Pastor Jonah preached from Ezra and Nehemiah. He said that politics, religion, and social reform cannot, address matters of the heart. But men and women with new hearts can. Lector: Lindsey Blair
Pastor Jonah preached from Ezra and Nehemiah. He said that politics, religion, and social reform cannot, address matters of the heart. But men and women with new hearts can.
Lector: Lindsey Blair
Lindsey: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Lindsey Blair and I’m joined by Bobby Gilles. This past Sunday Pastor Jonah preached from Ezra and Nehemiah. He said that politics, religion, and social reform cannot, address matters of the heart. But men and women with new hearts can.
While Pastor Jonah was in the auditorium preaching this sermon, we were across the hall in Bible Fellowship and studying 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul said that “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here.” Over and over again in scripture, we hear this message that God transforms us and gives us new hearts. The grace of God comes to us and changes us so that it can move through us.
Bobby, what did you think?
Bobby: I was glad that Pastor Jonah said that all of us face the temptation of reductionism … to simplify something complicated in order to feel safe, good, or right. But simple answers rarely work, and simple answers often create enemies of others.
Now, for anyone who missed the sermon or needs help remembering, let’s do a quick recap.
Lindsey: In Ezra and Nehemiah, historically read as one story, we see a complicated problem. God’s people are exiles in Babylon, prisoners of war.
They are not allowed to worship, they have no political power, and their culture is not permitted to flourish. Is this because they were unfaithful, or because Babylon was tyrannical, or because God had a sovereign plan? Ezra begins by casting it as a political problem. Maybe they just needed to get the right person in office. So, Zerubbabel becomes governor as they rebuild the temple.
Bobby: But the glory of the Lord was absent. They had some political power but not God’s presence. Ezra the scribe comes along with a religious solution. He demands that everyone who married a non-Jew get a divorce.
After yelling at them to obey God, after passionate sermons, his big conclusion is for Jewish men to abandon their wives and children.
Malachi was a prophet while Ezra was preaching in Jerusalem. He said, “God hates divorce,” and this is what he was talking about: this exaggerated zeal for religious propriety that lead to wives and children being abandoned.
Lindsey: Neither political nor religious action changed the hearts of the people so Nehemiah attacked the problem from a different angle. He led them to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so they would feel safe from attack. But when he saw that Jews were still marrying non-Jews, he lost it, even beating and calling down curses on his own people. What Nehemiah and all God’s children needed were renewed hearts that would change how they live.
Bobby: A new governor won’t heal you. More religious effort won’t heal you. Safer communities won’t heal you. You need a new heart. You need to be born again. This does not mean we stop caring about political, social, or religious problems. It means we address them differently. We address them as citizens of God’s Kingdom. This is what Jesus meant in the New Testament when he instructed Nicodemus. If we love people, we enter into their worlds to address the complexity of their problem. With a transformed heart, we can say, “Yes, there is a social problem here, time to get to work.”
Lindsey: With a transformed heart, we can love, support, and listen to some of the most vulnerable and voiceless people in our society. King Jesus came to restore and ultimately re-create our world. The Christian life is not one where we shy away from challenges, but neither does it mean we become a simple, one-size-fits-all people. We enter into politics not to save us, but because we are saved.
Bobby: We can lay down lesser allegiances and enter the complexity of our world as citizens of heaven. We pursue religious devotion not to save us, but because we are saved! We study the scriptures to know the one who loved us so much he would die for us. And we strive to make this world better, not to save us, but because we are saved.
Lindsey: Amen. This coming Sunday we’ll continue our current series, learning what God does to restore us as image bearers and empower us for mission. And in next week’s Bible Fellowship we’ll study John Twelve, where Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus with expensive perfume, and is rebuked by Judas.
Join us, and bring a friend.