Open Heart Surgery – Part One
The title sounds a bit intimidating, doesn’t it? Surgery is challenging enough, but open heart surgery? What, exactly, does that involve? Well, in most cases it doesn’t necessarily mean “opening” the heart itself. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the most frequently done “open heart” surgery does not really cut “into” and open the heart. Instead, this particular surgery, called Cardiac Artery Bypass Grafting, replaces the arteries that serve the heart and mostly run on the outside. It is now possible to do CARBG without cracking open the sternum to access the heart cavity.
On the other hand, traditional “open heart” surgery does open the chest cavity. And many heart surgeries such as valve replacement are done by cutting into the heart, so it is frequently, truly “open heart.” Yet it is astonishing how many surgeries can be done with less and less invasion of the body. That’s impressive medical science. But it’s not enough.
What we all really need is an Ultimate heart Surgeon. And if we listen to His Word, we have one: God is capable of cutting into our heart without breaking the chest cavity or using a scalpel. But Scripture is not averse to being graphic about the severity of what it calls “opening the heart.” Indeed, most translations use the word “rend” or “tear” because true repentance is radical and terrifying – worse than open heart surgery!
Joel 2:13 is included in Ash Wednesday’s Old Testament reading. One translation (NASB) reads “And rend your heart and not your garments.” (The King James Version says “tear” your heart.) This is the same word Samuel used to describe the monarchy being “torn” away from Saul’s tribe. And literally the prophet Ahijah tore up his brand-new robe and gave 10 pieces to a future King to represent the trauma of this brand-new kingdom of God being torn up.
But tearing up garments — although it’s a nice show of remorse – doesn’t provide the kind of access God needs to fix a heart. Joel is urging his fellow Jews to have genuine repentance. “A broken heart” was required, and the people themselves carried some burden to do this trauma of rending and tearing themselves.
Such rending and tearing are initiated by God’s Word as we believe what the 10 Commandments say: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul…” (Mark 12:30), and “the soul that sinneth shall die” (Ezek. 18:20). Again, individual responsibility has a role in that repentance. We can’t just blame God’s Word for not making us feel bad enough. If we refuse to allow the scalpel of the Law to reveal to us our personal culpability and mortality, we are resisting the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, when we feign repentance, we are tearing garments, not our heart. Martin Luther described repentance this way: “To repent means to feel the wrath of God in earnest because of one’s sin, so that the sinner experiences anguish of heart and is filled with a painful longing for the salvation and mercy of God.” [WLS p. 1210]
Surgeons do surgery to heal the physical heart. That’s good. But God the Holy Spirit relies upon a torn heart to gain access and bring the free, healing forgiveness of Christ. He removes the past clutter of sin which clogs the arteries of faith and love. He gives us a new heart. That’s better. Actually, that’s the best!
Prayer: Lord God Almighty, open heart surgery is scary, but facing You with our old hard heart, of unfelt insincere repentance is far more terrifying. Help us feel the full condemnation of the Law. May we fear Your wrath. Remove our old, self-centered selves. And create in each of us a new heart. May we each fully own that our sin has killed Christ. By Your divine design, Jesus offered His heart on the cross, and the Holy Spirit has transplanted it into us by the gift of grace, operating in our soul and spirit. Praise be to our Great Physician and Donor, Jesus! Amen.
