Broken and Shared
At His weakest moment, the point of death, Jesus was at His strongest. Our Heavenly Father gave us His only Son and there, in His most broken condition, on the cross at Calvary Jesus shared everything with each of us so that we could be forgiven and so that all who believed in Him could have eternal life. Yes, our Lord Jesus was broken and shared. Is it possible that we too are meant to be broken and shared? Jesus was a wounded healer. Through His wounds we were healed. Are we called to be wounded healers too? Jesus gave us the Eucharist, are we called to be eucharist for each other?
Jesus defined the real meaning of “broken and shared” when He gave us His body and blood to eat as our eternal food and then again when He gave His life on the cross.
“Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.”
While being lead up to His crucifixion the soldiers tried to break the will of Jesus by mocking and scourging Him. They taunted and made fun of Him. Then finally, hanging from the cross, Jesus shared His life for us all so that through His death we could live.
“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him.”
As you know I have written and spoken extensively on brokenness, so extensively that I suspect some of you might be tiring of hearing the word broken. Prompted by the Holy Spirit I even named this ministry, Broken Door Ministries, because I believe that through our individual brokenness we can be a door through which others can enter to come to know Jesus. My emphasis today, however, is not on brokenness but instead it is on being SHARED. But before getting into the discussion on being shared we must revisit that dreaded word broken yet again.
Each of us has already experienced or at some point in our life we will most likely experience brokenness. We can be broken by the world, or broken by our own weakness and sin, in either case we find ourselves wounded and weak. St Paul had his own area of weakness in his life. He referred to it as his “thorn”. Have you ever thought of your brokenness as your thorn? If you have, I suspect that like me and like Paul, you have prayed to God to take your thorn away?
Your thorn/brokenness may come in the form of something this world has laid in your path, like the deep grief from the death of a loved one, or a serious illness, or family, marital or financial strife. Your thorn/brokenness may instead come in the form of some personal weakness, a recurring sin, or an addiction.
Regardless of the form it takes, perhaps all of us have cried out to God to remove our thorn, and yet it still remains. God does not cause our brokenness nor does He want us to experience pain, however there might just be something beneficial that God wants us to learn from our brokenness. When we do, He might call us to share our trials, and brokenness with others. It is often by sharing with others about our weakness that we can begin to heal. It is also by sharing this with others that we give them the courage to revel their brokenness to us. In both cases Jesus who dells in us is present to do the healing.
Paul was willing to admit he had weaknesses and or brokenness in his life because this gave him the opportunity to tell the world about the saving and healing power of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.”
Looking back again to Jesus at the last supper He broke and shared the bread; “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” In doing this Jesus instituted the Eucharistic meal. The term Eucharist comes from the Greek by way of Latin, and it means “thanksgiving.”
The Eucharistic meal is one area where we as various Christian denominations worship differently. Catholics believe that Jesus is physically present in every mass in the consecrated bread and wine. Most Protestant denominations on the other hand view their communion as a remembrance of the last supper. Although we may express this differently in each denomination, I believe we all share the common belief that Jesus meant for Himself to be broken and shared.
We also share in common our belief that Jesus is alive and dwelling in us today:
“Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.”
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”
Now here is my question for you today? Are you meant to be broken and shared? Are you too meant to be a wounded healer? Are you meant to be a form of eucharist too?
Can you see that if your brokenness causes you to only look inward it serves no purpose? It becomes a meaningless form of naval gazing. If on the other hand your brokenness drops you to your knees, gazing upward to Christ on the cross, then your Savior will be heard calling you to look outward to others. When we, for the benefit of helping, draw others to Christ, admit our own brokenness and our belief in Jesus as our savior and healer, our admission is a form of self-sacrifice. We all know that we can be sacrificial with our time, talents and treasure but we can also be sacrificial by acknowledging our brokenness. Being sacrificial is a form of sharing.
When we share our broken condition with others it can then have meaning; and when we heed this call, as wounded healers to share ourselves with others, and share with them the Christ who is in us, then broken and shared we can become a form of eucharist too. Let’s start sharing today!
I would love to hear how Jesus has worked through a brokenness of yours to reveal Himself to another! Click here to share your story with me.
I will wrap up today with a beautiful song written by Ricky Manalo called Spirit and Grace. I think the lyrics capture some of what I am trying to say. Click here to listen. Here are just a few of the lyrics:
Gather your people and form us in Christ, come be the heartbeat of our life.
In the bread blessed broken and shared Christ is our life whose presence we bear. Come O Spirit make your grace revealed in this Holy meal.
Spirit of God sending us forth we spread your wisdom throughout all the earth, gather the nations and form us in Christ come be the presence in our lives.
In the bread blessed broken and shared Christ is our life whose presence we bear. Come O Spirit make your grace revealed in this Holy meal.
Come O Spirit make your grace revealed in us when we share with others that Jesus is the source of healing for our brokenness.
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