Blogging Bible Study: the Heart of the Matter - Luke, Part 2

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Y'all, I have a pile of stuff to do but I've let this ride too long; I miss it when I can't get to it.  Down to TWO Saturdays between Now and Thanksgiving and I feel like I haven't made a lot of progress on the Things That Must Be Done.  

So...a bit of a break to let the drier run and my back rest, lol.  A cup of fruity herbal tea and... here we go at our look at 'heart/ hearts' in the NIV8...and, at this point, I'm just going to say that ALL references to heart/ hearts are  Strong's G2588, Kardia - the heart, unless otherwise noted.  As that's been the case in about 98% of what we have looked at so far, I'm just going to state that and avoid the repeated interruption to the discussion, lol.

We are up to Luke 5 today...the paralytic lowered through the roof, which we have already looked at in Matthew and in Mark....  the roof is torn open...which was likely a matter of breaking through some mud and leaf thatching...the guy is lowered down, and Jesus rather unexpectedly pronounces the guy as forgiven...based on the faith of  he and his friends (Lk. 5:20)

The Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law who were hanging about were immediately offended, thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy?  Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Lk 5:21b)

Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?   Which is easier:  to say, 'Your sins are forgiven' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...."  He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home."    Lk 5:22-24.

And the guy immediately stood up, picked up his mat and went home praising God (Lk 5:25).  Different things have struck me about this little scene in all three versions...and this time what hit was Luke's logical argument that Jesus had the authority to heal, therefore he had the authority to forgive sin, which, by the Pharisees and Teacher's own declaration, showed himself to be God.

The Jewish leaders were always blundering into that error...declaring that 'only God' could do a thing, and then, when Jesus did it, they ignored their own statement and tried to cobble together other explanations.  It is still a problem with religious leaders today...none of us should forget that the enemy will NOT do anything that results in people praising God as they go home.  Praising a person or an organization, sure, but praising God...nope, that would be like one enemy handing another enemy  ammunition to fire at him.

Luke then rather summarizes some of the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount, and the next verse that references Heart/ hearts is towards the end of chapter 6:

"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."    -- Lk 6:45

For grins, I looked up 'good' - Strong's G 18,Agathos (guessing the origin of the name 'Agatha') and         'evil' - Strong's G 4190, Poneros and found something very interesting.

'Good'  was kind of what I expected  -- 'of good constitution or nature, useful, salutary, good, pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy, excellent, distinguished, upright, honourable'

All very Philippians 4:8ish words.

But 'evil'...that surprised me.   Of course, part of the rendering is 'bad, of a bad nature or condition...in a physical sense: diseased or blind, in an ethical sense: evil, wicked, bad' ...pretty much what I expected, but that was only half of it.  The rest, and the bit listed first, is 'Full of labours, annoyances, hardships; pressed and harassed by labours; bringing toils, annoyances, perils, of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness, causing pain and trouble.'

So the person with all those positive things in his/ her heart will say/ do accordingly...but the evil person is not necessarily a Snidely Whiplash sort...looking for dastardly deeds to commit just for the jollification of causing pain.....it could just be someone who is worn down and worried and is not having success in something that matters.  And what that person says/ does will reflect doom and gloom and disappointment.  Cynicism, maybe.  Discouragement.  

What is in the heart is what comes out.

Moving on; the next little story is something that only Luke records.  Jesus and his disciples...and a bunch of other folks with them...were heading into the town of Nain, and they met a funeral procession; we don't know the age of the deceased, but he is reported to be the only son of his widowed mother.  Her situation would have been very similar to Naomi and Ruth...with no husband/son to provide, things would be very, very bleak for her.

When the LORD saw her,  his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."  -- Lk. 7: 13.  This is one of the variances;  the NIV used this phrase instead of 'he had compassion on her', which is in the King James, and the Greek word there is  G4697 - splagchnizomai. (verb)  - to be moved as to one's bowels, hence, to be moved with compassion, have compassion (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity).

