Brokenness is about our core — and God is about our core.

In any of our important relationships – spouse, children, close friend, family – most of us know how to say or do something that will really grab their heart. For my wife it is remembering the Diet  Coke on a stop at the grocery store. For my son it is rewarding him with some bonus video game time. For my daughter it is admiring one of her pictures or crafts. With time we learn that specific thing or action or word that will really move their heart.

This past week we finished our “Dealing With:” series on the topic of brokenness. We started with scriptures like, “the Lord is close to the brokenhearted,” and “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” which illustrate that there is something about our brokenness that touches the heart of God. From Luke 5:27-32 we saw how brokenness is about our need — and Jesus responds to those who need him. We also learned that brokenness is about our relationships — and Jesus calls us to restore our relationship with God. Remarkably, even though nobody sets out to be broken, our brokenness uniquely positions us to depend on God, trust him with our healing, and answer his call. On the other hand the self-righteouss are incapable of responding to God.

But there is something else about brokenness that moves the heart of God: Brokenness is about our core — and Jesus starts with our core.

In Matthew 9:12-13, Jesus challenges the religious community to understand the heart of God. The phrase “go and learn what this means,” was a common phrase for a Jewish teacher to use in order to tell their students, “you need to study more, you don’t understand the principles of God.” In this same passage Jesus quotes from the prophet Hosea to emphasize that the core, the heart, the interior, the motives of a person are more important than the outward sacrifices.  Jesus tell them you’ve got one thing down, the outward, but this other thing – what is on your heart – is better. Brokenness touches the heart of God because brokenness is about the core of our being — our heart.

See also: Matthew 5:3-10, 23:25-28