JOHN 5:41-47 HEART DISEASE

41 “I do not accept praise from men, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

The man walked into the physician’s office. His complaint was that things just were not right. Where he used to have plenty of energy, now he was having to stop and rest. He could not even watch an entire quarter of football on the television without falling asleep. He was wondering if he was suffering from depression because he was lethargic and found it hard to motivate himself to do anything. His wife and children were driving him crazy with their activities and demands for his participation. Life was not any fun any more, in fact it had become a burden. Quickly, with a few tests, the doctor diagnosed heart disease and not head disease as his problem.

Jesus, the Great Physician has diagnosed the problem of the religious leaders of the Jews as heart disease. A properly functioning “heart” loves God, but their hearts loved men more. Because of their heart disease they were unable to recognize Jesus as God and their Messiah. Even as they studied the Scripture they were blind to the Truth. But the Truth is in the Scripture and wherever Truth is and is ignored, the Truth judges the one who rejects it. As untreated physical heart disease is fatal to the patient, unaddressed spiritual heart disease is fatal to its victim.

Like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, and indeed all human beings, we have a touch of heart disease. It is caused by our self-centered intentions and rationalizations that clog the arteries that supply our spiritual hearts with the nutrition of the Truth. Jesus has diagnosed the problem. It is up to us to accept the therapy and allow the Great Physician to clear our arteries and make us truly alive.

Jesus, you are the Great Physician. Give me the ears to hear your diagnosis and the will to repent and allow you access to my sin-clogged heart. Heal me and remove any blockage to your truth. Amen.