This sermon introduction discusses the concept of viewing our lives as bread that Jesus blesses, breaks, and gives for the world, using the analogy of broken objects that are often discarded, but can be fixed and repurposed.
Are any of you junk collectors? Odds are, in your garage or perhaps in a basement storage room, there are piles of tools or furniture or lawn equipment that was once sparkly and new, but is now rusted or scratched, missing parts and knobs and handles. It’s on your list to fix. But you’ve got to find the right piece or talk to someone who knows. But you never get to it. And so it just sits there. Eventually, it’s just time to get rid of it.
That’s usually what happens to broken things. We purge them from our lives. They are no longer of any use to us.
This series is about seeing our lives as bread that Jesus takes in His hands, blesses, breaks, and gives for the life of the world. Last week we talked about how difficult it is to imagine our ordinary, common lives actually being blessed and sacred and holy. Yet that is what happens to our story when we surrender to Jesus. To be blessed is to have our identity recovered and restored; it is to become who we were made to be: carriers of the glory of God.
This week, I want to talk to you about the word “broken”. We use the word “broken” in several ways. First, I think brokenness is a way to describe our own frailty. This is the experience of running up against our own limitations and finiteness. This is not the kind of brokenness we’re going to talk about today.
Secondly, brokenness can also be a way to refer to our own failure. When we come up short, when we miss the mark, when we fail what is required of us in a given situation or relationship, we come face to face with our brokenness.
Finally, brokenness is also a way of speaking about the fallen world. When sickness or death occurs, when tragedies happen, we hear creation groan. The creaking and cracking of the world, things coming apart from the seams—all these are signs of the brokenness of the world.
It’s these last two kind of brokenness—the brokenness of our failure and of the fallen world—that I want us to look at today.
What can Jesus do with our brokenness? Like bread that is broken, does it begin to lose its freshness? Do we become stale and useless? Or does Jesus receive our brokenness into His hands?
What can Jesus do with our brokenness? Like bread that is broken, does it begin to lose its freshness? Do we become stale and useless? Or does Jesus receive our brokenness into His hands?
Luke 22:19 (CEB) ‘After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ’
This is the second “Blessed Broken Given” story in Luke’s gospel—the second time Jesus takes bread into His hands, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it.
The occasion here is Passover, the feast which commemorates God’s rescue of Israel from Egypt and God’s judgment of evil. In short, Passover is when God dealt with sin and evil. God delivered His people by providing a covering of blood over their sins. That makes this passage the perfect place to talk about what Jesus does with our own brokenness.
Let’s talk first about the brokenness of our failure.
Unlike the gods and priests of other religions in the ancient world, Israel’s God provided a sacrifice specifically for the removal of guilt. The most dramatic way sin was dealt with in Israel’s worship came on the day of the year known as the Day of Atonement. On that day, the high priest would first offer sacrifices to cleanse himself. Then he would select two goats. After laying hands on one goat and imparting to it all the sins of the nation, the priest would lead that goat out into the wilderness. Do you catch the meaning of the act? The goat took the blame and was led away—a picture, an enacted parable, of God removing guilt from His people. The second goat was sacrificed and its blood was sprinkled on the altar inside the holy of holies. This goat took the punishment—a picture of God allowing the people to be spared judgment.
These elaborate and symbolic acts were found only in the Israelite religion ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
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