Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

A New Heart for the New Life

Warning! The following images are graphic. Discretion is advised. Such a warning precedes the video footage of open heart surgery that is placed into a news story or documentary about someone whose life would be over except for some new innovation in surgical technique or medical equipment that has allowed their old diseased heart to be taken out and a new and vibrant one put in its place. And the person who received the new heart can then live their lives no longer tied to oxygen tanks and heart pumps and monitors. They can do all kinds of things that they were unable to do before, not the least of which is to go on living.

It is not because they have healed themselves. It is not because they stopped smoking or took up exercise, for their old heart was too far gone for that. There was no bringing that heart back to proper function. Rather, it is solely because they have a new and healthy heart that they are able to walk through the neighbourhood and visit with their family and go on trips to far off places and accomplish amazing things in their new life with a new heart.

That is what the LORD said about His people Israel, when they had been taken into exile among the nations around them. It was because of their bad heart that the nation was on the brink of dissolution. Their diseased heart had them coughing and spluttering and lying paralyzed and hopeless as the nations around them came in and took whatever they wanted: gold, money, religious artifacts, and people too.

They took the wisest counsellors the most skilful craftsmen, the successful businessmen, the hard working farmers and tradespeople, all of the royalty, all of the religious leaders. There was hardly anyone left. They tore down the city walls and destroyed the buildings, they took the crops and the animals and the trees. The nation was as good as dead.

But that was only what things looked like on the outside. Those were the symptoms of a much bigger problem. The underlying cause was the hardened hearts within the people. There was a spiritual sclerosis that hardened their hearts against God. And this could be seen without scopes and ultrasound images. Their chests did not have to be opened up in order to see what the problem was. The calcified coronary cause was evident outwardly.

You could see it in how the people had turned away from the one true God, the One who had brought them out of Egypt and given them the land as their heritage. You could see that they no longer cared about what He had done for them and they no longer wanted to look to Him for what He could yet do for them. They had lost faith that He could save them. They had lost all desire to live the way that He had provided for them to live. They rejected His counsel and His care.

Instead they followed the desires of their diseased hearts. And this is where it gets graphic. They envied the power of the nations around them. They lusted after the lascivious lifestyles of their peoples. They wanted to indulge their sickened hearts with the sweet sins they craved. So they sold themselves to sin. They dedicated themselves to depravity. They rejected God their Father and they worshiped Baal and Molech and the Asherahs and all the other demonic deities of their foreign neighbours.

They took as many wives as they wanted and took to bed those who were not their wives. The women used their bodies to exercise power and satisfy their lusts. They forgot about all the commands of holy living that the LORD had given them, and they let themselves go wild. And when their sexual exploits resulted in unwanted pregnancies, they offered up their children to idols and burned them on pagan altars. Their lives of lawless liberty left the poor, the orphans and the widows to die neglected and without hope of mercy.

These are the indicators that revealed the heart disease within them. It was much more serious than not having enough breath to make it to the bathroom. It was more dire than losing toes and feet to a lack of circulation. The only prognosis was imminent death—the historical death of the corporate nation of Israel, and the eternal death of its former citizens individually.

Sometimes when we see someone close to us go through a dramatic health crisis, we realize that perhaps we should have our health checked. Maybe we recognize in ourselves some of the symptoms that were evident in ancient Israel. I think it is rather plain on the national level that we see some of the same things happening that revealed a deeper problem in God’s chosen people of old. But we have to go a step further and acknowledge that the problem was a national problem because there was a problem with each of its citizens individually, and the same is the case with us today.

We might talk about the “heart of a nation” but in reality there are only hearts within its citizens, and we have to confess that our hearts are just as diseased as the hearts of the citizens of ancient Israel. We have the same heart disease that they had. And we can recognize the symptoms, too, as we turn away from God and find other things to pursue that we think will make our lives more enjoyable, more meaningful, more liberated, and carefree.

The Bible reveals to us that all people are born with a diseased heart. It is an inherited condition throughout the whole human race. We call it original sin. After Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden, they surely died. The venom of the serpent went right to their heart and they began to question the Word of God and His love and care for them and how they might best fulfill their own desires for themselves. That spread to their children and their children’s children and has come right down to us. Because original sin, produces actual sins, we can see it in our lives. We can feel it in our hearts.

