Becoming Like Jesus - Broken

Introduction

I have tried to intentionally slow down when it comes to my sermon preparation. Typically, I like to move quickly through subjects and hit all of the high points and move on. The problem with that approach is you have to leave out some really good stuff when you do that.

So I’ve been working hard to slow down and intentionally work through some of the more meaty things. Last week we talked about communion or the eucharist. I studied for a fairly long time in preparation for that sermon and I had to cut a lot of things out in order to get you out of here by lunch time.

This week, I want to continue deeper into this idea of the Lord’s Supper and really diving into what it represents. Now we know from last week that it’s about communion with God. That Jesus is present in the supper and that by being with Jesus was transformed into his likeness.

Today I want to talk about exactly what that looks like. What is the Lord’s Supper pointing us to? What is the spiritual significance found in broken bread?

In the Lord's Supper, we see Jesus symbolized in the bread. The bread was blessed, broken and given. In our becoming like Jesus, we will certainly experience seasons on blessing and brokenness. Both of these seasons have a purpose. It is so that we can be given to others as a blessing to them.

So let’s look today at Mark 14 and discuss in detail the specifics around this beautiful meal that we share. If you want to follow along, I have the notes loaded in the app.

Mark 14:22–25 ESV

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

As I said last week, the three synoptic gospels share the same narrative when it comes to the Lord’s Supper. The disciples are gathered together in the upper room and are celebrating Passover when Jesus announces what can be looked at as the ultimate fulfillment of Passover.

The Passover Lamb is the one who becomes the Lamb slain for our sins. And Jesus is that lamb. I want to focus on the lamb or shall we say the true Bread of Life that we see in our passage today.

I have picked out three things that happens to the bread during this meal that I think are important and I want to share with you the spiritual significance of this. Here we go.

The Bread Is Blessed

Jesus first takes the bread and blesses it. He blesses the bread. Sometimes we hear this and we think about the blessings our children say. But even in that, I think we lose some of the meaning of blessings.

When we pronounce a blessing on something, we are calling it fortunate or good. That’s the definition of bless. Blessing something is pronouncing favor upon it. That’s what Jesus is doing over the bread that symbolizes his body.

Now, none of us would deny that Jesus was blessed. He is the epitome of blessed. He is God in the flesh, of course he is blessed. But notice what he does next.

The Bread Is Broken

He takes the blessed, favored, fortunate bread and he breaks it. We are not sure exactly what this looked like, perhaps he broke it in half, perhaps he broke off a piece of it, but either way, it’s no longer whole, but broken.

What is Jesus symbolizing here? His torture that is soon coming and his eventual death on the cross. This is his brokenness. Or as Isaiah would put it.

Isaiah 53:4–5 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

I know this is a familiar passage of Scripture, but notice some of the things that Isaiah says. He bore our griefs and sorrows. In other words, the brokenness that we experience, Jesus carried that for us. He was pierced, crushed, chastised and wounded. In this passage, we see the brokenness of the messiah. He was broken for us. He was wounded for us. He was crushed for us.

Now, he didn’t deserve to be broken. It wasn’t about what he deserved. He did this for us. He had a goal and we were it. It was for the joy that was set before Him that he endured the cross, the author of Hebrews says.

Jesus was broken, just like that bread.

The Bread Is Given

And it’s precisely because He was broken that he was given. Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it. If the bread isn't broken, it feeds no one, but because it was broken, it will feed many.The broken body of Jesus was meant to be shared. Just like the meal we take.

In the Old Testament when offerings were made, only the priests ate the food. Here, Jesus is the food and he’s meant to be shared among all the people. We are all welcome at His table.

The bread was given for us. His body was given for us. It was for our sins. It was for our griefs. It was for our sorrows. He carried those in his body and it was for us. He chose to do that. He wasn’t forced. It was his joy.

This is what blessed bread looks like. Broken and Given.

And guess what?

We Are Called To Be Like Him

In this series we are talking about what it looks like to be Like Jesus. Let’s start looking at this now through this idea. Jesus wasn’t the only one who will be blessed, broken and given. Our lives are meant to mirror His!

We are to be LIKE HIM! So guess what? That means brokenness will be a part of our life. Jesus is famous for saying things like, hey they persecuted me, so expect it. I am saying this, brokenness was a part of Jesus’ life, expect it to be a part of yours.

Some of you love country music, and Rascal Flatts sang a song that says that God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you. Love song, lovely, right? There’s a principle in this that they are getting at and its this that God does indeed bless brokenness.

God does bless the broken. If you are broken today, God will certainly bless you. He loves to restore people who are broken. It’s one of the primary ways that He shows himself to us, by blessing our brokenness.

