Getting To The Heart

Getting To The Heart

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There is a popular phrase that is used when we want to get to the bottom of something, or of our need to get to the most important aspect of something. We say that we need to get to the heart of whatever that something is.

Like when I was having a problem with my computer this past week, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. What I needed to do is to get to the heart of the problem, because if I didn’t, a whole day’s worth of work would have been lost.

And so, when we need to understand the most important aspect of some issue, we are going to have to get to the heart of the matter. And this is exactly what Jesus did in our passage today. He got to the heart of the problem with religion, and then tells us how to get to the heart of God.

If I were to give a definition of religion, part of it would be that religion is about keeping and maintaining laws and traditions that surround and are interwoven within religious institutions.

What Jesus states in our text, however, basically nullifies these rules and regulations in favor of a relationship, and within that relationship all the laws of God are contained and worked out.

Back in the days of Jesus, the religious leaders were devoted to carrying on lengthy debates on religious traditions and the laws they considered important or greater than others. This was no easy task considering how many laws there were, not to mention all the rules and traditions that surrounded them.

Take for instance the one law of keeping the Sabbath day holy, or number four in God’s top ten. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)

Now, what has happened over the years is that the Jewish religious leaders began to surround this one law of God to keep the Sabbath day holy, with over 300 rules and regulations. And now with that in mind consider there are 613 commandments in God’s law. Can you imagine how many rules and regulations there would be if they all were so stringently kept.

So, what the religious leaders did was to divide these into greater and lesser commands, that is those they felt were more important than others.

Jesus, however, never got caught up in such debates; rather He taught that all of these were tied up in what He called the weightier matters, or what we know them as the principles contained within the laws.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” (Matthew 23:23 NKJV)

The religious leaders were so intent on keeping the law, even in its minutest detail that they forgot what the laws were all about and the principles God desired to teach us through them. These principles, however, never countered or voided out the law, as Jesus said that the tithe was to continue regardless of what they did.

What do I mean by the minutest detail? They were so precise in keeping to the letter of the law, that when it came to the tithe, they would literally take a spice twig or leaf, and measure off a tenth, and cut it, giving that tenth part to the temple.

The reason Jesus was so intent on the principles rather than the specifics was because no one can keep the full extent of the law. And by trying to make some laws greater than others would give people an excuse for not keeping those laws they considered less important, thus discounting God’s word altogether.

The Apostle James speaks to this problem as sin.

“Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10 NKJV)

James said the law comes as a packaged deal. If we break one law, no matter how inconsequential we may think it is, then we are guilty of breaking them all.

Just because we may deny the importance of some of the laws doesn’t make them unimportant. Our unbelief and denial doesn’t void them out. They still condemn us no matter how little we may value them.

Under the law, therefore, we are judged guilty. This is why Jesus came and died for us, that through His death and resurrection we no longer are judged by the law, but rather we are judged upon our acceptance of God’s grace and mercy through faith in Jesus Christ.

A common deception that has affected many is the belief that if we deny, ignore, or refuse to accept something then it won’t come to pass. Many treat the Bible in much the same way, especially when it doesn’t line up with what they want.