Are you familiar with the phrase, “Hardness of heart”? It’s a Biblical phrase. Jesus Himself refers to our human tendency toward hardness of heart. What does a hardened heart look like?
The more obvious and well known depiction of a hardened heart is one of sheer coldness, caring not for and unmoved by the plight of human suffering, heartache, and pain.
Biblically speaking, the heart’s source of cold uncaringness is disbelief, refusing to accept the fact of a God of goodness, a God of peace, truth, righteousness, justice, and redeeming love.
However, even believing hearts can be icy cold and quite hardened. These hearts tend to slice others with their sharp-edged sword of intolerance, are quick to judge and condemn others for failing to live up to their standards of rightness and goodness. This kind of cold heartedness is hidden behind a veneer of righteous indignation (self-righteousness).
For example, our society seems to be moving more and more in the direction of discarding the historically hard fought for legal and moral differentiation between juveniles and adults, when it comes to applying justice. Nowadays, more often than not, when a juvenile commits a heinous crime or is even indirectly involved in one, the local District Attorney’s knee-jerk reaction is to immediately ask that he/she be tried as an adult. And this, despite the abundance of evidence that juveniles do not yet have a fully mature developed brain/mind.
Why? I’d say that it is a form of our society’s growing hard-heartedness. We have a growing desire for swift and immediate vengeance (as in “shoot first, ask questions later”). Indeed, I’ve noticed that the attitude and spirit of a victim (or victim’s family) can often be more exacting and cold-blooded than that which was initially in the heart and spirit of the offender when he/she committed the harm against the victim. Are there cold-blooded criminals out there? Of course there are. However, the justice process requires that we take the time to understand the context and true mitigating circumstances of a crime that has been committed. We seem to no longer have any patience for this. We want immediate blood-for-blood, and more!
Another example can be seen in the way we deal with drug addicts. Switzerland, like any modern Western country, including the U.S., recognizes that there is a drug problem affecting a percentage of its citizens. However, instead of categorizing the drug problem under the heading of “criminal activity,” they categorize the problem as a health issue. Thus, instead of throwing addicts in prison and building bigger and more expensive prisons to house addicts, they spend less money by diverting social resources toward more effective means of helping addicts deal with, manage, and hopefully eventually overcome their drug addiction. What a concept! Meanwhile our hard-heartedness has little patience for even entertaining the idea that drug addiction can actually be seen as a health issue rather than a criminal one.
It was Jesus who said in effect, “he who is without sin cast the first stone”; referring to the idea of stoning to death one caught in obvious wrong-doing that is deserving of death. As a society it seems that we are moving further and further away from the enlightened principle that Jesus was trying to teach humanity, the principle of having mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness, allowing for the possibility of change, renewal, and transformation.
The next time you want to apply swift harsh and exacting justice on one who has harmed you, be sure that you are willing to receive the same when it is your turn to face judgment for the harm you have caused another—for you have indeed harmed others yourself. Jesus made it quite clear that no one is guiltless in that realm. Only he/she who is without sin can claim otherwise.
“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” – Jesus Christ, the Messiah (Matthew 7:2)
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