The Complicated Heart

As we have seen, Jesus often begins with the Jewish leaders who have come to confront and trap, proceeds to the crowds who are like sheep without a shepherd and are extremely fickle in their allegiances, and ends up with his devoted band of disciples who want to "get it" but are often slow to learn. It pains me to think that the Son of Man had to work within such conditions as this. The very people He came to reach were either gunning for Him, too focused on earthly things to see and hear, or, as in the case of His own disciples, spiritually challenged. Jesus is like a inner city school teacher walking into a classroom with little discipline, little motivation, and little academic background, and seeking to produce dedicated students who will go out and change the world. Can our task be less daunting?

Peter spoke up and asked for more understanding about the parable of plants not planted by God, and about blind men leading blind me. (See Matt.15.) This was one of those parables meant to instruct but not sufficient in and of itself to really get the job done. Every parable needed explanation. Peter got that much, and asked for the explanation. Jesus was eager to supply it. Jesus kept it very simple. You eat something with unwashed hands, it goes into the stomach and is eliminated in about 24 hours. Process completed. But, what originates within the heart (cardia) comes out of a man and defiles him. Jesus gives a list of evils that originate in the heart, i.e. evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, slanders. It reminds us of the works of the flesh Paul outlines in Galatians 5 or the list of sins of the Gentiles in Romans 1.

Listen carefully to me. The heart (cardia) Jesus speaks of is like the physical heart that pumps our blood and is one of two major organs that keep us alive. This heart of the inner man is the center of some very complicated processes, just as the physical heart is. There are many things associated with the heart, i.e. foolishness and wisdom, repentance and unrepentance, circumcision and uncircumcision, love and hate, wholehearted obedience and blatant disobedience, sorrow and joy, good and evil desire, faith and unbelief, the motives of man, secrets and full disclosure, softness and hardness, sincerity and duplicity. Hearts are to be searched and tested. They are to guarded and purified. Hearts are key to the proper functioning of the self, the integrated man who is spirit, soul and body. These same apostles along with Paul will come to know and understand much about the heart of which Jesus speaks. God help us to keep our hearts in the condition that will make us spiritually healthy and able to serve You. Amen.