Mar. 1 & 2, 2008 - A Heart for People: Closed Heart

A little over two years ago, Oprah Winfrey opened her heart to the world. It wasn’t when she gave all of her guest’s cars. It wasn’t building a deserving family a home. It was far more personal. She revealed what was in her heart. [1]

The episode first aired October 19, 2005 and she literally showed the world a picture of her physical heart. Oprah’s buddy, Dr. Mehmet Oz of Columbia University showcased the latest angiographic technology. Using the new 64-slice CT scanner, viewers of the show were able to watch a picture of Oprah’s heart beating.
Though CT scanners have been around for years, the technology on Oprah was the new 64-slice CT scanner's technology. It can take 200 pictures in the time it takes for the heart to beat. CT Coronary angiography allows doctors to see the inside of the heart to see if there are any blockages. They look at the walls of the coronary arteries to see if there is aortic calcification or what is commonly called, sclerosis of the heart. Experts agree that this new technology is poised to revolutionize heart care by catching problems early without an invasive test, by simply taking a picture of the heart.

If we were to take a picture of your heart today, what would we find? Would there be sclerosis of the heart? The Greek word for this condition is sklerokardia but when the Bible uses this word, it is talking about your spiritual heart. Literally, it is describing the hardness of your heart.

For the past five weeks, we’ve been talking about your hearts. We won’t make an exception this week. From the outset, I shared that few of the 1000 biblical references about the heart address the physical heart pictured by a CT scan. Rather, the heart in the Bible describes your spiritual center, the core of your being which reflects who you are even, at some level, beyond conscious thinking, feeling or acting. In this way, the spiritual heart controls the mind more than the mind controlling your heart. .

There are many metaphors about the condition which describes sklerokardia, the hardness of our hearts. Our hearts can be “shut.” They can be “proud,” or puffed up. They can be “made of stone” rather than made of flesh. Your heart, the deepest level of your being, can be turned toward God or away from God; it can be open to God or closed to God.”[2] Is your heart open or closed? Unfortunately, if we are honest, our hearts are often closed. Our lesson today may offer a few examples which may reveal the condition of your heart.

Last weekend, Jesus and his disciples were in Jerusalem for the Passover. Once it was over, they traveled to Galilee by way of Samaria. During this journey Jesus stopped at the well of Jacob and transformed a woman, literally enlarging her heart with His love and compassion. He continued on to Galilee where he stayed for about six months. Today, Jesus and his disciples return to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, one of the three required pilgrimages. According to the gospel of John, it is his second visit to Jerusalem. While there, Jesus teaches at the Temple, amazing some and creating controversy among others. Immediately following a controversial moment at the Temple, Jesus walks by a man blind from birth.

“His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) The question sounds odd to us but it reflects conventional Jewish thinking at the time, that illness and sin were related. When people fell ill or were born with defects, it was assumed that God was punishing the person for sin, whether it was his sin or the sin of his parents or even grandparents. We don’t think this way about disease and Jesus doesn’t want the disciples to think this way. But aside from the bad theology in the question, we see the first example in this story of a closed heart. The disciples lack compassion for the blind man. He is an object used to discuss theology with Jesus. Their hearts are closed to the suffering of the man.

A closed heart doesn’t feel the suffering of others. When your heart is closed, you see a man on the street corner begging for money or a woman on welfare with many children or the displaced in Rwanda and you don’t respond with empathy. At best, you view the suffering clinically. You think, “He’s brought this on himself” or “She could change if she wanted to change,” or “The problem is too big, I can’t do anything about it.” A closed heart doesn’t feel the suffering of others

Jesus offers a different way of responding. His heart is open; he has a heart for all people. Jesus gives the man sight. He spits on the ground, makes a poultice of mud and smears it on the man’s eyes. Once he washes the mud off, he can see. There is a curious response to this miracle and it is the second example of a closed heart. Those around the man don’t really believe it.[3] They say, “I don’t think it’s the same guy or he wasn’t really blind.” They can’t believe in the miracle.

Open hearts allow for the possibility that God is active in the world. A closed heart becomes insensitive to wonder and awe. It sees the world as ordinary and predictable. A closed heart cannot allow for the mysterious activity of God or the possibility that miracles, large or small might happen. They are explained away. An open heart realizes that not everything can be explained.