I do sort of understand the choice -- 'his heart went out to her' is an idiomatic phrase that we all understand as to be moved with compassion  if we were to say 'his bowels were moved'....that means something ENTIRELY different to 21st century English speakers.  So, they stayed with the anatomic simile but used an organ that is more meaningful to us.  'Was moved with compassion'  gets the point across but misses the involvement of the body implied in the original Greek.  

In any case, Jesus told the young man to get up, and he did.  Luke's gospel isn't always chronological; but this does appear to be before Jairus' daughter was raised.  Luke records that the people praised God and news about Jesus 'spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country' (7:17)

Our next verse occurs in Jesus' explanation of the Parable of the Sower. Matthew and Mark both record this, but only Matthew has 'heart' specifically mentioned. 

"Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved."  -- Lk 8:12

What struck me this time, reading it is.. the enemy actually has access to the heart and can steal the word from the heart.  That is a sobering thought.  What can one do to avoid being so robbed?  

Ponders a bit.

The I realized...the reason the birds can steal the seed, or that the enemy can steal the word...is that the soil (the heart) is too hard and it cannot penetrate and take root.  If the seed/word roots...even just a little...the birds/ enemy cannot steal it away. Other things may happen to it...but it is not stolen. So anyone who has any receptivity to God's word should not be at risk for the enemy to steal away that word.  It's on the the folks who have already pre-determined to not receive it who will lose it.

Hm....

One more for tonight and then I have to go fetch the laundry

The last verse for today is not actually spoken by Jesus...it is spoken  by one of the Teachers who was questioning Jesus.  He'd asked Jesus what was necessary to inherit eternal life...and Jesus replied, asking him how he read the Scriptures (the Old Testament)

He answered, " 'Love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength and wilt all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself."  -- Lk 10:27

Jesus commends him for his answer, and then the guy wants to know exactly who the neighbor he is to love is...and Jesus replies with the story of the Good Samaritan.

This is an interesting passage; Matthew and Mark both record an exchange in which a Teacher asks Jesus for the greatest commandment, and Jesus gives that answer.  I don't think that is a different take on the same exchange...both of those have the Teacher responding 'Well said!' to Jesus...and this guy wants to wiggle out of the requirement.  I think it was a different guy at a different time.  He may  have heard Jesus give that answer and so gave it himself, hoping to score brownie points for his insight.  Which, to be fair, he kinda did.  Jesus did not commend a lot of people who were questioning him.  But when he asked who his neighbor was...he showed his motives.  Not ...'what should I do' but...'what is the least amount I can do? The minimum effort?'  Which kind of implies...those love levels might not be at 100%.

All the heart.

All the soul (mind, will, emotions)

All the strength.

One's neighbor as one's self.

If we really, REALLY get that...things would change.

Just sayin'.

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Luke, part 1

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Catching up as best I can...lol....

Our stroll through the NIV '84, looking at verses containing words translated as 'heart' or 'hearts' has brought us to the book of Luke.  We'll focus on the verses in the first three chapters this week. beginning with part of the news Gabriel brought to Zechariah as he was ministering in the temple, speaking of the son to be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth:

"And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous -- to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." -- Lk 1:17; 'hearts' is, as usual,  Strong's G 2588, Kardia - the heart.

Ok, I was surprised by this.  I have always heard - 'turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers.', which is, of course, the quote from Mal. 4:6.  So why have I never noticed that's not exactly what Gabriel says?  He references it, of course, but he only quotes half of it.  And it may be enough that Gabriel referenced both Elijah and the generational reconciliation to cite the whole Malachi passage by association.  It would be enough to identify the coming baby with the prophecy.  But the phrase 'and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous' was a new one to me.  And I know I've read that dozens of times.  It just didn't hit me before like it hit today.  The wisdom of the righteous...kind flies it  the face of the modern take, which is that folks who simply try to live according to God's instruction are considered, at best,  rather backward, and at worst phobic and bigoted.  Foolish.  But that's backwards.

