“Our God Is Able” (John 2:13-25)

 

*Fra Angelico's The Mocking of Christ (1442)

A Matter of the Heart
The heart matters. The Bible mentions the heart about 1,000 times. In essence, the heart is the center of our whole being. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” The condition of the heart matters because the heart is the very center of our relationship with God. Jesus says in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." In other words, the condition of our heart matters if we want to know God deeply and personally.

But here is the problem. Our natural heart is not pure. Our heart is not neutral. The Bible tells us that, because of sin, the human heart has become corrupted and deceitful. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (NIV) Our hearts have been polluted by sin. Our hearts have become hardened like stone. And a heart of stone does not listen. It does not respond to God. That is why we need transformation. That is why we need to be born again. God says through the prophet Ezekiel: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (36:26) A tender, responsive heart. A heart that can heart God and love God.

You and I
So the question is: Who needs a new heart? Everyone. Psalm 14:3 gives us the verdict: “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Everyone. You and I. We all need a new heart.

Let me tell you a story. After World War II, Adolf Eichmann, one of the key organizers of the Holocaust, was finally captured and put on trial in Jerusalem. The world watched closely. Millions expected to see a monster – someone with a cruel face, maybe a voice filled with hatred. But when Eichmann walked into the courtroom, people were shocked. He looked so… ordinary. A quiet man in a suit. Calm. Polite. Even respectful. He didn’t look like the face of evil. He looked like a clerk, a teacher, someone who might live in your neighborhood. When he was asked how he could participate in such evil, his defense was simple: “I was just following orders.”

Philosopher Hannah Arendt, who witnessed the trial, called it “the banality of evil.” She meant this: that great evil is often done by very ordinary people, who simply do what everyone else does without thinking. When we read the story of the crucifixion, we might say, “How terrible! If I had been there, I would have been different.” But would we? It wasn’t just the Romans. It wasn’t just the religious leaders. There was a crowd, “ordinary people.” And they shouted, “Crucify Him!” The truth is, that same sinful nature is still present in us.

Fra Angelico’s painting, The Mocking of Christ, captures this moment in a haunting way. In his painting, Jesus is blindfolded. He cannot see the people who are striking him or spitting on him. And Angelico invites us to see this scene from Christ’s perspective. We can only see hands that strike and faces that spit. So who mocked Jesus? Who killed Jesus? We might say, “Roman soldiers,” or “Pontius Pilate,” or “Judas Iscariot,” or the “Jewish leaders.” But perhaps, the artist is inviting us to ask a deeper question: “Were you there?” The face that spits could be mine. The hand that strikes could be yours. The problem is not simply their heart. It is the human heart. And that includes you and me.

God’s Way of Salvation
In today’s scripture the people were impressed by the signs Jesus performed, and many of them believed in him. But the Bible says that Jesus didn’t trust them. Why? Because he knew what was in the human heart. The Bible says, “He knew human nature. No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.” (vv. 24-25, NLT) Jesus knows our sinful nature. He knows our “heart” problem, and he knew the remedy.

So, what’s the cure? How does Jesus give us a new heart? Look at what happens when Jesus enters the temple. It was a mess. People were buying and selling. The temple had become a marketplace. When Jesus saw all this, he made a whip from some ropes and chased all animals out of the temple. And he scattered the money changers' coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. The people protested, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” Here when Jesus said, “this temple,” he was talking about his own body.

The old, polluted temple must be destroyed first, only then the new temple can be rebuilt. So how does Jesus cleanse the temple? How does Jesus give us a new heart? The answer is by destroying his own body and rebuilding it, that is, by his death and resurrection. Jesus didn’t pour out his anger at sin upon his people. Instead, he did it upon his own body. When Jesus made a whip and drove out the animals, symbolically he whipped his own body. When Jesus overturned the tables, he destroyed his own body, the Temple. But on the third day, the temple would rise again. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus cleanses us and gives us new life.

Who Is to Blame?
After World War II, Germany lay in ruins. People asked, “Who is responsible for all of this?” The German playwright Karl Rutenborn wrote a play called The Sign of Jonah, which explores this haunting question: “Who is to blame?” In the play, a soldier says, “I just followed orders. The generals are to blame.” The generals say, “The politicians are to blame.” The politicians say, “The system is to blame.” Everyone passes the blame to someone else. And eventually, they reach the top of the ladder. They point upward and say: “Then God must be to blame.” So they decide to put God on trial and declare: “God is guilty. He must suffer as we have suffered.” The sentence is this: “God must become human. God must experience hunger, grief, suffering, and death.” And then comes the quiet revelation: God already has.

We often ask, “Who is to blame?” We blame our leaders, the system, sometimes even God. But on the cross, Jesus doesn’t point a finger at us. Instead, he stretches out his hands and says, “I’ll take the hit.” On the cross, Jesus bore the blame. He bore the pain. He bore the consequence of our sin. Just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish, Christ entered the depths of our guilt, our darkness, and our death. And he came out on the other side. Alive. So that we might have life. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus cleanses our hearts so we can love God and be satisfied in him.

Our God Is Able
Our God is able. God is at work in our lives. God is at work even in the lives of people we might consider hopeless. There are places in this world where it is extremely difficult and dangerous to be a Christian. North Korea is one of them. And yet, even in that darkness, Christ is at work. He changes hearts and lives. I once read a story about a group of Christians in North Korea. About 30 people had heard the gospel and become followers of Jesus. They lived underground. During the day, they hid. At night, they came out looking for food. But eventually, their hiding place was discovered. They were dragged out and forced to lie down on the road. A steamroller was brought in. To maximize the pain, it began moving over them from their feet upward.

As these Christians lay there, waiting for death, one of them began to sing. And soon, the others joined him[1]:

“More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!

Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee…

Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;

Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best;

This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee;

More love to Thee, more love to Thee!”

Christ’s love transforms the heart. We were dead in sin. Our hearts were beyond cure. But Jesus bore our sins. He took the blame. He gave himself for us. And he gives us a new heart. That is the good news. And this good news is for everyone. You and me. As Tim Keller said, the gospel is not simply the ABC of the Christian life, it is the A to Z of the Christian life. May we never boast in ourselves. But may we boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our hearts may be beyond our cure. But our God is able. He is able to give us a new heart. He is able to make all things new. So today, may this be our prayer: “More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!” Amen.


-------
[1] North Korea: Good News Reaches the Hermit Kingdom (Living Sacrifice Book Company, 2008), 45-46.