Have you ever seen your own brokenness? Dr. John Monroe writes:
“The less you see your own brokenness the more broken you are.”
There is great truth in those words. Look with me today at the account of a woman who vividly saw her own brokenness. In Luke 7:36-50, we read of Jesus entering the house of a Pharisee and reclining at the table. A woman enters the house. This woman is a sinner. She has learned that Jesus is in the house, and she wants to see Jesus.
She enters with an alabaster vial of perfume. The woman takes her place behind Jesus near His feet. See her humility. She is weeping. Her tears fall from her eyes upon the feet of the Messiah. Not just a few tears but enough to wash His feet! She dries His feet with her hair, and kisses His feet as she anoints them with the perfume she brought as an offering of her love for the Messiah. The gift is also an acknowledgement of His greatness, an acknowledgement of her need for forgiveness and of her own brokenness.
What a marvelous picture of one who sees the brokenness of her own life due to sin! The Pharisee doesn’t get it. He is blind to his own brokenness. He has no needs. He is too full of himself. He is self-righteous and looks down upon this broken woman weeping at the feet of Jesus, and all he sees is someone who is a sinner…not at all like him…or so he thinks.
Jesus asks the Pharisee who loves the most, the one who is forgiven little or the one who is forgiven a huge debt. The Pharisee answers that the one forgiven the most will love the most, and Jesus tells him that he has judged correctly. Does this imply that we should become great sinners so that we can receive more forgiveness in order to love God more? No. That is not the lesson. The lesson is that we all — every single one of us — is broken and in need of great forgiveness. Some of us are totally blind to the need for forgiveness from sin. Some of us believe our sins are “little” and we aren’t really “that bad” so we believe we have been forgiven little. We just barely need savng..so we think. Thus, we love little. Some of us see how truly broken and needy we are no matter the sins we have committed because we know the truth that sin brings death — even those sins we consider “little.” The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Any sin. Let that sink deep into our hearts. Sin has destroyed our lives. Sin has left us broken. We don’t need to go out and greatly sin in order to greatly love. We just need to come to the realization that all sin against God is a great debt…so when He graciously forgives us, we understand the greatness of that forgiveness.
When we see our great brokenness, come falling at His feet, confessing our sin, and weeping at the feet of the Savior by being immersed into Him through faith in Who He IS (Colossians 2:11-12) , we are made whole by the Great Physician. You can’t be made whole outside of Christ. You can’t get into Christ without being immersed into Him (Romans 6:3-5; Galatians 3:26-27).
When we submit to Him, we are no longer broken people. But we must continue to acknowledge our faith in the Christ of the cross every moment of our life, and continue to acknowledge that we are dependent creatures not independent ones. We must never become self-righteous. We are to live whole lives in order to glorify Him. He makes the difference in our brokenness!!!! He can and He will make the difference in our lives if we lean upon Him. We are whole when we look to Him for all our needs, when He truly becomes our everything. He is a God who does not simply mend us — He makes us new (2 Corinthians 5:17). He is more than a God of second chances. He gives us a new beginning in Him! Praise Him for the new life you have in Him!
Daily -moment by moment – acknowledge your dependence upon Him to remain whole in Him. We must admit we are broken in order to be whole. Never lose sight of this great truth.
Jesus spoke these words to the woman as she left, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
We come weeping to Jesus, all broken from sin, and we can “go in peace” because we no longer walk in the brokenness of sin but with The Great Physician. To go in peace is to continue to walk with the Master. Never leave the only ONE who makes you whole.
Graciously thank Him for taking you, broken from sin, and making you whole.
Joy Filled 