Broken

Broken.

Broken toys.

Broken bones.

Broken friendships.

Broken relationships.

Broken families.

Broken hearts.

Broken lives.

Here in this old world, it seems we learn about this word "broken" from an early age.

When toys are broken, we throw them away. When bones are broken, we don't use them. When friendships are broken, we lose them. Broken means useless and wasted.

Then, there's this familiar verse that pops into my head, "This is my body broken for you." I Cor 11.24

Broken.

Toys can be fixed. Bones can be healed. Friendships can be mended. Relationships can be reunited.

We try to fix ourselves like these things are fixed. Others try to fix us. But ---

Broken.

Jesus did not come to fix us. Instead, He was broken for our sins. 

Jesus loves broken. He redeems broken. He uses broken.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me...He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom....to proclaim the ear of the Lord's favor...to comfort all who mourn" Isaiah 61:1-2

In Luke 4 we see Jesus taking the book of the prophet Isaiah and reading this very Scripture about the brokenhearted. After he closed the book he sat down and told them the Scripture was fulfilled in Him and He and warned that many would mock Him saying "Physician, heal thyself..."

Jesus knows broken. 

After teaching from Isaiah, Jesus left there and went to another city. The next things we see Jesus do -- we can do too. He cared for the elderly -- healing Simon's mother. He fed the hungry with the miracle of the fishes, and then, in Luke 5:16 it says "He withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed."

So what does Jesus do with broken? He uses it to serve, to love, and to redeem. He reaches out to the broken and the hurting. Jesus shows us that broken isn't fixed, but is used.

Jesus lived among the cruel, doubt-instilling naysayers that we do; and as for those well-intentioned, righteous folks trying to "fix" others...He said, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick." Luke 5:31

Jesus wants the broken. When we are broken, we need Him.

Let's stop trying to fix ourselves and thinking others should do the same. 

Let's stand before Him and freely proclaim -- I'm broken.

God uses broken.

Broken.