions—as Jonathan Edwards writes in The Spiritual Blessings of the Gospel Represented as a Feast, “The communion of saints is represented by a feast.” Giving of what we have, gratefully accepting what others give, using our portion well for ourselves and others—such is like eternal life. Even Christians can say this Chinese proverb captures something about Heaven’s reality.
But unlike the Chinese proverb, Heaven and Hell go beyond loving service—Heaven is the fullest revelation of God Himself. And He loves feasts.
He commands them in the Old Testament. In the New, God incarnate attends many feasts: private feasts hosted by neighbors (Luke 5:29), the Feast of Tabernacles, (John 7) and the Passover, where he institutes the feast of communion! And He instructed His followers concerning their feasting (assuming they would attend one): In Luke 14, he instructs both self-humbling and others-exalting behavior. The feast is a chance to express humility by building up those usually laid low and taming one’s own self-aggrandizing qualities. Such action, part of what it means to be in good company, enables the joy of the group, not just of one member. In this way we ought to feast, having great joy with one another.
Perhaps, however, the nearest wallet only holds two mites or a few pennies. Mites can be agonized over painfully—or they can clink into depositories of joy. In a time with pain already ubiquitous, the occasional reminder of joy of abundant life is needed.
The good—this is our end and purpose. Abundance can still come to those losing a degree of it. There are still things worth celebrating in this world and the next. The occasional feast roots us with vision lifted up from evil; so that we may better face evil and love good.
