Enlightened Brokenness

Have you ever suffered a broken heart? I’m not talking about minor disappointments, which are uncomfortable enough; I’m talking about the kind of grief that crushes your spirit, the kind that no matter what else you think of is always accompanying you, the kind you feel physically in your chest, the kind that makes you genuinely understand why it’s called a “broken heart.” If you have, I daresay you know you have and that you might be wondering what good could have possibly come out of it.

Perhaps you’re living with a broken heart right now and are struggling to see any redeeming quality of your plight. There are many ways to find beauty in the midst of brokenness, for it is often the schoolroom that God uses to teach us truths that would otherwise be difficult for us to learn. So today I’d like to invite you to consider what I believe is one blessing of experiencing this kind of brokenness, namely a deeper understanding of and gratitude for the love of God. Let’s think about it . . .

If you’ve been in a true gospel-preaching church for any length of time, you’ve likely heard mentioned Jesus’ love in enduring the lethally potent wrath of God in our place. We know that Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us, thus showing us the deepest love. But how often do we really think about the Father’s sacrifice?

We think of God the Father as the One who poured out the wrath, but do we picture Him as purely vengeful and devoid of love in this act? No, He showed His love for us in what He did, just like Jesus did, you might be thinking. And this is true. After all, one of the most famous verses in the Bible tells us that God loved us so much that He gave up His only Son for us (John 3:16).

But what about His love for His Son? Did the Father cease loving Jesus when He poured out His wrath on Him? Their perfect fellowship and intimacy was broken for a time, yes, but did God stop loving His Son? Somehow, I don’t think so. And if He didn’t, what do you think that means He experienced when He willingly separated Himself from His Son and poured out the full extent of His wrath upon Him? Do you think it might have been something akin to a broken heart?

Of course, we must be careful when we try to apply our own finite emotions and experiences to the transcendent, infinite God; we must avoid making Him in our image. But we are made in His image and thus can understand, to an extent, His character. We also know that He reveals Himself in His Word through anthropomorphisms (i.e. the use of human-like descriptions to describe a non-human, e.g. “the arm of the Lord” or “the sun smiled on the earth”). So I don’t think it is too far a stretch to presume that Jesus’ suffering was as painful for His Father as it was for Him (to say nothing of the fact that they are, after all, the same Being).

In our human experience, it seems that most true cases of broken heart relate in some way to the fracturing of intimacy with another being, to the loss of relationship whether through death or through a parting of ways, either physically or emotionally, or sometimes both. So if God’s love is so much more perfect and complete than ours, does it not stand to reason that the fracturing of intimacy within the Trinity would produce a pain so much more profound than ours?

If we accept, then, that God’s heart was broken at the Cross, next we come to another realization—that in doing what He did willingly, He chose to let His heart be broken—for us. He chose to endure the pain of inflicting undeserved pain on His own beloved. The weight of separation was felt by the Father just as it was by the Son, and this weight not only was willingly born but was willingly initiated.

So when we experience a broken heart, we get what I believe is a small taste of the pain God must have felt.  Instead of mere cognitive understanding of what God suffered, we’re granted experiential understanding; we get a personal glimpse into the agony and an inkling of the soul-crushing distress.  

And when we realize that God voluntarily subjected Himself to that kind of pain for us—people who were ungrateful, selfish, rebellious creatures—we cannot help but be moved to worship and praise the One who loved us that much and to be comforted in realizing that He knows firsthand what it feels like to be in pain. However much you are hurting, He chose to bear that much and more in loving you.

So in the middle of a brokenhearted season, when goodness seems absent, take the opportunity to ponder the matchless love of God that demonstrates itself in His willingness to suffer pain on our behalf. If your heart is broken today, or if it will be one day in the future, rest in this: in all the many ways God may be using your brokenness to shape and grow you, it just might be that among them is enlightening you with deeper understanding of the depth of His love. 

To read the Arabic translation of this post, click here.

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