Every advent I’m reminded and struck by the way God chose to enter the world. He came as a child, an infant, vulnerable, dependent, humble and announced to a select few. This framed the pattern and posture by which Jesus would continue to live his life and accomplish his work. He came to serve, he came to give his life, he came to die.
Before his death, he offered an example of his sacrifice to his disciples with a meal. In Matthew 26:26 Jesus said to his disciples,
“Now as they were eating, Jesus took the bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take eat; this is my body.”
Jesus took the bread and,
Blessed it
Broke it
Gave it
Jesus chose to use bread to represent his body and the lesson he left with his disciples was that his body was blessed, broken, and given for you. This is how Jesus came into the world and it is how he would leave it. I recently read something from Brian Sanders who offered this thought, “Consider how this applies to us today. His body is still blessed to be broken and broken to be given to the world through his followers.”
We, the church, are blessed to be broken and broken to be given as a healing balm, a fragrant offering, and a love letter to the world in order to communicate the beauty of a God who came into the world blessed, broken, and given. Wow. This thought has been stirring in me and igniting my hopes and prayers for Jesus’ church, his body.
Church, you are blessed. You are chosen and adopted as sons and daughters of your heavenly Father. You are filled with the Holy Spirit and given gifts to glorify God, serve others, and live more completely as a unique masterpiece. You are beloved, and one day, when you see him face to face, you will be shocked to find how complete and utterly true God’s love for you is.
Church, you are broken. On this side of heaven, we will always be saints who sin, God’s children who rebel, and broken vessels who suffer. The reality is that we are not yet who we will one day be and until that day we will suffer the consequences of our sin, the sin of others, and a rebellious and broken world. The wonder of the gospel is the great exchange. Through Christ, God chose to take our brokenness upon himself that we may be made whole. God creates beauty from dust, life from death, budding roots from stumps, and new creations from rebellious foes.
Church, you are given. Your blessedness and your brokenness supplied by God’s grace is a gift to the world. It is the potent combination of both realities that communicate the beauty of the gospel. You are a new creation, filled with God’s Spirit, adopted into his family, and flawed, suffering, sinful and broken. Let your blessedness fill you with hope, courage, adoration, wonder, and confidence. And let your brokenness fill you with humility, dependance, weakness, and total dependency on the power of God. Armed with both, Jesus sends you to be given to a desperate and needy world.
I pray you will remember your blessedness even as you fall before the mercy of God in your brokenness. And I pray that as you do, your presence will be the most precious gift someone receives this Christmas. You are blessed to be broken and broken to be given to the glory of King Jesus. Amen.