Our next verse is part of the Christmas story...Jesus is born, the angels sing, the shepherds come and worship and leave, telling everyone what had happened.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. -- Lk 2:19 'heart' is, as expected, G 2588 again.

I have always kinda liked this bit of commentary on Mary.  Some traditions maintain that Mary was one of the sources Luke used for his narrative...which would mean she likely shared with him some of her thoughts and emotions...like, how she remembered those events in the years that followed.  But, a few days later, when Jesus was presented at the temple and Anna and Simeon spoke over him, Simeon warned her

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.  And a sword will pierce your own soul too."  -- Lk 2:34-35; 'hearts' is, again, G 2588.

Again, this would likely have been told to Luke by Mary, as no one else was around at that time. I imagine she also told him the story of losing Jesus for three days 12 years later...of finding him in the Temple...then

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.  -  Lk 3: 51; 'Heart' is G2588 again.

Mary had a lot to think about as Jesus grew and  embarked on his ministry...and she kept it all in her heart.  I wonder if she talked to anybody about it before she told the story to Luke.

Assuming, of course, that that's what happened.  But given the details about Mary...it seems likely.  

Circling back to John for the last verse for today...he was preaching and baptizing in the desert. The first prophetic voice to rise in Israel in 400ish years, he was something that attracted crowds.

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ  -- Lk 3:15...and 'hearts' is, again, G2588.

Not talking about it...wondering in private.  As a group.  It had been so long since anyone had dared to speak a 'thus says the Lord' word...and here was John.  After years of subservience, the people weren't looking for just a prophet, they were looking for the Messiah.  Deliverance.   And, like Mary, they held their conjectures in their hearts...maybe because it was too precious of a hope to speak out loud.

Putting away the suitcase....

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Y'all. It has been busy in these parts.

Let's see...I did post about the girls' trip to Florida to surprise the Flute Player for a significant birthday...but since that time we have not slowed down much.

Three weeks later we spent most of a week in Gatlinburg celebrating our anniversary

Where, of course, we spent a day at Dollywood and enjoyed, among other things, the famous cinnamon bread.  That was just the week before we lost Dolly...

My Sweet Babboo had a Royal Ranger training in south Georgia the next weekend. 

Then it was Labor Day and we spent the holiday weekend on a last trip to Elkhart to collect the final bit of stuff from the house that is now on the market.

It's funny, you'd think the rooms would look bigger without anything in them but they all looked smaller.  When our two older kids were in the market to buy a house, both of them were looking for a house that felt like that one.  Hard to do...it's pretty much a one of a kind, I think.

But now the 'oh, have you just moved in?' chaos at my house has expanded out of the living room again.

The weekend after Labor Day was the annual women's conference at church...Thursday night through Saturday afternoon.  The following weekend we loaded the car with goods from Elkhart that were going to the kids in Florida and drove it down, then we had almost a week at the time share next door to Animal Kingdom with the Florida crew.  Since we all have Disney annual passes, we made good use of them.

We got home on the last Saturday of September, ran a few things through the laundry, then left again to spend last weekend at the annual Royal Ranger leaders state conference, which is *always* a great weekend... with a little bit of zany fun mixed in....

And amongst all of this I am still merging duplicates from the spring's data migration.  Making progress...slowly.  But now I get to focus on cleaning/ purging/ rearranging things in the house so that we can get all the stuff that's just sitting around worked into usefulness.  

I have 7 weekends until Thanksgiving.  If I want to put the Christmas tree up in its normal place ...that's how long I have to get things worked around.

Just gotta break it down into small bits and tackle it one day at a time.    

Blogging Bible Study - Mark, Part 3

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It is Women's conference weekend, y'all, and we have had a great time of exhortation...and I am keeping the ball rolling by diving back into the Heart study.  We will finish Mark today in our look at verses containing words the NIV 85 translates as heart/ hearts

Our first reference is parallel to Matthew 19, with Pharisees asking Jesus if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife, with the comment that Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.

