Do you ever stop and think . . . really think . . . about how LOCO (crazy) it is that Jesus associates with and prefers the company of the broken? It almost sounds a little socially awkward, to be honest. Why on earth would someone as powerful and wise and mind-blowing as Jesus want to hang with prostitutes, beggars, and tax collectors when it would be much more comfortable just to chill with the religious/moral?
Jesus doesn’t just have a heart for the broken; He chooses to go out of His way to enter into their world, to love them through personal interaction. He was incarnational, bringing Truth and Light into the darkness rather than waiting for the darkness to seek it out.
Nothing exemplifies Jesus’ way of incarnational ministry like sitting among the broken. It is attentive, present, and compassionate. And it’s hard.
Every Wednesday night while I was in Colombia, we would go to the streets and minister to the homeless. We passed out bread and sugar water to them, talked with them (usually through a translator), and invited them to come sleep at the foundation.
Homeless men and women were spread down the entire sidewalk. The majority were hunched on the ground, getting high off of drugs. Some staggered past us, slurring their words and sometimes asking for money. Scantily clad women sauntered past, some with crazed looks. In the middle of one conversation with a man (he had actually come for a few days to the foundation and then left), he apologetically pulled out drugs, saying “I need it.”
As we invited people to experience freedom by coming to the foundation (where they would be introduced to Jesus), I was desperate for these wayward sons and daughters to accept this free gift. I wanted to shake them and plead with them to come to their senses and taste freedom.
While I did not get to see anyone I invited show up at Ciudad Refugio, I was able to build relationships with the women in the Restoration Program throughout the month. These were women who had been on the streets as recently as 2-5 months ago. Their lives have been radically changed by Jesus, and they are walking in the freedom He promises.
As difficult as it was to watch people feed their addictions before my very eyes, to reject help in favor of spiritual bondage, it was beautiful to see the restoration the Lord has been doing at Ciudad Refugio. So many people meet Christ and receive true freedom there!
I’m not sure I ever grasped how radical Jesus’ way of loving people was until last month. There’s something vulnerable about entering into someone’s world, especially when that world is suffocated by darkness. It is devastating to look at people and see so clearly the chains they are carrying. The imprisoning allure of sin is suicidal.
It is also humbling to sit down beside those at the end of their rope. It is a stark reminder of my own condition apart from Christ.
Brokenness is unavoidable, both on the Race and in life as a whole. I have found myself gazing into its eyes through another human being. I have also experienced my own brokenness while living in brutally beautiful community. Its presence is constant.
But it is so worth sitting amongst the broken, hard though it may be, because that is where Jesus would be. That is the ministry He is passionate about. You will encounter God in a special way there.
Who do you know that is stuck in brokenness, that you can sit beside?
I have recently tasted brokenness in another way, more personally, that I would love prayer for. A man who served at the church I interned at last fall recently died in a motorcycle accident. He was beloved, a great husband and father to three teenage girls. It feels cruel and senseless, and I have had a great struggle in processing this tragedy. Please be praying for the Clardy family. I can’t even imagine the heartache they are experiencing.
