A Matter of Life and Death

So I think I have known this for a long time, but honestly the reality of it all comes and goes. There are days when I know this and live like it...and then there are days that if you saw me, you would never know that I believed this :

 

The heart is a matter of life and death.

 

I really believe that all of life hinges upon how we handle our heart . . . not that physical thing that pumps blood throughout your body, but that intangible thing that makes you, well you.

Others call it your soul, but whatever you want to call it . . . it is the thing that truly defines who you are, and what you do with your life. How you treat it, guard it, share it, use it truly is a matter of life and death.

Jesus had an encounter with the Pharisees where he tried to help them understand why "the heart" is so important:

Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”

Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.  You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”

Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”

Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?” Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”

Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.” “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”

(Matthew 15:1-20) 

The Pharisees were worked up and concerned about what people were doing.  Jesus wanted them to see that what matters is what is happening in your heart.    If you guard your heart and do the hard work of making sure it is in the right place – then you won’t be one of those people who say they follow Jesus but actually miss the point.  (“They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”).

I hope that this week you will do the hard work of working on your heart, because your heart is precious to God, and it is worth the time invested on it.  It defines who you are and who you will become, so in the words of the great theologians Switchfoot:

"This is your life; are you who you want to be ? " 

If you feel your identity is out of whack, it’s because your heart is not lined up with the way that God has made you.  If you are willing to let Him,  I know God will do the necessary heart surgery that each of us needs, if we just commit to take the time and allow him to do his marvelous work, to restore our hearts, those sometimes beautiful sometimes wretched things.