Christ's Broken Heart

Psalms 69:20

At Calvary, the soldiers broke the legs of the thieves on either side of Jesus so that they would die sooner, but when they came to Jesus they found no reason to break His legs, for He was already dead. Instead, a soldier took a spear and pierced the side of Jesus, thrusting the sharp point between His ribs and into His heart. Out of this wound poured blood and water, as the sack of water surrounding His heart exploded onto the crowd. From the spear pierced side, Jesus formed His church and we are covered with His blood for our sins and His water of Words for our cleanliness.

The breaking of Jesus’ heart in the physical happened after He was dead, but the breaking of His heart in the spiritual occurred before He drew His last breath. No doubt it was heart-wrenching to see doubt at the tomb of Lazarus, but Jesus had grown to expect as much from mankind. It was awful to know that Peter would deny Him, but denial is part of humanity. It was torture to receive the kiss of betrayal from Judas in Gethsemane, but Jesus prophesied that it would happen. None of these things were the spiritual breaking of the heart of our Savior.

“Reproach hath broken my heart” (Psalms 69:20). This Psalm could probably be called a Psalm of Reproach for the word appears six times, and each in characterizing the coming Savior and what He would face in death. In verse 7, He bears reproach for the sake of His Father’s name, showing us that Jesus was constantly mocked for claiming that He and the Father were one.

The worst reproach of all was not done at the hands of man, but at the hands of His Father. For three hours at Calvary, the sky went black and the earth began to tremble. In that time, God turned His back on Jesus as Jesus bore the sins and sickness of the world. Because God is holy and just and good, He cannot look upon sin, thus He abandoned Jesus there to suffer for us all. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; calling His Father “God” for the first and last time in His life. Feeling distant because of sin, He lost the spirit of son ship that so characterized His ministry.

Since Jesus paid for us at the cross, we are so blessed in that we get His benefits through the grace and favor of God. God turned His back on Jesus so that He will never turn His back on us. God abandoned Jesus to suffer so that He would never abandon His church to suffer. Jesus cried, “My God, my God”, so that you could always cry “Daddy, Daddy!”. You gained the spirit of son ship because Jesus surrendered it. You are never reproached because reproach broke His heart (Psalms 69:20).

There was no one found at Calvary to provide comfort to Jesus as He suffered for our sins, thus we have the everlasting Comforter to walk alongside of us every day. Since Jesus faced all of hell alone; we receive all of heaven and sit together with Him. How wonderful is our Jesus?

The Gates Are Broken

Isaiah 45:2-3

God promised to “break in pieces the gates of brass”, using His anointed one Cyrus. Cyrus was a Gentile king, and the first non-Jew to be referred to as anointed. The usage of this king to make crooked paths straight and cut bars of iron is the biblical “Law of Double Reference”, where one character is addressed, but a deeper meaning is implied.

The anointed one Cyrus is a type of the anointed one, Jesus. The Double Reference first occurs in Eden when God speaks to the serpent, cursing him to exist on his belly and promising that the woman’s seed will bruise his head (Genesis 3:14, 15). The serpent did not have his head bruised at Calvary but Satan did; thus God was speaking in part to the snake and in part to the devil. In Isaiah 44:28 and in the 45th chapter, God is doing the same thing in reference to Cyrus, while giving us promises that only Jesus could fulfill.

Why would we need gates to be broken in pieces? Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Common sense tells us that gates are not used as offensive weapons but rather are closed to keep invaders out. Referring to the gates of hell as being powerless to stop the church infers that we will be going against hell in some capacity and that hell itself will not be able to stop us because Jesus has broken the staying power of its gates.

Gates are not only used to keep invaders out, they are also used to keep people in. Hell has thrown various strongholds against the believer from the very beginning; intent on keeping God’s people down, depressed, miserable and defeated. What Satan has done is not so much throw things at the believer as much as he has hid awesome truths from the believer. These truths have been shut up by strongholds of the enemy so that saints never see the truths for themselves; and what the believer does not know certainly hurts him.

Paul said that if the good news is hid, “it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Satan has worked for 2000 years to deny mankind the light of the good news. Every sermon that emphasizes man’s works or glorifies God’s law as the source of redemption takes the light off of the loveliness of Jesus. This traps the message of grace and favor behind the gates of hell, so that people cannot be exposed to the glory of the image of Jesus.

We are never changed by seeing how bad that we are and then working to improve. Instead, we are changed into His image as we behold His face, and this change is not by our works but from “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let’s not hold this glorious good news back one more day from one more person. Let that light shine to all who are in darkness.

