11-6-2024

Good Morning All,

    Ezekiel 36:26; “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

    On Dec. 3, 1967, the world’s first human heart transplant occurred.  Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the procedure in South Africa on a grocer who had chronic heart disease. A new heart, it was an incredible feat at the time. The nightly news programs counted each day that the patient survived.  Many people wondered if this was the end of dying (it wasn’t) but all saw it as a definite change in the way we all would live our life. He lived 18 days with the new heart before he died of pneumonia.  That was an amazing feat some 55+ years ago; today some 3500 transplants and performed yearly with the average survival time of 15 years.

     In our verse, God promises his people a new heart and a new spirit.  The interesting thing about this verse is how God refers to removing the heart of stone and giving you a heart of flesh.  When God created man, he placed man in the garden to tend it and to live in harmony with his companion and to live quietly and joyfully in the presence of God.  This is what we were supposed to be, but sin entered the world and it hardened man’s heart turning it to stone.

     Some may wonder at this idea but look at the nature of the sinful world.  How else can we explain the brutality that man will cause to another human being?  We see the indiscriminate destruction, the willful refusal to come to the aid and comfort of people in distress.  Starvation and rape are viewed as “legitimate” methods of war.  Violence is common and hatred is the norm.  We must have a heart of stone to act this way.

     As God reveals the truth to us, we see our abysmal failure in any attempt to live a God-pleasing life.  Man simply could not overcome the sinful desires which he had.  His heart was so hardened and so closed to what we were supposed to be that he no longer had a human heart, rather he had a heart of stone.  So, God performed a heart transplant.

     As we read this, we see it as baptismal language.  Remember that through Baptism we receive the Spirit of God, and we drown the old Adam and become new creations.  Through Jesus’ atoning death, Baptism now saves us.  Because of the work of Christ, we receive this new heart and new spirit.  God is restoring us to our original intent; to be human; to live in his glorious presence and to live together with God’s true gift of love and peace.  We see this promise given to us through Baptism.  We see God removing the stone heart and replacing it with a human heart filled with his Holy Spirit.  It is through this gift that we can now live as God designed us.  We no longer need to fear the devil, but we can look for ways to live our life in harmony with each other in the presence of God and in his mercy.  We receive many gifts from God through his grace but receiving a new heart, which actually does end dying, may be the greatest.

Gracious Father, your mercies are new to us every day.  We thank you for the gift of a new heart and our new life.  Move us to live our life in service to our neighbor as we live in peace before you.  This we ask in Jesus precious name, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret