Broken for You
The sermon teaches that Christ's broken body represents His sacrifice for us, and His unbroken body represents His victory over sin and death.
G.W. North emphasizes the significance of Jesus' body being 'broken' for us, contrasting the physical act of breaking bread with the spiritual truth of Christ's sacrifice. While the synoptic gospels do not explicitly use the term 'broken' as Paul does, they illustrate the moment when Jesus gave His body to the apostles, symbolically representing His future suffering and death. North highlights that Jesus, though bruised and beaten, offered Himself whole and unblemished, fulfilling the divine command regarding the Passover lamb. This profound lesson on Communion reveals that Jesus remained unbroken in spirit and purpose, despite the physical torment He endured. Ultimately, He presented Himself as a perfect offering to God, embodying the essence of sacrifice and redemption.
Text
It is noticeable that none of the synoptists use the particular word 'broken' in the same way Paul does when he introduces it into his statement. However, all three tell us that the Lord gave the blessed and broken bread to the apostles with the words, 'this is my body', and Luke uses the word 'given'. But although they do not record the fact which Paul reveals, His body was evidently broken in His hands and theirs. It was a marvellous lesson, even if at that time they did not fully apprehend it. Soon His beaten, bruised and bleeding body was to hang disjointed and cursed upon the cross. But He did not give them that body. He gave them the body which was sitting in full view before them, whole and vigorous and sinless. Yet, according to the truth He came to impart, there it lay symbolically broken by His own hands in their sight. This then is the first of the great lessons we must learn from Him about Communion.
Just previously they had together kept the final feast of the old order. The Passover lamb they had eaten had been dismembered and wholly consumed according to divine command. Its bones, said the Lord, must on no account be broken -- disjointed, lacerated, cut or torn asunder it may be, but its frame must be retained whole. And that is exactly how it was with Jesus in the end at Calvary.
The observant John faithfully tells us this in recording what he saw at the cross when the soldiers came to Jesus hanging in the midst of the two thieves. Intending to hasten the death of all three and about to break Jesus' legs in the customary manner, they found Him already dead. Unable to believe it, one of them plunged a spear into His side, and out flowed blood and water. He was dead all right. He needed not to have His legs broken -- He had died and was buried whole. The scripture was fulfilled. Neither man nor devil nor sin, nor all that these together could do broke Jesus. He took all and at the end could still offer Himself, as unbroken as He was spotless, to God for us.
Sermon Outline
- The Lord's Supper: A Lesson in Brokenness
- The Passover Lamb: A Foreshadowing of Christ
- The Unbroken Christ: A Lesson in Victory
- The Soldiers' Attempt to Break Jesus' Legs
- The Fulfilled Scripture and the Unbroken Christ
Key Quotes
“He took all and at the end could still offer Himself, as unbroken as He was spotless, to God for us.” — G.W. North
“Neither man nor devil nor sin, nor all that these together could do broke Jesus.” — G.W. North
Application Points
- We must learn from Christ's broken body the significance of sacrifice and the importance of giving ourselves for others.
- We must also learn from Christ's unbroken body the victory that is available to us over sin and death.
- We must remember that Christ's death and resurrection fulfill scripture and give us hope for eternal life.