The Pharisees want an explanation and in them, we’ll see a third example of a closed heart, one of the purest forms of sklerokardia. They too have difficulty believing that the man can see but for a different reason. They think Jesus is a “sinner” and “not from God” and only someone from God could perform a miracle. Their hearts are held captive by self-interest and self-justification. Do you remember how scripture describes Pharaoh when he refused to release the Hebrews from captivity? After each plague, we are told. “….Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and would not let the people go (Exodus 8:32). A closed heart is hardened to anything that threatens self-interest; an open heart searches for truth even when it might reveal self-deception.

This week, I bumped into a former member. After catching up on our families, I asked him about his work. Despite being very successful, he began to rant about taxes and the presidential campaign which then lead to the Fishers annexation, the price of oil, global warming, the recession, the war in Iraq and his general belief about the world which he put this way: “It’s all designed to get money from people like me. I’m going to sell out.” All of this spewed out in about 3 minutes. It reminded me that he stopped attending church around the time that he’d left a business because he didn’t trust his partner and that he thought the church was only after his money. I realized that he was still suffering from sklerokardia. He has a hard heart which is closed off from others when he feels they threaten his self-interest. A closed heart is selfish and self-centered.

There are still more closed hearts in this story. Because they could not allow for the possibility of a miracle, the hard-hearted Jewish leaders ask for the parents of the blind man to give testimony. One would assume that parents would not have a closed heart to their child and that they would be grateful that he could see. But they feel threatened by the authorities and throw their son under the train saying, “He is of age; ask him” (John 10: 23b). Where is their gratitude? A closed heart lacks gratitude. Why aren’t they grateful? Maybe they thought the gift of sight was too little, too late. Perhaps they felt bitter or cheated because of the years of suffering? Their hearts are closed and lack gratitude. “He is of age; ask him” (John 10: 23b).

The leaders call the man back to give testimony for a second time. They say, “Give glory to God” (John 24b) which is Bible-ease for “tell the truth.” He does, using one of the most famous lines in the Bible. “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 3: 25b). If this were a movie, suddenly the hymn Amazing Grace would begin to play, the Pharisees would have a change of heart. They’d finally see and everyone would live happily ever after. But this isn’t a movie and they didn’t see. They are blinded by their own assumptions.

“Blindness and limited vision go with a closed heart. We do not see clearly when our hearts are closed. A shut heart and shut eyes go together; we have eyes but do not see. We have ears but do not hear. Enclosed in our own world, we neither see nor hear very well.” [4]

The tragedy of the story is the man is dismissed. John says, “they drove him out” (John 9:34b). But Jesus, always with a heart for people, found him and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe” (John 9:35-38b). He once was blind but now he sees, not just with his eyes but with his heart. If at that moment, we would have been able to take a picture of his heart, I know what we would have found—an open heart.

I have never had a scan of my heart but if I did, I know what you would find there. You’d find some evidence of sklerokardia, of hardness in my heart. I wish it wasn’t so but I know it is. I try to live with an open heart, with a heart for God and a heart for people. But there are times when I fail. In fact, if I am honest, I am sure that my heart opens and closes on a daily basis.

Sometimes it closes because I’m tired, or worried or preoccupied so I become grumpy with others or insensitive to those around me or so self-centered that I fail to have compassion. Other times my heart closes because the world looks ordinary and broken and I just can’t see God’s activity around me. I know in these times, I’m usually caught up in focusing on me rather than God and others.

Then something will happen. Someone will respond to me gracefully, someone will have heart for me and I’ll open up. Or a sunbeam will cross my desk or a snowflake will land on my sleeve and I’ll experience the awe and mystery. Then, I’ll open my heart to the Creator.

If we were to take a picture of your heart today, what would we find? Would there be sclerosis of the heart? Is your heart open or closed?

If the answer is yes to any or all of these, then you, like me are suffering from occasional sklerokardia. The good news is this. The One who used mud to give sight is willing to open the eyes of your heart, so that you too might see. In fact, he so wants to open your heart that he gave us a recipe for how we do this. We’ve been reciting it over the last few weeks. Let say it together.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

[1] http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200510/tows_past_20051019.jhtml

[2] The Heart of Christianity, Marcus J. Borg, Harper San Francisco, 2003, page 151-153.

[3] “The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” (John 9:8-10).

[4] Borg, page 152. The different ways our hearts are closed are from adaptive from his material.