“Familiarity breeds contempt,” so the saying goes. It means that we can be so familiar with something that we begin to consider it of little value. This can even happen in our faith-life, where God becomes routine for us, and we begin to consider Him of little value. Of course, the problem is not with God and His gifts, but with us.
We can say that’s what happened to the Israelites of long ago. God Himself had chosen them as His people. Out of all the civilizations on the earth, He chose them as His beloved, through whom the Savior of the human race would come. That promise ignited the hearts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God even provided a nation for His people to live. He wiped out their enemies–even in the most extreme of circumstances! He provided them a place to worship. God even named a specific tribe to oversee His house of worship. But God did ask for something in return. He asked them to have a childlike trust in Him. He asked them to believe His promise of a coming redemption from the worst enemies of all: sin, death, and the devil.
But you’ve probably read enough of the Old Testament to know how they responded to God’s care and providence. God’s own people no longer delighted in being His distinctive people. For them, He became routine. They began to consider Him of little value. They allowed their hearts to grow hard, over and over, again and again.
So God would take them to the woodshed. After all, this was the first covenant to which they had agreed. God would reward them here if they followed Him faithfully. And He would punish them here if they became unfaithful. So they would suffer stinging battlefield defeats. Then, they would repent, and God would let them bask again in His forgiveness.
God sent them wise men to serve as judges. But that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted to be like the other nations. They wanted the ways of others to shape their lives–not God. So they demanded a king–and God reluctantly gave them one.
You could say that was the beginning of the end for the Jews. For soon after that, they divided into two bickering kingdoms, one in the north and one in the south. They intermarried with foreigners, ignoring God’s directive to be a separate and holy people through whom the Messiah would come. So what happened?
The 10 northern tribes were defeated, forced to move, and would disappear as a people from the face of the earth. In the two southern tribes, the Temple would be destroyed, and the people would live in exile. But the Jews would rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. And God would send His people a continual line of prophets, some of whom they would listen to, and others they would ignore.
Then, the long-promised Messiah came, the One whom God the Father had sent. But most of the Jews had grown stubborn and complacent in their ways. They had no room for One who came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. For the Israelites had made a science of climbing their way to heaven and even making a handsome profit along the way. This Rabbi Jesus was ruining it for everyone!
Sure, some Jews had ears to hear the Word of the Lord from God’s own Son. Some saw and heard Jesus and believed. But many more were ready to nail Him to a cross to shut Him out forever. After all, Jesus said He was the King of the Jews. And the Jews said they had no king but Caesar. They didn’t want someone to mess up such a fragile affiliation with the Roman overlords of their nation.
The week of His betrayal leading to His death, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, the “city of peace.” He knew that 40 years later the Romans would lay waste to the city with nearly all its residents.
The Roman historian, Josephus, wrote:
All hope of escape and all food supplies were cut off from the Jews. Famine devoured thousands upon thousands. The alleys were choked with bodies. The survivors were too weak to bury the dead. Some fell into graves with them. No mourning was heard in Jerusalem, for famine stifled all emotions, and an awful silence shrouded the city.
One refugee, who had been in charge of a single gate, told [the Roman General] that [nearly 16,000] corpses had been carried out in an 11-week period. Other leaders reported 600,000 bodies of the lower classes had been thrown out, and it was impossible to number the rest.
Jerusalem’s destruction is no mere history lesson. It shows us–in history–what spiritually happens to those who reject Jesus. The Jewish claim for the land that God had once promised them had ended. God–in His divine patience–finally closed the book on His first covenant. The Jews did not recognize the time of their gracious visit from God.
That’s also the warning for you and me. Don’t reject Jesus in the times He comes to visit you with His salvation and grace. For the story of the Israelites in their unbelief can also become your story. For you, God also can become routine, where you begin to consider Him of little value.
When your value of God begins to dwindle, you begin to see Him only as a god to do your bidding. He becomes your pet to do what you desire in the way you want it. And if you don’t get what you want, you throw a tantrum like a petulant child. Yes, the story of Israel’s hard-heartedness can all too easily become your story, my story.
Perhaps, you feel as if the heavenly Father let you twist in the wind one too many times. So, in your unrighteous anger toward Him, your faith becomes dim. Before you realize it, you have no room left in your life for Jesus. You plug your ears as He calls out to you in His mercy and grace. You become stubborn. You refuse to come and drink of His grace in His own house, the Church. You forget about the times of God’s gracious coming to you. You become the Jew for whom Jesus wept, who would die in the fall of Jerusalem, in hardhearted unbelief.
Dear child loved by God, now is the time He comes to you, now is the day of salvation. Now is the time! Let God’s Word clean your temple of false idols, misdirected love, and unrepented sin!
Christ’s death for your sins ushers in a glorious time of grace. After our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, He promised to send the Holy Spirit to His apostles. His Spirit would go with them when they would preach Jesus into the hearts of men and give out God’s means of grace. These Apostles would bring God’s life-changing Word of salvation to the world.
Yet, even now, the Lord God continues to visit His people. It wasn’t just 2,000 years ago. He visits us every Lord’s Day to deliver His forgiveness. His Word declares that His blood covers your transgressions. His blood washes every stain of sin, until you are spotless. It was blood that once delivered the Jews from the hands of the Egyptians. And it is blood that delivers you from a slavery to fear and despair into God’s freedom and forgiveness.
Jesus visits you every Lord’s Day to deliver life. And where Jesus is, there is Life. The preached Word brings you into the Life of Jesus. The absolution brings you His cross-won forgiveness. But even more, Jesus gives you more than words. He gives you Himself. “Take, drink, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” His Body and Blood feed your body and soul with His highest good. Jesus visits you every Lord’s Day to deliver His salvation.
Do you remember the many rescues our heavenly Father provided for His chosen people? He rescued Noah and his family through the flood. He rescued Abraham from a pagan, idolatrous family. He rescued Joseph from prison. These rescues–and many others–point forward to the last and greatest rescue: Jesus Christ rescuing fallen man from eternal death to eternal life.
Jesus’ rescue mission began before the foundations of the world. Then, God claimed you as His own (Jeremiah 1:5). Jesus’ rescue mission continued for you on the cross. There, Jesus took your sin into Himself. His rescue mission continued for you at your baptism. That’s when He applied His forgiveness to you, giving you a clean conscience (1 Peter 3:20-21).
Yet, God isn’t finished with you. He continues to save you and keep you in the true faith through doses of preaching, absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. He will continue to save, feed, and lead you through this life into the life of the world to come. And on the Last Day, Jesus will bring you to salvation in all its fullness, when He will say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). This, Jesus is doing when He visits you each week in His house.
Don’t have Jesus weep over you because you, like the Jews of yesteryear, follow a god of your own making. Instead, let Jesus delight in His salvation for you. When Jesus comes to visit you in His house, run to meet him like a beloved disciple!
For Jesus still visits you, just as He said He would, with forgiveness, life, and salvation. And He will come again on the Last Day to take you into His eternal presence. Then, you will fully live life as it was meant to be, with other believers who also relished every moment God came to them in Word and Sacrament. Believe this and live this because of Jesus, your Savior. Amen.
