Sermon on Mark 7:14-23, for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost, "The Heart is the Matter!"

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today we’re in Mark 7, where last week we heard about the Pharisees trying to go “above and beyond” God’s Law, in a way that hurt instead of helped. Jesus showed them that God’s heart is not found in the regulations. God’s heart is found in the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus Himself went “above and beyond” the Law by doing all it required and far more, by dying on the cross for our sins. God’s heart comes to us in the Gospel.

Jesus concludes the conversation today about clean and unclean. In this whole discussion, what is the matter? In effect, Jesus answers: “The Heart is the Matter.” Let’s open our hearts to God’s Word. Jesus gives a heavy diagnosis about our heart. But if you read carefully, Mark 7:1-23, last week and this week, Jesus never prescribes the solution. He only diagnoses what cannot make us clean, and what makes us unclean. He never says how we become clean or get a right heart beating in rhythm with God’s heart. But we’ll sure get there because we need the Gospel!

When talking about the human heart, we often say things like: “He or she has such a good heart…” If there is some good in a person, we attribute it to their heart. Even an imperfect person…we’re inclined to give the benefit of the doubt and say they have a good heart. But what does Jesus say about the heart? What does the rest of God’s Word say about the heart? Mark 7 gives huge insight. Ultimately Jesus says that when sin makes a person unclean, the heart is the matter. Opposite from our normal talk about the heart. Granted, the Bible doesn’t say only negative things about the heart, but we’ll get to the good and the bad in just a minute.

First, Jesus says here: “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” In other words, if you want to know where sin comes from, Jesus essentially says the heart is the matter! Second, going back to the days of Noah, God had this to say about man’s heart: Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God follows up on this after the Flood, and God says in His own heart: “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). In the book of Deuteronomy God warns that the heart can speak to us falsely, proudly, or deceptively (8:17; 9:4-5; 11:16). Finally, echoing Jesus’ own dark view of the human heart, we have Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” We really should think twice before casually saying “Just follow your heart.”

The heart can be deceitful above all things and desperately sick? The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth? Last week Jesus said that they were far away from God’s heart by putting their commandments above God’s. Today He says evil thoughts and every sin flows from the heart! It’s depressing! But who knows our hearts better than God who made them? Who reads and searches everyone’s hearts? If someone really knows the heart of the matter, it’s Jesus—our great Physician of body and soul. And He says the heart is the matter!

Now the Bible does speak positively about the heart on occasion. Once in Genesis, a man named Abimelech says he acted in the “integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands,” when he unknowingly did wrong because Abraham lied to him (Genesis 20:5-6). Perhaps, it’s a surprise that God tells Abimelech he’s right! He did act in the integrity of his heart because the truth was hidden from him. God does call on His people to love Him with “all their heart” (Deut. 6:5). Hannah sings about her heart uplifted in worship of God (1 Sam. 2:1). God sought David as a “man after his own heart” to be prince over God’s people (1 Sam. 13:14). The Psalms describe the heart as both a place where lies and flattery begin, as well as the place for truth, love, joy, and instruction. What gives? What is the matter? The heart is the matter!

We recall a familiar Lutheran concept: Law and Gospel. All the effects of sin and how it’s rooted in our heart, is covered by the Law. The Law diagnoses it, the Law condemns it as the heart of the matter. The root of the problem, Jesus shows. Jesus effectively speaks the Law, and pretty much only the Law, all through Mark 7:1-23. But we already know the Law can’t save us. Jesus shows all these dead ends, that leave us unclean with hearts defiled in God’s sight. We really need some Gospel, some good news!

By no coincidence, our Introit today gives a Gospel theme to our Law-oriented reading. It’s Psalm 51, David’s amazing prayer of confession. He wrote it at a time when he was involved in lies, adultery, and murder. He pours his guilt out to God, and then in the heart of his prayer, says: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” David appeals for a clean heart. He’s channeling our own need and prayer in this reading! “Jesus, I need a clean heart—how do I get it? You tell me that evil thoughts, sexual sin, murder, deceit, greed and all the rest come out from my heart and make me unclean. But how do I get clean?” David answers with his prayer for a clean heart and a renewed, right spirit.

God’s gotta do it! That’s always the way of the Gospel! Say it this way: the Law is about what we do (and fail) …the Gospel is all about what God does for us! The Gospel is not about what we do, but what God does. Only God’s doing brings a clean heart. David knows his heart is soiled with many of the sins Jesus mentions, and sorrowing over his sin, he asks for forgiveness and God’s gift of a clean heart. Our hearts soiled with the same sins, and our hearts are the matter. Since we cannot make change them ourselves, we cry out: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” Asked and answered! The very thing Jesus wants to do! He delights to give you a new heart.

And it all fulfills Old Testament prophecy. Listen to this beautiful Old Testament Gospel…Good News about God’s solution to our heart, from Ezekiel 36:25-27

²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

 

Ezekiel anticipates the cleansing water of baptism. The washing of our uncleanness from the heart. Jesus listed everything that makes a heart and a person unclean—all sin and evil thoughts. Ezekiel points to the baptismal washing and heart transplant Jesus gives, a new heart and a new spirit. The answer to David’s prayer, our prayer. Create in me a clean heart! A heart of stone is removed—that heart is the matter. But the new living, beating heart of flesh, powered by the Holy Spirit guides us in the path of true obedience.

The story of our heart is not over. Yes, the heart is the matter when we look for the source and cause of sin. The Law makes that clear. We’re still not completely rid of this old stone heart that fights against the new heart of flesh. The heart is deceitful and desperately sick, that old heart of sin and stone. But the new heart given by Christ, by the Holy Spirit, pulses with new life, and it’s the place for new works of the Gospel. New works of God’s life, created in you. In Gospel language, the Bible says you are no longer slaves to sin, but “obedient from the heart” to God (Rom. 6:17). Instead of stone-hard unbelief, the heart becomes where we believe and are justified (Rom. 10:9-10).

New in Christ, the heart is open to God’s work, the seat of generosity; the source of a glad melody sung to the Lord, the root of sincerity and integrity. New in Christ, the heart becomes the source of true brotherly affection for each other, a hidden place of beauty, and a launchpad of God’s good work in us! This living heart of flesh, created in us by God, a renewed spirit, is how we are drawn near into God’s presence. If we were far away from God in our hearts and only giving lip-service, driven by sinful hearts of stone…now we have been brought near through the heart blood of Christ, who poured out His life for us on the cross. Purging our sin and cleansing us in the sprinkling waters of baptism. New in Christ, we’re no longer defined by the broken works of our old broken heart but gifted with new life pumping from Him.

You know our heart will beat an estimated 35 million times a year, and 2.5 billion times in our lifetime? Imagine how God’s heart beats perpetually for us. Far beyond the 2.5 billion times in the span of 70-80 years, God’s heart eternally beats with the steadfast love, unfathomable mercy, sacrificing passion, profound joy, and heartfelt service that defines and creates the very life of our new heart. God’s own heart pulsed in Jesus’ body until He hung dead on the cross. But that heartbeat throbbed back in power and victory on the day of Jesus’ resurrection! His heart pounds with love for you, and when you call on Him “Create in me a clean heart O God!” He gives it unreservedly. Washing and cleansing you from all uncleanness in Jesus Christ. Spiritually removing your stone heart and emplacing His new, living heart of flesh. New in Christ, your heart is joined to Him! The very life and heart of Jesus is alive in you! Thanks be to God in Jesus’ Name, Amen.