Broken or Crushed?

‘𝑨𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔; 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒎 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅.’ Matthew 21:44

Which would you choose? The breaking or the crushing? Honestly speaking I’m not sure that I would want either, but this is the choice given by Jesus to the chief priests and Pharisees.

I remember a time in my life when I was broken. So broken. Into little pieces. Not my bones, but my heart. Dashed upon the rock. Truly rock bottom, my life shattered into little pieces around me. Sounds awful doesn’t it. But I remember what happened next. Jesus picked me up, took my broken heart and mended it, took the shattered pieces of my life, and put them back together until they were beautiful. Psalm 40:2 became my song, “𝑯𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒚 𝒑𝒊𝒕, 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒆, 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒂 𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒎 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅. 𝑯𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉, 𝒂 𝒉𝒚𝒎𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒅. 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝑶𝑹𝑫 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒎.” From that broken place my Abba Father put joy in my heart and for that I am eternally grateful.

You see, Jesus is that stone, our precious cornerstone, the one that we can fall upon, the one that we can go to in humbleness of heart and say, “𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵, 𝘓𝘖𝘙𝘋, 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘮𝘦, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦.” When our hearts are shattered into a million tiny pieces, we can fall upon The Rock.

If we head to the concordance, we can see that the word ‘broken’ in Greek means broken! Or even shattered. But dig a little deeper, the root word of that broken denotes ‘𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀!’ It speaks of relationship, relationship with the very God we have fallen upon. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴, 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘴! Perhaps choosing the breaking is not so bad after all.

What about the crushing then? Being crushed by the rock? In comparison crushed means ‘𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗱𝗲𝗿, 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗱.’ Dissolved into dust and disintegrated to nothingness. Truly a point of no return. The crushing fury of God’s judgement coming down with full force, crushing into nothing. “𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘓𝘖𝘙𝘋, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐’𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦.”

We can choose to either fall on the rock and be broken, let Him fill every area of our lives, give our lives to Him, and let Him take those broken pieces and refashion them, remake them into something wonderful. Something that reflects Christ. Or we can choose to let the rock fall upon us, the rock of God’s fury, obliterating us to dust. We can choose life or death. Following Jesus or not following Him. Not wanting to preach gloom and doom or even hellfire and damnation, but not choosing is also making a choice.

Now today, when I think about Jesus, I wonder if as He said these words, he was thinking about the choice He too had to make? Did his thoughts stray to the fact that He would be crushed by the rock? Crushed instead of us, for us! Taking the punishment, we deserved upon Himself, drinking the cup of God’s wrath. Today, as I think about Jesus, I know what my choice will be just as I know what His choice was. Do you know yours? Today, I am thankful that because of Jesus, I can throw myself upon the rock, my Saviour and Redeemer.

“𝒀𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅’𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒏, 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅.” Isaiah 53:10 – 11.