Isaiah 61:1 ESV

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

One of the missions of Jesus is to bind up the brokenhearted. He heals those that are broken. That’s what he does. So if you are feeling broken today, know this, Jesus is here. His healing hand is here. Cry out to Him. He hears you. He will heal you.

So God does indeed bless the broken. But in our passage today, the order is reversed. In our passage…

God Blesses, Then Breaks

There is a pattern we see in Scripture and a pattern I’ve seen play out several times in my life, God will bless someone and then break them. He will induce brokenness on someone who He has blessed. This is what happens to Jesus.

Now this is counter intuitive to us. If he blesses it, why would He then break it? This is a great question. This isn’t done out of spite or hatred or anything like that. God doesn’t break us because He is upset at us. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Because HE LOVES US, He will break us.

Its in His Love for us that He will break us. He will allow us to be broken. And typically this happens in one of two ways - 1. We get ourselves into some sort of situation and we are broken by it. 2. Someone in our life will do something to us and it will break us. But either way, God blesses and then we enter into a season of brokenness.

Look at David as an example. David was anointed as King. He was blessed. God blesses David first. Then what happens? David is broken over the course of years by having to run for his life from Saul.

In fact, he would pen this in Psalm 69:20

Psalm 69:20 ESV

Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.

Anyone relate to David?

God had blessed David. Now God was allowing Saul to break David. What happens next? The cycle continues. Saul dies and David ascends to the throne, in that we see that God once again blesses David. He promises Him a legacy and makes a covenant with Him. Then what happens? Bathsheba. David is broken again.

In what could be called a Psalm of brokenness. David pens this in Psalm 51:7-8

Psalm 51:7–9 ESV

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Did catch that? In the midst of his plea, he says something very interesting. He says “let the bones you have broken rejoice”. Now we read this and hear bones and perhaps that’s not the best translation for that word. But the Hebrew word her is Esem, which is translated as body or life elsewhere. So listen again. “Let the life that you have broken rejoice.”

David understood something about brokenness. He understood something that we struggle to grasp. Listen to what he says at the end of the Psalm.

Psalm 51:17 ESV

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

In other words, what God wants is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Even though it was only David who was responsible for his sin, He understood that it was God’s grace that truly broke him. He knew he could come back to God because of his brokenness. That is a reason to rejoice!

Recently in bible college, one of the professors defined sacrifices for us. Brother Fount says that sacrifices are the “way we draw near to God.” If we apply that thinking to this verse, the way we draw near to God is with a broken spirit.

We need to be broken. But why?

We Are Broken To Be Given

Our brokenness has a purpose. The purpose of being broken is to be given! We are given to others because of our brokenness. Just like Christ’s body was broken and given away. God blesses us, breaks us and gives us to others.

God will make us broken bread and poured out wine to feed and nourish others.

Oswald Chambers

I know in my own personal life, my story of brokenness, how I was broken at that hands of someone else, how I was broken by myself at times, how I was broken by God, has touched the lives of so many other people.

One of the hardest things for me sometimes is sharing my story. I’ve shared it I don’t know how many times at this point, but there’s still a part of me that shy’s away from it.

But here’s what I know, every time I share my story, people are set free from their own brokenness. Every time I share my story, I see shame fall off of others. I see people restored.

So what do I do? I keep on sharing it. I allow God to use my brokenness to heal others. Just like Jesus. By His stripes we are healed. I am most like Him when I allow the wounds that I have received help others.

It actually connects me to other people in a profound way when I share my story with them.

The amazing thing was my brokenness was a far greater bridge to others than my apparent wholeness had ever been.”

Dave Earley

This is what most of us get wrong, we think God uses us in our strengths. He typically doesn’t. He typically doesn’t use us in our strengths because it produces pride in our hearts. What he loves to do though, is use us in our weaknesses. Wherever we are weak, He is strong.

This goes against our instincts. We want Him to make us look good. We want Him to use us in the way that others will see and revere. But that is robbing Him of His glory. He gives us grace in our areas of brokenness so we can give grace to others.

This really is the point of the Christian life. We are to give to others what we have received from Him. He gives us love, peace, grace, mercy, etc. in the midst of our brokenness and when we find others in that same place, we are to give those same things to them.

Conclusion

What does all this mean? It means that God has given you a story to share. He’s given you a way to minister to others and it is through your brokenness, not in spite of it. It’s not something you should hide, it’s something that was meant to be given away, shared.

And this is all seen clearly in the Eucharist. Christ is blessed, broken and given to us in this meal. We are like Him when we are blessed, broken and given to others.