Today's readings are Psalm 118:25-29, Jeremiah 8:18-9:12, and Matthew 23:13-39.
As we look at today's readings we may see a theme of the destruction of Jerusalem. In the time of Jeremiah the people were looking at a literal, physical destruction. In Jesus' time that sort of destruction was not to come for another forty years, more or less. But see how Jesus points to the faithlessness of the Pharisees as that which brings destruction? The situation in Jeremiah's time was not so very different. At all times and in all places we destroy ourselves and our society when we depend on our own efforts, our own righteousness, our own ability to please God and to make others pleasing to God. Rather, we are to look to our Lord in faith, becoming partakers of his covenant of grace, by which he said he would bless the children of Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was accounted as righteousness. If we strive for holiness even as much as the Pharisees we earn nothing. If we trust in Jesus Christ given for us we still earn nothing. But Jesus earns the righteousness of God to be placed on us. His works become our works. We end up walking in the life he gives. And he is our promised rest, our home, our place of life and safety, never to be destroyed.
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