The Sacrifice Of A Broken Spirit

“The greatest sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. God, you will gladly accept a heart that is broken because of sadness over sin.” Psalm 51:17 NIRV

King David wrote Psalm 51 after he was convicted of his sin of adultery and murder by prophet Nathan. It was the expression of his faith in God’s mercy and steadfast love and his need for forgiveness and to have his heart purified. Beliefs are our thoughts about God but faith is the mustard seed of God’s love in our hearts which we receive when we are born again by the Holy Spirit. Like King David, we will all fall from God’s grace again and again for we have deceitful hearts (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus died on the cross - not to satisfy an angry God - but to reveal the inhumanity, immorality and evil in the world as well as the separation of humanity from God:

 “The Lord looks down from heaven at the human race, to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks God. Everyone rejects God; they are all morally corrupt. None of them does what is right, not even one!” Psalms 14:2‭-‬3 NET

The story of Adam and Eve is a metaphorical narrative of our broken relationship with God. Adam represents our addiction to control - to be in charge of our own destiny and to control others. It is not God who breaks our hearts - our hearts are broken when our sinful desires, fueled by pride, greed and lust, are not fulfilled. We are in hell when we burn with anger, when we are blinded by envy, and when we are consumed by gluttony. The spirit of Adam is very much alive in us when we are spiritually dead. And as a loving Heavenly Father, God’s heart is broken to see us living in slavery to the sin of acedia - the “noonday demon.”

Jesus came to rescue us from our slavery to sin and evil. The season of Easter is a time to celebrate the wonder of God’s love that is revealed by the Lamb of God on the cross. When Jesus came down from the mountain after his Transfiguration, he found his disciples arguing with the teachers of religious law when they were unable to heal a boy who was possessed by a demon (Mark 9:14-16). Instead of being illuminated by the light of the fire of love, they were embroiled in the heat of debate.

Without faith in a power beyond ourselves, we will not be able to experience or see any miracles.   Our modern minds are filled with the wonders of science and devoid of the wonder of God’s creation.  We have lost the awe and wonder of God’s love that the psalmist experienced:

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place— what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” Psalms 8:3-‬4 NLT

When the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out the demon, Jesus told them it could only be done through prayer:

“Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer. ” Mark 9:28-‬29 NLT

So often our prayers are simply telling God what we want Him to do or what we think He should know. And we are disillusioned and discouraged when our prayers are not answered. We need to reframe our beliefs about prayer. Prayer has been described as spiritual breathing - an act that connects us with the spiritual dimension of life. Prayer is a time of sharing our lives with our Heavenly Father and listening to His whispers of love. The time Jesus spent on the mountain with Peter, James and John when he was transfigured must have been a very special time of prayer. It was a time when Peter, James and John had the awesome spiritual experience of hearing God:

“Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.” Mark 9:7-‬8 NLT

When Jesus came down after the Transfiguration, the crowd was filled with awe when they saw him. There must have been something in Jesus that filled them with wonder. Jesus came to show us what it means to be fully human and fully alive as a child of God. To do so, we need to spend time in prayer and meditation to be in the presence of God. But the goal of prayer and meditation is not to seek spiritual “highs”.  Jesus told Peter, James and John to keep their experience of the Transfiguration a secret:

“As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.” Mark 9:9-‬10 NLT

The apostle Paul gives us the following wise advice about sharing visions and revelations from the Lord:

“I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses.” 2 Corinthians 12:2-‬5 NLT

We are not to boast about our spiritual “highs” but our weaknesses, flaws and failures. God’s  power is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Without the cross and without suffering, we cannot understand the power of the resurrection. The cross is God’s guarantee that all our broken dreams and broken lives will be redeemed, restored and renewed. God is the expert in Kintsugi - the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold. God turns our flaws and imperfections into a more beautiful piece of His new creation with the blood of Christ.

The cross of Christ invites us to confront our demons through prayer and meditation so that we can be healed by the stripes of Christ. Like the father of the demon possessed boy, we can pray, “I believe, help my unbelief.” This is the sacrifice of a broken spirit.  Meditation is a simple way to do so. It is the practice to rest perfectly in Christ  - to do nothing, to be nothing and to have nothing. Only then can  Christ can do everything in us so that we are everything and have everything in Christ.  This is the prayer that God is patiently waiting to answer. 

SDG