Having Jesus In Your Heart 17

The next in a series of articles based on the Gospel of Matthew intended to equip us to be better followers of Jesus Christ.

“Another of his disciples said, ‘Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.’ But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me now. Let the dead bury their own dead.’ Matthew 8:21,22

“Human beings are nothing else than forms receiving life from the Lord. However, owing to people's heredity and their own actions, at first people refuse spiritual life coming from the Lord. But once those receptacles have been renounced so completely that they no longer claim any freedom of their own, there is total submission. The person who is being regenerated is brought at length, through the repeated experiences of desolation and sustenance, to a point at which he no longer wishes to be his own man but the Lord's. And once a person has become the Lord's he passes into a state in which, if left to oneself, he is dejected and gripped by anxiety. But when he is brought out of that state he returns to the bliss and happiness that are his, to the kind of state all the angels experience.”  Secrets of Heaven §6138

We are told that evil brings it own punishment. And so we are encouraged to let go of any need to seek retribution, to go back and “fix it.”. But what if the offender really needs to change – for his own good, much less the good of society? My thought then goes to the issues of education and correction (as in an “Educational Institution” and a “Correctional Institution”). If I want someone to change their behavior (say, if they are tapping their pencil), am I not supposed to turn around and speak to them with the intention of having them stop? And if it is a serious moral issue, perhaps involving killing, many of us believe it is legitimate to threaten death as a consequence in order to change the person’s behavior, or to resolve the harm to society the person will cause by living.

So, we understand revenge, and are rational enough to see justice as distinct from it. And we get that living our present out of the past injuries is self-defeating. And we get how unhelpful that is to our spiritual life and relationships.

I have to believe, therefore, that Jesus is talking about something else – something deeper – when He puts out this ultimatum. It has to be something clearly affirming my spiritual life, and the best steps on my journey.

Jesus said let go of the past (“let the dead bury their dead”), and do something radically different (“follow me”). And the Writings for the New Church interpret this as letting go of ownership and control of our life, so that we are completely free to be in action, by “total submission” to the Lord. So a part of me has to die, and I am to (simply) leave it. To “go” back there is to go backward in my journey, to do something other than follow Jesus Christ.

Jesus makes the task simple, but it is not easy. The goal is to have Jesus in my heart. Achieving that is, likely, a life-long work. This series has been about the steps to having Jesus live in our hearts. If He is there, I will feel free. I will feel strength of conviction. I will be ready and able to act from a true love for God and my neighbor. I will have peace that, whatever I do, the Lord will bring good from it for me, and for those in my sphere of influence. This creates freedom for me because I learn that it is not up to me to make change actually happen. My need to be in control dies when Jesus Christ is in my heart, and in control.

This inner desire has to die unheralded and unattended. Any desire to own my life, control the process of change in me or in others, and to determine the outcome, must also pass away, in part, because of my inattention. Sounds simple. And sounds very hard. I will have to experience a number of failures before that selfishness actually dies. Likely you have already experienced this, as have I. A good example for me that I share with people is that it took me six times of getting drunk enough to throw up before I let go of the desire to get drunk (I don’t even remember the attraction to it!). This is funny, but it also is not. It is a sample of a serious issue – that I would do something that is so self destructive because it had some short term, or illusory, benefit.

Here is what Jesus is inviting you to do: Take the time to remember and analyze such a situation from your own life. Maybe it was lying, stealing, sarcasm, or hatred. Humbly dwell in the awful feeling which that memory brings into your body. Notice where the discomfort is. Label it. Give it a color. Now, mentally turn away from it. Walk away towards a Scripture you have prepared ahead of time. It might be a quote you have memorized. It might be opening the Bible at random. It may be this very story. In any case, follow Jesus Christ. Take your energy away from the regret, resentment, anger, sorrow, hurt, or emptiness. Imagine the Lord’s love for you in your heart, radiating healing power. Now resolve to change one, small way of being or belief because of what you have learned from the Lord through His Word. Then you will have the courage to follow Jesus Christ, for He will be in your heart.