In my readings this morning, I came across a couple of pretty penetrating questions. They’re the kind of Scriptures that the Spirit can take apart from their immediate context and leverage them as scales to gauge the manner in which I do life . . . questions that, in many ways, transcend specific circumstance and instead serve as a ” two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12) . . .

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”   (Isaiah 55:2a ESV)

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”   (Luke 24:5b ESV)

The ancient Israelites had invested in chunks of wood. Though they had been called to be the Creator’s special possession . . . a holy treasure . . . a set apart people . . . they instead had chosen to worship the creation. They chose to drink bitter water from broken cisterns . . . they pursued refreshment that would leave them still thirsty . . . they sought bread which, at the end of the day, had no sustenance and would leave them hungry. And God determines to bring them to the end of themselves so that He might ask, “Why are you wasting what little resource you have on that which cannot satisfy?”

The women had come to the tomb on that Sunday morning. Though they had no idea how they would get access to the body, they had nevertheless prepared spices that they might further anoint the beat up body of Jesus of Nazareth. That they sought Jesus was commendable . . . that they sought Him in this graveyard was understandable . . . that they found an empty tomb was unfathomable. But Jesus had told them, while still in Galilee, that “the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luke 24:7) . . . so God allows them to stand before an open sepulcher and asks, “Why are you seeking the living among the dead?”

And I can’t help but take inventory . . . can’t help but check myself. Have I been duped by this world into spending resource on that which cannot satisfy . . . am I hanging out in graveyards rather than in the presence of the living Christ?

And I don’t labor long over the questions before I turn to the invitation . . .

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. . . . Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live . . .   (Isaiah 55:1-3 ESV)

It’s not about how much I have to invest . . . it’s about how much, in His abundant grace, He has offered. But it is about where I invest . . . and where I hang out. I can “buy without money” living water from which I will never thirst again . . . I can delight myself, “without price”, in rich food served from heaven’s banquet table itself. Mine is to continually respond to the invitation . . . mine is to come to the living Christ . . . daily . . . hourly . . . and look to Him and Him alone for that which satisfies . . . for that which gives life and “life to the full” (John 10:10).

Give me Jesus . . . Give me Jesus . . . you can have all this world . . . just, give me Jesus!