Broken

For over 10 years I have been attending or working at churches that participate in taking communion every Sunday. During that time in our worship service there is usually someone who shares a short devotion along with explaining what communion is.

Often I've heard the words, "this is my body broken for you." Broken? Is it possible that I've heard that line so many times that I'm losing sight of what it means?


Jesus' body was broken for us...

I know that He was beaten, flogged, spit on, laughed at, punched, and humiliated. Physically I know He was broken.  But there is something about the brokenness that Jesus endured that is beginning to really stand out to me. Jesus was willingly broken. It was a decision that He entered into for me and you.

Jesus' body was broken for me...

He willingly took the pain, the trauma, the abuse, the torture, the shame, and the death that I deserve. He chose to take on the full wrath of God. When I allow that truth to sink deep into my heart and mind, I cannot help but respond. But what is the appropriate response? Is it to casually eat a tiny cracker and drink a sip of juice? Should my response be to hurry through that moment and apathetically pass the emblems to my right?

Regardless of how often you take communion, aren't we all guilty of being casual with it? I think the best response that we can give is to allow ourselves to be broken. When's the last time you allowed the Holy Spirit to break you? To expose you? Have you ever felt broken and in need of your savior? The great lie of religion is that once you've found God you're no longer in need of help. But Jesus' sacrifice was in spite of religion. His death was a ransom to rescue each of us from the depths of Hell and the lies of religion.

What if the next time you hold that cracker and juice you pray a prayer of brokenness? Maybe then the words and the experience won't be so casual, instead it will be a powerful moment of vulnerability in which you encounter a risen Jesus who is able to break you and then restore you.


Jesus' body was broken for you... by choice.


How will you respond?