A New Perspective On Holy Week

Above (second from the left) are my good friends Scott and Kelly Walker on a beach vacation we took last year.

I now know personally two who have come back from the dead. One of them is my Savior and the other is my lawyer.

Let me explain.

My lawyer and friend, Scott Walker, is my age (59). He played football at SMU, and plays tennis three times a week. A couple of months ago, his Apple watch told him he had atrial fibrillation (A-fib), an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm. The normal treatment for this condition is cardioversion, which involves giving the heart a controlled electric shock to restore a normal rhythm.

Having undergone this treatment twice but still winding back up in A-fib, Scott found himself in the hospital with extremely bad news.

He was experiencing systolic heart failure.

This was a shocking diagnosis for someone so young and in great shape. Something had to be done, and quickly, as his heart function was declining daily.

Soon, Scott's heart function was declining by the hour. I received a text one afternoon from Scott that read:

"FYI - Code Blue on me this morning. Ten people rushed into the room and kicked Kelly (Scott's wife) out. Chest compressions brought me back. Quite the adventure for me (I started laughing when I woke up), but Kelly's corresponding adventure was horrible."

Quite the adventure, indeed.

Unable to qualify quickly enough for a heart transplant, the only option besides the looming heart failure was major surgery to implant a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) into Scott's failing heart. The LVAD helps the heart pump oxygenated blood to the body when the heart isn't healthy enough to do so.

Prayers were lifted. A decision was made. Surgery happened the next morning.

Scott now wears a 7-pound battery pack to power his heart. It is connected to an electrical cord that comes out of his side. When he is at home, he is literally plugged into the wall.

Scott's heart, health, and life are tethered, for now, to that battery pack and wall outlet.

The LVAD, however, is only a temporary solution meant only to last a few years. It is a temporary bridge to the future, a permanent solution for Scott, a heart transplant.

That brings us to this week, Holy Week, when "Jesus turned his face towards Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51).

You see, before Jesus came, God's people were also tethered to a temporary solution when it came to the condition of their hearts. Because of their hard hearts turned against God, the Levite priests in the Old Testament were required by the Mosaic law to offer sacrifices to atone for the people's sins.

"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites." Leviticus 16:34

This, however, was only a temporary solution meant as a bridge to the future, a permanent solution of Jesus's sacrifice for us.

Even today, we often "tether" ourselves to temporary solutions when it comes to our hearts and where we try to find life. Turning to things like money, pleasure, and status might work for a short time, but they will never satisfy or last.

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 1:14

By turning his face towards Jerusalem, Jesus set the events in motion in order to become our heart donor.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

You see, when it comes to our spiritual heart transplant, not just any heart will do. It has to come from someone fully human so they can offer their heart, and someone fully God, so that their heart is sinless.

Thankfully, the only one who was both fully man and fully God voluntarily became our heart donor.

He was not a victim. He was a volunteer.

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8

This Holy Week, we commemorate the fact that just at the right time, while we were still tethered to temporary solutions, Christ provided our permanent solution to sin. We can finally "untether" from the temporary. "It is finished."

"Nor did he (Jesus) enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebrews 9:25-27

My friend Scott's current condition with his LVAD as he waits for a heart transplant makes Holy Week even more significant to me this year.

God promised. The world waited. Jesus came.

I'm so thankful he willingly "turned his face towards Jerusalem" that Palm Sunday.

P.S. Please join me in prayer for my friend Scott. We pray that God will soon remove his LVAD of titanium and give him a new heart of flesh.