And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” ~ Luke 4:14-19
Luke chapter 4 is Jesus in the middle of leaving private life as a carpenter in Nazareth to begin his public ministry. To prepare for public life he spends 40 days in the wilderness fasting and praying. He completes his time in the wilderness and comes back to his hometown Nazareth. He goes to the synagogue on the day of the Sabbath. He reads the above quote from Isaiah 61. He reads the Scriptures and when he is done, he tells his audience, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” His statement creates a buzz. The people in Nazareth who watched Jesus grow up are asking one another what Jesus meant. It is interesting to note that from this moment on Jesus sets about doing exactly what Isaiah 61 says. He preaches the gospel. He gives sight to the blind. He heals the brokenhearted.
I am drawn this morning to the truth of the statement “healing the brokenhearted.” The truth is we are all broken. Broken in more ways than we are willing to admit. We hide our brokenness. We develop habits to cover the brokenness. We think that if people knew how broken we were they would never like us, befriend us, or want to work with us. And we would never be considered for that promotion at work. Our brokenness would be held against us. The consequence is quite startling – that is to say we walk around in our unspoken broken, hiding it and yet it is still there. Without knowing it our hidden and covered brokenness actually governs our choices and decisions. It results in many unintended consequences in our lives. Broken and fractured relationships. Misunderstandings. Arguments. The list is long.
What if there is a better way? There is. It is illustrated in the ancient Japanese art of “Kintsugi.” In the practice of the art of Kintsugi, the artist takes the broken shattered pieces of pottery or the broken pieces of a teacup and reconstructs the piece using a gold mixture as the glue to reassemble the broken piece.
The result is quite striking. You end up with a piece of pottery, or teacup that is fully functional. But it is much more valuable than before because of the manner that it was reassembled. It has been “put back together” with one of the earth’s most precious materials. Gold. The gold becomes the bonding agent. Gold is the element, the glue, that holds all the pieces together and creates a new highly valued work of art.
I say all that to say this: Kintsugi is an example of what Jesus does for us. He takes the broken shattered pieces of our lives and reassembles them and places them where they need to be. Not hidden from the view of others. But now highlighted for others to see. The broken pieces bond together not by an earthly substance like gold but bound together by the richest of spiritual realities – God’s redeeming grace.
All of this happens as we give God time and permission to pick up the shattered pieces of our lives and begin the process of reassembly. It does not happen overnight. There are often delays along the way. There is no “quick fix” either. It is a process. It is a beautiful life-giving process. It is a process that gives freedom. And joy. And hope.