Heart Attack

Mark 3:3-5 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.

What stands out to you in that passage? Jesus was in the midst of trying to explain how the Sabbath was made for man, by God for man, an example of rest, not the regulations or laws that the religious had put a burden on people. The burden of the law has taken all God had designed away from the Sabbath. But….because God stood in their midst, he was giving them the example of how he was above their religiosity of the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus had asked them a direct question, and you can just feel the pride in their lack of response; you can just feel the pomp of their hearts with the most basic understanding of the Sabbath Law #1, you don’t do anything on that day, good or evil. Who was this guy to ask them about honoring God in their traditions? Who was he to question what Moses had given them? Even as Jesus used David their King as an example, their hearts were so prideful they could not see Who stood before them. Their hearts were hardened to the truth, and it both angered and saddened Jesus at the condition of their heart.

What does God think of your heart? Psalm 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. That is where the simplicity of Christianity is missed, the simplicity of the gospel added to, as the heart strays towards religions obligations of duty. We blow it as bad as the Pharisee’s; we have our “to do” list to get into God’s favor, to earn our way into heaven. We pridefully sit on our church attendance records, our list of good deeds, or even many times just our supposed lack of the level of the sins of others, we feel holier than some evil among us. Does Jesus have righteous anger at our level of religiosity? Does Jesus see the pride of the Pharisee within us? Sadly……most likely he does. Religion and it’s laws will send many to Hell, even in the greatest falling away in many of religions largest sects will miss heaven due to missing the simplicity found in the Gospel, that Jesus paid it all, a debt we cannot earn in any way. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

The simplicity of the true Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ, is found in the humble heart that seeks him daily in prayer and his Word. The simplicity of his gospel is found within the pages of his Word, and the disciple seeks to know more of him, to follow his will for his life each day, and there is peace that guards one’s heart from the evil of this world. We live in an increasingly evil time, Satan’s power is peaking before his final fall. Jesus wants your heart, an intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe, an abiding walk to be used to encourage others of the hope you possess in Him. Is Jesus angry at you? Is he mad at the religiosity that your heart possess? Humble yourself in a repentant plea to the Lord, asking for forgiveness and seeking to know him on a level your heart has never known.