Christ's Broken Heart

Psalms 69:20

At Calvary, the soldiers broke the legs of the thieves on either side of Jesus so that they would die sooner, but when they came to Jesus they found no reason to break His legs, for He was already dead. Instead, a soldier took a spear and pierced the side of Jesus, thrusting the sharp point between His ribs and into His heart. Out of this wound poured blood and water, as the sack of water surrounding His heart exploded onto the crowd. From the spear pierced side, Jesus formed His church and we are covered with His blood for our sins and His water of Words for our cleanliness.

The breaking of Jesus’ heart in the physical happened after He was dead, but the breaking of His heart in the spiritual occurred before He drew His last breath. No doubt it was heart-wrenching to see doubt at the tomb of Lazarus, but Jesus had grown to expect as much from mankind. It was awful to know that Peter would deny Him, but denial is part of humanity. It was torture to receive the kiss of betrayal from Judas in Gethsemane, but Jesus prophesied that it would happen. None of these things were the spiritual breaking of the heart of our Savior.

“Reproach hath broken my heart” (Psalms 69:20). This Psalm could probably be called a Psalm of Reproach for the word appears six times, and each in characterizing the coming Savior and what He would face in death. In verse 7, He bears reproach for the sake of His Father’s name, showing us that Jesus was constantly mocked for claiming that He and the Father were one.

The worst reproach of all was not done at the hands of man, but at the hands of His Father. For three hours at Calvary, the sky went black and the earth began to tremble. In that time, God turned His back on Jesus as Jesus bore the sins and sickness of the world. Because God is holy and just and good, He cannot look upon sin, thus He abandoned Jesus there to suffer for us all. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; calling His Father “God” for the first and last time in His life. Feeling distant because of sin, He lost the spirit of son ship that so characterized His ministry.

Since Jesus paid for us at the cross, we are so blessed in that we get His benefits through the grace and favor of God. God turned His back on Jesus so that He will never turn His back on us. God abandoned Jesus to suffer so that He would never abandon His church to suffer. Jesus cried, “My God, my God”, so that you could always cry “Daddy, Daddy!”. You gained the spirit of son ship because Jesus surrendered it. You are never reproached because reproach broke His heart (Psalms 69:20).

There was no one found at Calvary to provide comfort to Jesus as He suffered for our sins, thus we have the everlasting Comforter to walk alongside of us every day. Since Jesus faced all of hell alone; we receive all of heaven and sit together with Him. How wonderful is our Jesus?

The Gates Are Broken

Isaiah 45:2-3

God promised to “break in pieces the gates of brass”, using His anointed one Cyrus. Cyrus was a Gentile king, and the first non-Jew to be referred to as anointed. The usage of this king to make crooked paths straight and cut bars of iron is the biblical “Law of Double Reference”, where one character is addressed, but a deeper meaning is implied.

The anointed one Cyrus is a type of the anointed one, Jesus. The Double Reference first occurs in Eden when God speaks to the serpent, cursing him to exist on his belly and promising that the woman’s seed will bruise his head (Genesis 3:14, 15). The serpent did not have his head bruised at Calvary but Satan did; thus God was speaking in part to the snake and in part to the devil. In Isaiah 44:28 and in the 45th chapter, God is doing the same thing in reference to Cyrus, while giving us promises that only Jesus could fulfill.

Why would we need gates to be broken in pieces? Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Common sense tells us that gates are not used as offensive weapons but rather are closed to keep invaders out. Referring to the gates of hell as being powerless to stop the church infers that we will be going against hell in some capacity and that hell itself will not be able to stop us because Jesus has broken the staying power of its gates.

Gates are not only used to keep invaders out, they are also used to keep people in. Hell has thrown various strongholds against the believer from the very beginning; intent on keeping God’s people down, depressed, miserable and defeated. What Satan has done is not so much throw things at the believer as much as he has hid awesome truths from the believer. These truths have been shut up by strongholds of the enemy so that saints never see the truths for themselves; and what the believer does not know certainly hurts him.

Paul said that if the good news is hid, “it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Satan has worked for 2000 years to deny mankind the light of the good news. Every sermon that emphasizes man’s works or glorifies God’s law as the source of redemption takes the light off of the loveliness of Jesus. This traps the message of grace and favor behind the gates of hell, so that people cannot be exposed to the glory of the image of Jesus.

We are never changed by seeing how bad that we are and then working to improve. Instead, we are changed into His image as we behold His face, and this change is not by our works but from “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let’s not hold this glorious good news back one more day from one more person. Let that light shine to all who are in darkness.