Putting a band-aid on a stab wound  

Posted by Jordan Jones

Imagine you are about to get in your car when you hear the harsh whisper of a stranger demanding you to remain silent. The voice gets harsher as this stranger commands you to hand over your wallet. You reach for your wallet and take it out of your pocket, but as you go to hand it to the assailant you take a risk and push them away. But not far enough. Before you can turn on your car, your attacker comes back to you and you suddenly feel a rush of pain in your left side. You have had four inches of sharp metal inserted into your flesh. Blood is now flowing from the wound. The assailant flees. You then reach into the center console of your car and pull out your trusty first aid kit. You always knew it would come in handy. You take out a large band-aid and place it on the wound. You drive home satisfied that the wound is out of sight and on the path to healing. 

Preposterous, right? If you don't take care of that wound immediately you are either going to die of a loss of blood or eventually from an infection. You have to deal with the wound. It is senseless not to... But this is what the church inherently condones when we try and change the behaviors of people without focusing on their motivations. When we look only at the actions and not the heart. When we try to fix our sin problem without acknowledging that it's a heart problem. It's like putting a Band-aid on a deep stab wound. 

In Mark 7, Jesus alludes to the power of the heart when he declares, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' " (Translation: Why are you focused on the behavior and not the motivation?)

Or how about Luke 6 when Jesus says, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." (Translation: It all stems from the heart...fall in love with me and you will begin to see your evilness in comparison to my holiness and the natural outcome will be my Spirit working in you and diminishing your desire to trade Creator for created. But the Gospel is not mere moral uprightness- a focus on proper behavior- it's a shift in motivation!)

A few others:

Matthew 12:34: "You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."

Matthew 15:16-20: "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "

May we move away from a gross, detestable American Christianity clasp of moral religion toward a radical embrace of the motivations and purposes of God. 

O and thanks Mr. Seelye for helping me wrestle through this...thanks for being my Nathan. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4, 2009 at Thursday, June 04, 2009 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the .

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