The prophet Ezekiel knew that it would do little good if the LORD simply gathered all of His people back to the land of Israel again. It would not heal them of their sinful dead hearts. Neither would it do anything for the people of other nations, who were also dying in the sins of their hearts. And it would not do anything for us either, who have the same condition passed down through the generations.

The LORD revealed to Ezekiel that some drastic surgery was needed. The most invasive and life-altering surgery would need to be done if there would be any hope to live. And not just one surgery, but heart replacements for everyone. God did not just want to save a few people from their sins. He desires that all people be saved. So He arranged for heart replacements to be available to all.

“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. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My just decrees... you shall be My people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:25-28).

It was not just a matter of bringing the people back from exile in the nations among which they were scattered. It was a matter of taking out their sin-diseased hearts and giving them hearts that beat with the holiness and purity of God. It was to give them a heart by which they would listen to His Word and believe that He cared for them and so then they would follow His commands and live the kind of life that brings His blessings.

It is as drastic as open heart surgery. It is not something you can do for yourself. Don’t try it. Just take my word for it. It does not go well when people try to do such a thing for themselves, even with the best of intentions. You have to entrust yourself to a good surgeon, in this case to the Great Physician of body and soul, the Creator and Giver of life. For it is only through the resurrection of the eternal Son of God and the surgery that He performs through His Church that such life can be restored to you.

He died for all of the sins that came forth from your stony heart. He paid the blood-price required for each and every one of them. He gave Himself up to death so that you might live. His heart was pierced with the spear so that by the blood and water that poured forth from it, you might be given a new heart, a new spirit, the Holy Spirit Himself to be the driving force of your new life. For as Jesus rose from the dead, all who are baptized into Him have a new life to live, a life of holiness and righteousness before God and before all the world.

And the LORD has accomplished this in you just as He said through the prophet Ezekiel. He sprinkled clean water over you. In your Baptism the Holy Spirit was poured out upon you and into you to replace that stony sinful heart and to give you a holy heart of flesh, that conforms to the Word of God and that beats with the love of God for you in Christ Jesus. That holiness and love then, become the outward life that you live. And everything you do becomes a testimony to your family, your friends, your nation, and the world of the God who has saved you when you were dead in trespasses and sins.

There was no potential in you that He has done this. There was no sign of good that He thought it might be worth it for Him to perform this radical surgery upon you. Rather, He did it for the sake of His own name. He did it so that His name would be proclaimed throughout the world as the God who saves the hopeless, who gives life to the dead, who out of His grace and mercy alone rescues from sin, death, and hell in order to bestow forgiveness, life and salvation on an unworthy people.

We pray to Him, “Hallowed be Thy name.” Our catechism tells us: “What does this mean? God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in the this petition that God’s name would be kept holy among us also. How is God’s name kept holy? God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and we, as the children of God, also live holy lives according to it” (Small Catechism. II. First Petition).

This is what the nation of Israel was to do in order to draw people of other nations to the one God who was able and wanting to save all people from sin and death. And this is how the Gospel of Jesus Christ was to be spread to all nations after the resurrected Lord Jesus ascended into heaven. The apostles would proclaim the holy name of God by teaching His Word in truth and purity, and the baptized Christians of all nations would live holy lives according to His Word, before people of all nations where the Church spread and grew.

So Jesus promised His apostles, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27). And so the apostles have testified to us that Jesus is the Son of God, crucified for the sins of the world, and raised again to give salvation to all. And that all might share in this new life in Christ, the apostles continue to proclaim to us how to live our lives in testimony of the new life that God gives in Christ. “Be self-controlled and sober-minded... keep loving one another earnestly... Show hospitality... serve one another” (1 Peter 4:7-10).

We can only live like this by having the new heart of God in the Holy Spirit. It is a life that is driven by the Spirit as we continue to receive God’s forgiving grace and to hear His Word of life. This is not a life that blends in with the unbelievers around us and goes unnoticed. It is truly the life of Jesus, and it stands out. It is a life that displays the surgery scars showing that the LORD has given us a new heart. It shows how He suffered for us, as we are willing to suffer for others.

He is our God. He has taken hold of us. He has cleansed us. His name is hallowed among us before all people. And in your new life driven by the new heart given in your baptism, they will see that He is the God who forgives, cleanses, restores, and brings back to life.