#DailyDevotion Are You Feeding At The Bosom Of Jerusalem, the Church?
Isa 66:10-11 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; (11) that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.”
There is a dual Jerusalem being talked about in this chapter of Isaiah. One is the physical which has rebelled against her Lord and done detestable things. The other is the true Jerusalem, always present in the visible one. Jerusalem of the past was the same thing as the Church today. There is a visible one and one true one inside the visible. In Isaiah’s day the visible one had become corrupt and the Lord was telling how it would indeed be punish along with everyone inside of it. But for the sake of the true Jerusalem inside of it, a remnant was spared. Among the remnant of true and faithful believers there in Jerusalem God’s word was held pure and practiced.
The same is true today in the Jerusalem of God, the Church. There are still those in the Church who aren’t believers, and the Church catches a lot of flack because of them. Then again, the Church also has those who are true believers and the Church catches flack because of them as well. Yet like the Jerusalem of old and the Church today God’s word and his sacraments with which he feeds his children are still present. For this sake the Lord says, “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her.”
Despite all the flaws in the visible Jerusalem, i.e. the Church, because of the presence of the Lord in her, we are called to rejoice in her and be glad for her. As the Jerusalem of old was purged the Church will be purged one day too. Because the Church is the Lord’s creation we who are the Lord’s love her and are glad for her. We know what he has planned for the Church and what her destiny is; the dwelling place of the Lord and all his saints. Yes we mourn over her because of the sins committed in her name but the Lord will purify his Church on the Last Day.
Because the Lord’s Church still has his word and his sacraments, just as he pointed the Jews that would follow Isaiah’s day to nurse at her consoling breast and drink with delight from her glorious abundance, because of this word that was present there, we too are told to do the same in the Church. We are called to nurse at her consoling breast. That breast is the word of God and the sacrament. These are the pure spiritual milk we are bidden to feed upon. The word of God which is proclaimed in her tells us of the love of God towards us in Christ Jesus. It calls us to repent of our sins and receive the free forgiveness of sins we have in Christ. The sacraments proclaim the same and seal us for the day of redemption.
The saints of God are the children of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church of Jesus Christ. They rejoice in the Church their mother. They seek her out and look for the nourishment from her that the Lord Jesus Christ gives from the stripes on his back, his bleeding head, the wounds from his hands and his feet and his punctured side. From these comes forth her abundance of grace and mercy that she feeds to those who come to her, who come to Christ. May we in faith look past the Church that is seen, warts and all, and look and see our Mother the Church contained therein who feeds us with God’s word and sacrament.
Heavenly Father, always give us your Spirit that we may see the true Church which gives us the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and feeds us with his sacraments that we may rejoice in her and be glad in her even as we rejoice and are glad in her bridegroom Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen