Isaiah's Feast and the Ultimate Death Eater

One of the occasions on which most of us prepare food for others is when we are serving friends or neighbors who have suffered the death of a loved one. Its a beautiful and tangible way to express love and concern for people, relieving them of the burden of hospitality as they endure the brokenness death visits upon us. The ancient prophet Isaiah looks ahead to an entirely new relationship between food, feasting, and death; he sees coming a magnificent feast that celebrates the death of death, a banquet that demonstrates the cessation of all sorrow and mourning.

The Lord of hosts will prepare a [b]lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of [c]aged wine, [d]choice pieces with marrow,
And [e]refined, aged wine.
7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the [f]covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is [g]stretched over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord [h]God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

Eucharistic celebration which looks back to Christ's death, proclaiming that fact, has in view his resurrection and return as well. It is not a feast of mourning, God's Funeral. On the contrary, it is the joyful anticipation of the Feast that is scheduled for the day on which  “Death is swallowed up in victory. Because Life eats up Death, we will 'eat, drink, and be merry' as well, not because 'tomorrow we die', but because tomorrow we never will die again. 

In her remarkable Harry Potter series, JK Rowling vividly creates the Death Eaters, servants of Lord Voldemort, devoted to the destruction of muggles and traitors. The prophecy about Harry says that a boy will be born to overthrow the Lord of Death and his servants. Its a universal hope, one that finds its authentic fulfillment in Christ's death and resurrection, his death consuming death, and bringing about the Feast of Life on the Mountain of the Lord. Voldemort's death occurred when the curse he hurled at Harry rebounded on to him. And so it is. Let the Feast continue until the Day when it is celebrated in all of its splendor.