"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. -- Mark 10: 5; 'Hearts' is, as it was in Matt. 19,  Strong's G4641, skerokardia - hardness of heart.  I didn't mention this before but the  lexicon entry also indicates that it connotates a  'destitution of (spiritual) perception'. As we saw last week,  Jesus described a hardened heart as belonging to someone who refuses to see, refuses to hear, and refuses to remember what has happened in the past.  And once again, we see that the language describes divorce not as what God required but something that Moses allowed.  I'm not going to deep dive into the nuances of marriage and divorce; our point here is that it was allowed because of hard heartedness.  

Our next passage is from Holy Week, when Jesus and the disciples were traveling to and from the Temple grounds and Jesus was teaching there.  Jesus had pronounced a curse on a fig tree that looked to be fruitful but wasn't, and the next day, when they were passing by it again, the disciples noticed that it had withered.

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth,  if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,'  and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. " -- Mark 11:22-23: 'Heart' is the typical Strong's G2588, kardia - the heart.

This sounds rather 'name it and claim it', doesn't it?  Jesus is not debating motives here.  Just facts.  But their is a difference.  This is not speaking of entitlement, but of someone who is walking with God and knows what it is God is instructing.  Like Elijah on Mount Carmel...he didn't call down the fire from heaven because he wanted to create a spectacle, but because God had instructed him to do so.  He was confident that God would do the thing requested.  Because it was God's idea all along.

If one is following God's instructions, God will do the thing needed.  And if God said it...we can believe it.  

The final mention of Heart/Hearts is the famous exchange between Jesus and the wise teacher, in which the teacher asked the honest question...what commandment is the most important?

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "Is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no commandment greater than these."

"Well said, teacher,"  the man replied. "You are right  in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.  To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." -- Mark 12:29-33; both instances of 'Heart' are G2588.

Interesting that Mark includes the reaction of the questioner...he was actually impressed with Jesus' answer, and responded thoughtfully, recognizing the significance of what Jesus had said.  And Jesus answered him again with an amazing phrase..."You are not far from the kingdom of God" (12:34)

Which shows that not all the teachers of the Law were close minded about him.  Some were close to becoming believers.  Who observed, listened and remembered, staving off a hardened heart.

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter - Mark, Part 2

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Well, well, we are back at our sort-of weekly look at 'Heart/ Hearts' as translated by the NIV 84.  I have to be honest, the next five weeks have a brutal schedule; all my Fridays are booked solid.  SO-LID.  I don't intend to take a break from the study...but I'm not sure when exactly I will be posting.  Just hang with me and we'll get through it, lol.

But we are in the middle of Mark and will be looking at chapters 7 and 8 today; we have three passages, repeating some of the narrative we've already looked at in Matthew.

Firstly, we see Jesus, eating with his disciples, and the 'Pharisees and teachers of the law' ...the ones who were always complaining about Jesus...apparently were hanging about while the guys were eating what was, I'm sure, a very needed and appreciated meal.  But there was not a show of hand washing...not the '20 seconds with soap and water' we are instructed to do today, but a kind of splash and wipe down...and the Pharisees et al were offended that Jesus' disciples did not follow the handwashing tradition.  

Seems kind of...creepy...that they were paying attention to whether or not these guys washed their hands.  Were they all eating together?  I get the impression that Jesus was teaching and his guys were scarfing down a brown bag lunch off to the side when they had a minute.  No matter, the picky guys were being extremely picky, and Jesus responded.

He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written, 'These people  honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"  Mark 7:6-7; 'hearts' is, of course, Strong's G2588, Kardia - heart.  

Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29:13; in the post where that verse was discussed I was seeing the pitfalls of routine worship, but in this specific case Jesus is calling them out for considering their traditional behavior to be the equivalent of the Law.  Nowhere in the Law are folks enjoined to splash water on their hands before eating.  But the tradition had developed and now it was considered to be Part Of A Godly Life. Jesus goes on to point out a few other such things the Jews were doing, summing it up with "You nullify the word of God by your tradition"   (Mark 7:13)  Now, humans like tradition; tradition is comfortable, familiar, structured.  And tradition in and of itself is not necessarily bad.  But the Pharisees et al were judging the disciples and using that to accuse Jesus and...tradition has no authority for that.  Lest we think we are above such things in our modern day...I can remember a not-so-distant past revival type occurrence  that happened on a college campus and sparked much controversy because other folks didn't think the events matched a proper worship service.  

Be careful not to nullify the word of God by your traditions.  

Jesus' discussion of the handwashing tradition morphs into a teaching on what actually defiles someone. 

"Are you so dull?" he asked.  "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'?  For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of the body."...He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean'.  For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean'." -- Mark 7:18-23; both instances of heart/hearts are G2588 again.

There were definitely laws regarding ceremonial cleanliness in the books of Moses;  Jesus, however, was referring to things that actually cause corruption. It is not consuming unacceptable food that causes someone to be corrupted...and true corruption cannot be removed by soap and water.  It is, he points out,  from within that corrupt desires lead to corrupt actions.  When folks focus on rituals and traditions...it's easy to ignore completely the bigger issue of what is in the heart.

Moving on.

In chapter 8, we see Jesus feeding 4,000+ folks from 7 loaves of bread and 'a few small fish', then traveling, via boat, to another area on the lake, where the Pharisees came to him and demanded that he show them a sign  from heaven to prove he was from God.  After, you know, feeding a few thousand folks from a couple of kids meals.  Jesus was understandably frustrated with them, and he and his disciples got back in the boat to head to the other side of the lake and, oops, they forgot to get bread.  Jesus, still shaking his head over the exchange with the Pharisees, warned his disciples to avoid the 'yeast' of the Pharisees and Herod.  The disciples took him a bit too literally and said to each other, oooh, he's miffed because we forgot bread.

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you still not see or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?  And don't you remember?"  Mark 8:17-18; 'Hearts'  is, again,  G2588.

Jesus then reminds them that after they fed 5,000 from 5 loaves of bread, they collected 12 baskets of leftovers, and after they fed 4,000 from 7 loaves they collected 7 baskets of leftovers, then asks them again...Do you still not understand?

Jesus, of course, would not be concerned about how much bread they actually had.

But in this passage I saw something interesting...Jesus describes a hardened heart.  

Eyes that don't see, ears that don't hear, and a lack of remembering what God has done in the past.

When we looked at a similar passage in Matthew, I was seeing that the disciples had kind of put Jesus in a box and still didn't quite understand who he was ...but this is an even better description.  Refusing...or unable...to understand what they were seeing and hearing, and forgetting what has happened already.  And that could happen because either the individual deliberately refuses...or because the focus in on the wrong aspect so the significance is lost.  Either way, full truth is just ...not acknowledged.  

That description just hit me as fully accurate.  Every case of 'hardened heart' we have encountered has involved those three things...refusal to hear, refusal to see, and a refusal to remember what has gone before.

So the solution is to pay attention, listen, observe, and remember.  Then, Jesus implies, you will understand.

Worth a ponder.

Blogging Bible Study - The Heart of the Matter : Mark, part 1

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Well, well, our kind of inconsistent of late stroll through the NIV 84 looking at words translated as 'Heart/ Hearts' has brought us up to the most...abrupt...of the Gospels, Mark.    The distribution gives us a bit of an uneven spread, but, whatever, we'll roll.  

The first verse comes in the narrative of the the paralytic who was lowered through the roof.  When Jesus rather oddly told the guy that his sins were forgiven, some folks who were there got offended.

