Reading 13—Hardness of Heart and the Kingdom of God
Read Mark 10:1-45
In these verses from Mark, Jesus is constantly calling people out for hardness of heart and inability to see the kingdom of heaven present right in front of them. The transfiguration in chapter 9 revealed Jesus to be the embodiment of the law fulfilled in his life, death and resurrection. Chapter 10 shows this integrity through these encounters with Jesus.
It begins with Jesus being tested on the issue of divorce. He immediately asks them what Moses and the law says. When they respond, he points out that they have twisted the law to fit their lives, rather than molding their life to the way God intended it to be from the beginning.
He then engages children that the disciples wanted to overlook. They could not see what he saw in the children and what the children saw in him. “To them belongs the Kingdom of God.” They do not have hardness of heart, which allows them to look with possibility, rather than limitation.
The rich man could not see beyond his possessions. His possessions hardened his heart to fully entering into relationship with God in Jesus Christ. His inability to release his possessions, kept him limited to the vision of the world and unable to see the possibilities of God. Jesus points out to the disciples that when they lay down their possessions and familiar ties, they share in not only the bounty of the expansive gifts of the community, but ultimately, they receive eternal life.
This leads into Jesus foretelling of his death and resurrection. James and John reveal another failure to see because of their hardness of heart. They believed that they could accomplish what only God in Christ could do. Though they and we are to follow Christ, it is not we who lead the way from death to life. We can only enter the Kingdom of God through the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
It is no coincidence that this then moves into the story of blind Bartimaeus. Hardness of heart leads to inability to see the fullness of God present among us. Instead, we limit the law to fit our lives. We fail to look with the eyes of children toward the possibilities of God. We allow our possessions to block our way from moving from fear to faith. We falsely assume that we can do this on our own. Thanks be to God, that through the resurrection of Christ, we are invited to engage life as God intended, look upon the world with eyes of possibility, lay down that which stands in our way of moving forward toward the kingdom goal, and follow Christ from death to life.
What are ways in which our hearts are hardened? How do our hardened hearts affect how we view other people?
What are the possibilities of God in your life, church, etc.? How can we, as the body of Christ, be childlike and see the full possibilities of God?
God of possibilities, we know that we have hardened hearts that keep us from seeing the fullness of your kingdom. Help us to become childlike, so that we may experience the fullness of your kingdom. We ask this in the name of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Joshua Lewis Copeland is candidate for rostered ministry in the NC Synod and attends United Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, PA. He is currently living out the summer at home in Hickory, NC and completing Clinical Pastoral Education at CaroMont Regional Medical Center in Gastonia.
