Hard Hearts
Pentecost 20 Proper 22
October 6, 2024
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our gospel passage this morning begins in a very odd place. I don’t know why “they” – the team that designed our reading schedule – chose to begin at 10:2 instead of 10:1. Here is the omitted verse.
He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them. (Mark 10:1)
That may not seem very important at first glance, but it clearly exposes the Pharisee’s true intentions. Where it says they came to “test” Jesus, the word used there is the very same word Mark uses when Satan “tempted” Jesus back in 1:13. The test, the temptation, has everything to do with where they are.
Judea and beyond the Jordan describes the region where John the Baptist was active. You may recall that John the Baptist was arrested and eventually killed because he criticized the local ruler, Herod Agrippa, for marrying his brother’s ex-wife. If Jesus publicly criticizes Herod, he could easily be arrested at the wrong time and the wrong place. If he doesn’t uphold the Law, the Pharisees can denounce him as a false teacher.
Jesus upholds the Law. He wisely makes them say it publicly and he frames it in the larger context of the Creation. Then Jesus affirms it privately. Well played! The key to understanding this passage and its broad implications is the phrase, “because of the hardness of your hearts.”
That brings to mind a very famous example of a rather hard heart. You will hopefully recognize John Wesley as the founder of the Methodist Church. Some of you will know more of his story, but I suspect you’ll welcome hearing it again.
John Wesley was born in 1703 in Epworth, England, the 15th of 19 children. His father was a priest in the Church of England renowned for his severity, or his hardness of heart. He was so beloved by his congregation that they set fire to the rectory when John was 5. His mother called him a “brand plucked from the burning,” which fueled his sense of mission.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he went to Oxford as a student and stayed as a tutor. He and brother Charles founded a “Holy Club” and set forth a strict method of prayer, Bible study, fasting and service to the poor. Colleagues teasingly called them “methodists.”
In 1735 John was sent to Savannah, Georgia. The church did not send their best and brightest to the colonies. They were sending him away because he was a lot like his father. He was severe. People didn’t like him. He had a hardness of heart.
While in Savannah he met a young woman and courted her. She married another man. John decided one Sunday he wasn’t sure she had properly confessed her sins and he refused her communion. This caused such a bad uproar in the church and city that John had to slink out of town under the cover of night in fear for his life.
On the voyage home, his ship was caught in a terrible storm. In fear for his life again, he noticed a group of Moravian passengers who were praying and quite calm. He realized his faith was missing something. He met with them in London and, during prayer and study, he felt his heart strangely warmed.
He then was on fire. He led a huge revival in the British Isles and the colonies, preaching in the streets and teaching people his method. He also pushed for social reforms so effectively that they erected a monument to that “warming” of his heart where it happened, right next to the City Museum of London. His movement eventually became the Methodist Church.
Once the Lord touched him, once the hardness of his heart was gone and it was strangely warmed, suddenly all of his intellectual and organizational gifts, which had been largely useless because he was such a jerk, became useful, great gifts and strengths. This reminds us of Paul’s confession in First Corinthians chapter 13.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
That’s one lesson to learn from Jesus’ rebuke. Our hardness of heart routinely inhibits God’s will from working in us and through us. We need to routinely check our hearts for callouses.
A second lesson rests in that despite the accommodation God made for such a for divorce, Jesus taught that the spirit of the law went way above the letter of it. This illustrates our struggle. God sets these high standards and the spirit behind them is even higher. There is one way. Come to him with the trust and openness of a child. He will bless you, again and again.
And don’t hinder those coming to him!
AMEN!