Broken

Over the past week our readings have dipped into Isaiah 53. A song, written 700 years before Jesus, which speaks so clearly of his brokenness.

We come to the climax today.

Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his live an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord with prosper in his hand.Isaiah 53:10

This verse moves us from brokeness to hope.

Jesus did suffer - he was broken. That was all the Lord's will. As he suffered, he carried out the Lord's will. And he shall know the Lord's will prospering. His suffering and death where not in vain. There is hope.

Jesus was crushed and broken. Isaiah teaches that it was all for us. He did this because our sin needed dealt with. And so he took the punishment, for our sin. He is fixing our brokenness.

It is wonderful to know this truth worked out in our lives. To know that we are sinners, and the price has been paid for us. We don't have to take the punishment because he has. Yet it is true to say that whole process of saying we are broken sinners and he makes us whole, is not one that just happens in our heads - but it is lived by us.

We need to know this world is broken. We need to feel our own brokenness. We need to sense our own ongoing fragility. We must confess our part, that I too am a sinner. As we do so, we go on that journey to hope in Jesus Christ. And we walk on in his strength, knowing his will shall prosper in our own lives.