Isaiah speaks of the Lord providing a feast of rich foods and choice wines—and in this way mirrors Jesus’ feeding the large and hungry crowd. However, there is something significantly different in these two events. The God who provides a feast of rich foods and choice wines might be said to be one who knows of hunger and thirst only in an intellectual manner. In contrast, Jesus as the Incarnate Word is one who keenly knew hunger and thirst from personal experience. And as the Letter to the Hebrews teaches, this personal experience of the pains, sufferings, temptations, hunger and thirst is something that allows Christ to be truly compassionate and merciful since he knows our struggles, not intellectually, but personally and experientially. And it this full sharing in our humanity that allowed him to compassionately sense the hunger of the crowd and, without being asked, provide for their needs. Accordingly, let us look to the Lord to save us for he knows our every need and only waits for our assent to be gracious to us.
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