“Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”” Luke 20:18 NKJV
Reflection: how has meeting Jesus broken you?
There are some big events in life that demand a decision whether to take a new direction. You have learned something new, that completely change your understanding of the world, or even of yourself, and there is no way of going back. It might be a traumatic event like abuse, or even something very good, like the birth of a child. In recent memory, we still talk about 9/11, where many things changed – there is pre-9/11 and post-9/11. And, of course, we are still coming out of the 2020 pandemic, as the associated lies and crimes still unfolding. Our understanding has forever changed, and we now have a choice forward how we individually respond to information from media, government, healthcare, global organizations, and so on. Some things we have learned are very difficult to process, but returning to what we considered to be “normal” before is not an option for most.
Running into Jesus
Is one of those events that change everything. Jesus says that today that there are two outcomes of meeting him; either being “broken” or “crushed”. Either one of those options do not sound very good, right? You might be wondering, where is the third outcome of just being accepted as we are, forgiven and loved? Let’s come back to that.
Let’s think about the first, being “broken”. Jesus called himself “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6b NKJV. We learn here many things about who he is; in a way it is the gospel in a nutshell. Among other things, we learn that there are no other paths for us to God; only one way, only through Jesus. And when we start learning about him, about truth, it has a fundamental impact on how we look at everything, and look at ourselves. The truth breaks us, humbles us, our self focused image, our selfish and sinful ways apart from God. We must be remade into a new vessel for God, in the image of Christ.
“The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!” Jeremiah 18:1-6 NKJV. His thoughts are higher than ours thoughts, and out of love and wisdom, He sometimes has to break us so that we can be remade in His image, for His purpose.
And John speaks of how we can know that we have truly accepted Christ as our Lord. He says “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” I John 2:3-6 NKJV. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:13 NKJV
Now, let’s talk about the other outcome from running into Jesus. You can of course reject him, the truth, and just walk away. It is an option. But the ultimate effect of that decision is that you will be crushed. Because the truth is still the truth; God’s laws don’t change, regardless of whether we accept them or not. It is like saying, I don’t accept gravity. Gravity doesn’t change just because you don’t agree with it. The truth that we are all sinners, and fall short of the glory of God, might be hard to hear. But it is still the truth. The Greek word used for “being crushed” in our focus verse means “to winnow, cleanse away the chaff from the grain by winnowing”. Jesus spoke multiple times of what would happen to those who reject him, referring to them as chaff, “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”” Luke 3:17 NKJV
The truth of Jesus might be hard to hear, but he is only presenting himself to us to save us. He came as a destructive stone to all evil, but is the cornerstone of God’s building.