Clothesline 293 "Body of Christ: Heart"

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and we completed our Lenten preaching series on The Body of Christ. The final subject—The heart of Christ beating with love—is perfect to end this study.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, the people believed he was coming to free his people, to stamp out the enemy. But where is his army, his weapons? This King does not come as they expect. This King comes with something much more powerful. This King comes with a heart… a heart beating with love beyond all understanding.

For the Hebrew, the heart is the source of all thinking. To think, therefore, is to speak within the heart. In many places—in one way or another—Scripture records the phrase: they questioned in their hearts. After the shepherds visited the new born king in Bethlehem, Scripture says: “And Mary treasured all these words and pondered them… in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

Now if the intellect stems from the heart, it’s a natural step for the heart to be the core of a moral life. The writer of Hebrews says: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that one of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” (Heb. 3;12) And Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel: “For out of the heart come evil intentions…”(Matt. 15:19)

The heart. Capable of so much. All kinds of emotion, thinking, moral values. And it probably never reaches its potential. So how do we protect this source of life we’ve been given? How do we nourish it?

Medical technology tells us much about the care and feeding of the heart. But a physically, healthy heart can be dead inside without the presence of the Great Physician. And if we look to Him—to Jesus—as a model of what our hearts should be like, what do we find? A heart like Jesus is open, caring, willing to sacrifice…out of love. Jesus never had a wall built around Him. If anything, he was open and raw to everything and everyone. He opened His heart to many, and they rejected him. Even his disciples ran away in the end. Yet, Jesus never failed those he loves.

We will never possess perfect love, but we can do our best to model the heart of Jesus—a heart that beats with perfect, genuine love. In a spiritual sense, a heart like Jesus is real, and real is what happens when someone loves you. Jesus loves you. He rode into Jerusalem to His death, his heart beating with love for you. He withstood the agony of the cross out of love for you. His heart broke when he was abandoned by His friends in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yet, His heart continued to beat… out of love for you. The last breath He took was for you. The last beat of His heart was out of love for you. Can you give Him anything less?