Hardheartedness

Ancient writers did not tell stories in the way that we do. We think of stories as having a beginning, middle, and end, with the climax of the story coming at the end. Ancient stories were told with beginning, climax, consequences. Mark writes his gospel in just such a way, and we are nearing that climax as we work through Chapter 8. As with any good story, there is a quickening pace of tumult and development as we near the height of the story, and the passage before us this morning is part of that quickening pace. Let’s read our text from Mark 8:11-13. From this passage, see two points: The Symptoms of a Hard Heart and the Sovereign Judgement of God.

First, from verse 11, see the symptoms of a hard heart. In verse 10, Mark tells us that Jesus and his disciples sailed west, from the region of the Decapolis back to their home base in the region of Capernaum, landing in Dalmanutha. When Jesus was last here, he had a serious run in with the Pharisees and Scribes, who argued with him over defilement. Jesus had overtly condemned them in two ways. He, first, called them lawbreakers by pointing out that they broke the commandment of God for the sake of the traditions of men. He, then, told them that it is not what goes into a person that defiles him, but what comes out of him – the sin of the heart. He drops these bombs, and then he leaves and heads into Gentile territory, where these self-righteous religious leaders would not follow him. Now, the moment he lands back in their territory, they run out to meet him and finish the debate.

So, they think they have him with a test. They ask, “show us a sign from heaven that we may believe.” At first blush, this seems like a ridiculous test. After all, Jesus has been performing miracles for a year or more now. They’d seen plenty of them. But now, they act like he’s not done a single one. Yet, they do think they are clever in what they ask. You see, the Jews had a superstition that shows up in many of the confrontations the Pharisees had with Jesus. They believed that God ruled the heavens, but demons ruled the earth. So, if an earthly miracle was done, it could very well be the work of a demon. But, only God could cause a miracle in the heavens. Only God could cause the sun to stand still for Joshua, or the sky to go dark for Moses, or rain fire from heaven for Elijah. We’ve already seen this superstition at play in Mark 3, where the religious leaders accuse Jesus of healing by the power of Satan. So, here is the trap they think they’ve set. If Jesus says that he can’t do the sign, then it will disqualify him by proving that he is ruled by Satan. But, if he says he can do it, he will fail, because he isn’t from God. I’m sure they thought, “We’ve got him either way!”

Little do they know, they’ve walked right into Jesus’s trap. There is a frustration that has been building throughout this story. Every encounter that Jesus has with the leaders of Israel is one of skepticism and rejection, from saying he has a demon to condemning his healings because they were done on the sabbath to chiding his disciples for their failure to meet with tradition. Each time, they reveal in more detail the hardness of their hearts. Hardheartedness is a spiritual condition that is natural to all mankind, but it can also be compounded by continued resistance and sin. We all are born with hearts that are bent towards sin. Genesis 6 says that our hearts are evil from youth. Jer. 17:9 says that the heart is wicked. Psalm 51 says that we need a clean heart from God. Without God, our hearts resist and deny and doubt the truth. But, Hardheartedness is a chronic spiritual disease that goes further than our natural sinfulness. Paul tells us of two types of hardheartedness. In Rom. 1:18, he tells us of a denial of the truth of God that leads to a hardhearted exchange of the natural order. According to Paul, the truth about God, even his divine nature, is revealed in creation. Just this week I was listening to the Lex Fridman podcast with Marc Andreesen – the man who invented the web browser, among other things. Lex asked whether Marc believed in God. With a hesitant voice, Marc explained that he grew up protestant, but then he became an engineer, and the allure of science led him to reject his upbringing. He said he’d lived the last 30 years, just trying to understand people. But, then he said something that gave me hope and broke my heart at the same time. He said, “But, one of the things I like to do in my free time is read and study about the universe, and just wow! There are billions of galaxies, and we don’t know where it all came from… and it had to come from somewhere… there had to be something that started it all. So… I don’t know.” In that wonder about the universe, Andreesen confirms the verdict of Paul – God can be clearly seen in what he has made, so that we are without excuse. So, what happens if someone looks up at the night sky, sees clearly in it that there must be a God, but then chooses to deny that truth and instead worship creation? Paul tells us in Rom. 1:21-24: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man… Therefore, God gave them up to the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.” This is the great exchange – you exchange the truth of God for a lie, and then you exchange what is natural for what is profane.

There is another type of hardheartedness that Paul goes on to give us in Romans 2. He asks, “Do you suppose, o man – you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself – that you will escape the judgment of God?” Here he is speaking to the law keeper, like the Pharisees who challenged Jesus. They were hypocrites who set up traditions and trivial rules, all while their heart was far from God. So, Paul says, in verse 5, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath.” There is a type of hardheartedness that thinks, “I have nothing to repent of because I obey the rules. I am better than most people, so God must accept me.” Friend, here me clearly: Moralism is not the same as righteousness. You might be like the rich young ruler, who thought he had kept the whole law from his youth, yet when he was hit with the extreme nature of the law (OK, if you REALLY love your neighbor as yourself, then sell everything you own and give it to the poor and follow me), that was a bridge too far. You may think you’ve been a good person – but what about your anger, your lust, your addictions? What about the white lies you tell to make people like you, or the places your mind goes when you are alone with your thoughts? Morality will not save you! Only repentance will.

With that, consider my second point – the sovereign judgment of God. In verse 12, Mark says that Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit and then pronounced judgment: nope! You shall have no other signs. Jesus was not playing their game. They were hoping that he would say that he couldn’t, or that he would try and fail. Instead, Jesus owns the field by denying them any further sign of who he is. They’d had all the signs they needed. Jesus was born of a virgin, as Isaiah 7 had promised. He was of the line of David, as Isaiah 9 had promised. He was born in Bethlehem, as Micah promised. He fulfilled prophecy by healing the blind, lame, and deaf. He fulfilled the promises of Abraham as he brought the blessings of God to the whole world. He fulfilled the promises of Moses as the true prophet that leads his people into truth and feeds them by his own hand. He fulfilled the promises of David as the righteous branch of Jesse who would rule forever. They’d seen signs from heaven and on earth, and still they did not believe. Now, Jesus passes judgement. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus will go on to do other miracles, but only for his disciples – never again for the Jewish crowds or the religious leaders. In Matthew’s account of this same confrontation, he does promise one more sign for them – the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah went into the earth for three days, so too will the son of man. The resurrection was their final sign, and what did they do with that? They bribed the guards to lie and say that his disciples stole the body.

Oh, see the warning of the Pharisees today. God is sovereign in his judgment. He does not have to continue the offer of salvation to you. Every day that you deny him is a day that he chooses to be gracious to you. But, if you continue to harden your heart to him, there will be a day when he withdraws his grace and you are left in darkness forever. Repent of your denial of the truth. Do not continue to exchange the truth of God for a lie. Don’t continue to worship yourself or some other material thing over God. Repent of your moralism. Don’t think that you can earn your way to heaven, obligating God to allow you in because you’ve met your own arbitrary standard of goodness. Repent and believe in Jesus and be saved.

Brothers and sisters, the hardheartedness of unbelievers is why our faithful witness matters so much. The salt and light of our lives is a salve against hardheartedness. When we show mercy and love and grace to sinners, it serves as a witness against them but also a call to repentance and faith. When we are faithful in our obedience to God, it shows the world a way that is true and good. God will use that faithfulness to draw people out of their hardness. So, may we live with faithful hearts as we bear witness of the truth.