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that?  He's blaspheming!  Who can forgive sins but God alone?"  Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things?  Which is easier:  to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven, ' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat, and walk?' " --Mark 2:6-9; 'Hearts' is, as is becoming typical, Strong's G2588, kardia - the heart.

Of course, Jesus goes on to demonstrate that he does have the authority to forgive sins by telling the man to get up and walk...and they all observe the miracle.  We have, of course, already looked at this event when we were in Matthew but this time what stood out to me is a variation on a theme we encountered over and over in the Old Testament...God KNOWS our hearts.  Because, as Mark makes very clear, Jesus knew the exact thoughts these disgruntled folks were thinking and then answered them.  Apparently everyone there that day went away amazed at the miracle...I hope at least a few pondered the significance of Jesus answering the very things they were thinking.

We have a variation on the same theme in chapter three, in which Jesus attended a synagogue along with a man who had a shriveled hand.

Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.  Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."  Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful to do on the Sabbath:  to do good or to do evil, to save live or to kill?"  But they remained silent.  He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. -- Mark 3:2-5, "hearts" is, once more, G2588.

In this case, no one actually said anything...the guy was just doing the regular Sabbath thing.  But Jesus happened to be there that day.  The home folks knew the guy was coming and were just...waiting to see what Jesus would do.    Of course, Jesus would notice him...this wasn't a megachurch.  Once again, we see that Jesus was aware of what was in the hearts of those who were hoping to accuse him.  

It is rather ludicrous that this is even considered 'working'.  What did Jesus actually do?  He said four words.  The guy's hand was restored (which implies his condition was the result of an injury).   But what aggravated Jesus was that these folks would seemingly rather their friend go through life crippled than for him to be miraculously healed on the Sabbath.  That, my friends, is what religion does.  Rules over people (and I would point out that the 'rules' I am referring to are the extra requirements put on to the Law given by Moses.  The ones people added.)   But Mark notes in the next verse that this incident resulted in the Pharisees and the Herodians began their plot to kill Jesus.  Because Jesus healed a guy when he saw him instead of the next day.

The final passage for today is Mark's relating of Jesus walking on the water; he omits the bit about Peter climbing out of the boat; he just records Jesus saying, basically, 'Hey, guys, it's me.  Don't freak.'

Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.  They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. -- Mark 6:51-52; 'Hearts' is, again, G2588.

Every time I come across this verse it perplexes me.  I wonder what it was the disciples were supposed to understand about the loaves...and I am kinda shocked that the disciples are described as having 'hardened hearts.'  The best I can do is to say that the multiplication of the bread and fish clearly showed Jesus' power and authority...but they were so close to him they didn't recognize it.  Had they seen it for what it was, it would not be so astonishing that he would be able to walk across even wind-driven waves.  Their hearts weren't hardened in quite the same degree as the Pharisees and Herodians who were trying to trap and execute Jesus...but they were hardened in the sense that they had set ideas about Jesus that were not ...yet...open to the truth.

That's the best I got.  I am not here to say that's the one and only true meaning of these verses.  But it does make at least some sense...and it does also make me wonder what box I have put Jesus in that keeps me from understanding about the loaves...whatever the loaves are in my own life.

Blogging Bible Study: The Heart of the Matter -- Matthew, Part 3

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Back from travels...for a bit, anyway...and our journey through the NIV '84 looking at words translated as 'heart/ hearts' has brought us to the last third of the book of Matthew, and we are diving in to Jesus' discussion of the Parable of the Sower.  First, he explains why he teaches in parables, quoting from Isaiah 6 :

"'For this people's hearts have become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' "   -- Matt. 13:15;  both instances of 'heart' are Strong's G2588 - kardia - the heart.  Just for grins, I looked up the post that covered Isaiah 6 and discovered that  Jesus is actually applying that prophecy to his generation, and that, while the first instance of 'heart' is the familiar H3820, leb, the second use, in which he refers to them understanding with their hears, is actually H 3824, lebab...which we later learned from other sources has a particular connotation of a heart united with God.  Jesus understood that they would close their eyes and stop their when he taught in parables.  But make no mistake...it was still a deliberate choice to not listen, to not see, and therefore not understand. Because there would be those who chose to see, to hear, and to understand the parables, so those who did not would have no excuse.

He then goes on to explain the parable of the sower, which I am not going to get into fully, but there is one mention of 'heart' in that explanation:

"When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.  this is the seed sown along the path."  -- Matt. 13:19; 'heart' is, once more, G2588.

Taking the prefaces to this explanation, the 'does not understand' doesn't seem to have the connotation of someone who is struggling to line up the message of the kingdom with teachings s/he may have heard before.  No, this is someone who has chosen to not hear, not see, and therefore not understand...and the message does not impact his/her worldview or lifestyle in any way.  It is simply dismissed.  Or so we think.  Jesus actually implies that if an individual doesn't take the message to heart, the enemy makes sure it is dismissed.  The thief comes to steal, you know.  It is a cycle...the choice is  made to not consider the message, the message is not comprehended, the enemy keeps the message from any further consideration, making the next time the message is presented even easier to brush away.

The next time we see 'heart' used, Jesus is arguing with the Jewish leaders about ceremonial washing, pointing out that it's not what goes into a person that defiles the individual, it's what comes out...words and deeds

"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'.   -- Matt. 15:18-20;  Both instances of 'heart' are, again, G 2588.

And we tend to think anything that comes from the heart is good and loving.  Um, not so much.

But the heart is the origin of truth in a person; that is, who they really are.  And, as such, actions from the heart are the real picture of who the person is.

Jesus, speaking on forgiveness, with the story of the servant who was forgiven a huge debt by his master but demanded payment of a small debt from a fellow servant, described the punishment for the one who failed to forgive, then added

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." -- Matt. 18:35; 'Heart' is G 2588 again.

If one forgives from the heart, then there is no shred of unforgiveness anywhere.  That is where the root of unforgiveness is located; forgiving from the heart gives that nowhere to germinate.

In the next chapter, we have the leaders trying to trap Jesus once more by asking him about divorce.  

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard.  But it was not that way from the beginning." -- Matt. 19:8  'Hearts' here is interesting...it translates, not to a word, but to a phrase in English.  Strong's G4641, sklerokardia,  is a word that literally translates 'hardness of heart'. 

I have always thought that was an odd turn...that Moses permitted them to divorce their wives.  Not 'the law of Moses', although it is not uncommon for us to see The Law referred to as 'Moses' in the New Testament, and that may be what's happening here, but it's interesting that Jesus implies that Moses was the one who gave them the out of divorce due to their hard-heartedness.  (We will encounter this same discussion in Mark and I'll look harder at it there because of the phrasing in that passage).  In other words, it was something permitted, but not desired.  Because of the hard hearts of mankind.  Jesus went on to specify that a divorce just meant a split, it did not mean the exes were then free to marry someone else.  The only circumstance that Jesus implied was a legit breaking of the marriage was unfaithfulness, which is a broken covenant and a pretty serious deal.  

We don't take covenant seriously in our time, I fear.

The last verse in Matthew to mention 'heart' is when Jesus answers the question about the greatest commandment in the Law:

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment."   -- Matt 22: 37-38; 'Heart' is, what I think is going to be the regular Greek word, G 2588 again.

He is, of course, referencing Deuteronomy 6, famously known as the 'Shema':

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  - Deut. 6:4-5

Which was a passage all the Hebrews learned from an early age and we shall see again as we go through the Gospels.

To love God with all one's heart doesn't mean to love nothing else...it is the love that puts all other loves in context.  Loving one's neighbor, loving one's family, etc., are all done best when God's love comes through a heart that loves him.  If we love him, then his love is able to go through us to others.  Loving God does not mean loving others less...it is the thing that multiplies love.

That's worth a selah.