Have you ever had the wonder of something fade in your mind? The first time you kissed your spouse when you were dating was (hopefully) a wonderous experience. But after locking lips for the next 5-10 years, the thrill of the kiss wears off. In some cases, it can be easy to take the wonderful almost for granted. There’s a phrase for this: Familiarity breeds contempt. And our Christian walk is no different. It can be easy to become complacent, to presume upon the grace of the Lord, after 10, 15, or 50 years of reading the same Scriptures and practicing the same repentance. The wonder of the Gospel can wear off. I wonder if that’s what happened in Luke 4:14-30, our passage this Sunday. The Nazarenes had known and lived with Jesus for about 30 years before we get to Luke 4 and His return to His hometown at the start of His public ministry. I wonder if they took for granted who Jesus was, and if that played a role in their rejection of Him.

For us, that question is instructive. Most of us have been believers for a long time. Do we still come to the foot of the Cross with the same spirit that we had when we first became believers? Are we still desperate for grace? Are we still relying solely on Him? Or have we begun to take Him and the Gospel for granted a little bit? Do we live by our own strength and merely put a Christian veneer on our lives? Do we really live like we are big time sinners in desperate need of grace? I encourage you, in the days between now and Sunday, to consider those questions as we prepare to hear the Word and come to the Table. Thankfully, I think that we will find that the Lord meets us even in our sin in this area to call us back to Himself. So come ready to look hard at our sin, to see the wonder of the Gospel, and to rejoice with one another at the fellowship lunch over His graciousness to us. See you Sunday.