Lent 19

[HKHaugan]

Lent 19 Pondering the Meaning of the Cross During Holy Week, Third Day
The Cross and the Mind

The best place to start our look at the mind is with Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees when questioned as to which was the greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind (Matt.22:37).” It seems that Jesus was indicating the heart and soul set the path for the mind. Mark 7:21 quotes Jesus, “For from within, out of men’s hearts come evil thoughts…” He further recalls Isaiah 29:13, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…their teachings are but rules taught by men.” We could quote many more but these help us to see the problem with which all our minds are faced---fallen sinful hearts.

Paul helps us put our intellectual reasoning processes into place when he says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Romans 10:9).” Paul knew what Jesus had already asserted. The mind follows the heart and justifies whatever the heart leads it to conclude. This is the basic dynamic in human behavior. The heart dictates thought and consequent behavior. What you believe with your heart is what you use the mind to justify.

So, for example, you may say for public consumption that you should reach out and love all people while in your heart you fear or really look down on certain kinds of people. What you say may be a way of justifying with the mind a way of excusing yourself from what you believe in your heart.

One of the consistent dynamics in human nature is avoidance and why. That is we tend to avoid dealing with disciplining how we manage our heart, mind and body. We procrastinate. Procrastination is the beginning of a mental process of putting off facing what is within. Procrastination leads to rationalization, that is, using our mind to find a reason for why we put off something. Rationalization then leads to self-justification, which tells me I’m right, what I have concluded is right and what will make me look right. So, when we see ourselves from time to time as exceptions to God’s right because of unique circumstance we lean on this process outside of God and His Word.

Procrastination, rationalization and self-justification make up the process whereby we build strongholds (again, concepts and conclusions we construct outside of God and His Word). Why do we submit to this process? Actually, it is very simple, we fear not being right. We have a need to be right, act right and therefore, look right. We use unwritten social laws, religious laws and personal laws we impose on our selves to accomplish what we conclude it means to be right.

Paul not only identifies this process but he defines it for us and it is exactly what Jesus bore on the Cross and why we need to take up our cross in regard to it. See what Paul says---“For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do---this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it…What a wretched man I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God---through Jesus Christ our Lord (Ro.7:18-20, 24-25).”

Perhaps this week especially, a real fast with prayer needs to take place---it is laying this process at the foot of the Cross, praying to be filled with the Spirit in the heart and filling our minds with His Word. When the first inkling of this process starts let real repentance begins. Nip the process in the bud. This is when we bring our minds to the Cross and pray for the healing power of His Word and His presence. What better way to prepare to celebrate the Resurrection on Easter Day? What better way to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind?

More on the Cross. Stay tuned.