Heartbroken

When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.  “Where have you put him?” he asked them.

They told him, “Lord, come and see.”  Then Jesus wept.  John 11:32-35

Have you ever hurt someone without even realizing it?  I did so recently where some things were said during a conversation, and I did not recognize I had upset them.  It weighed on me all through the night, and to be honest, it was heartbreaking to think of how things had transpired.  There are times where I am sure many people say things they do not mean or do things not realizing they are offending someone else.  The point here is not to say do not hurt anyone.  That is kind of a given.  The point here is when it occurs, how do we respond?  Do we go into defensiveness trying to defend our actions in an attempt to justify it, or do we look within and see the damage done to others and acknowledge what happened?

This brought me to a point of understanding our response to human suffering.  As Christians, we prayerfully push ourselves to change our hearts such that it breaks for those things that would break the heart of Jesus Christ Himself.  Whether it is death, poverty, human strife, or other form of suffering, we want to be people who look to those people and ask the question, “How can I help?”  Yes, many of us resort to the standard response of saying, “I’ll pray for you.”  Nothing is wrong with that.  But there are other circumstances whether you are responsible or not that offering prayers is simply not enough.  It requires action on our behalf.  How do we best know when that is the case.  It goes right back to what breaks our hearts.

We should continually check where our heart is in alignment with how Jesus Christ would respond.  I looked through the verses today and was somewhat confused.  On the one end, Jesus is upset and on the totally opposite side, He wept.  It makes sense for His to be upset for He has performed miracles such as bringing others back to life, and yet, they are noting ‘if only you had been here’ as if that was the telltale sign of whether Lazarus lived or died.  However, when they ask Him to come see Lazarus, He weeps.  It was as if to say for the moment, He acknowledged what was going on outside of His righteous anger, and responded with compassion and sympathy for the people.  This was not the only time He did so as Jesus also wept when they failed to know:

But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep.  “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.” Luke 19:41-42

Thus, the key ingredient into a heart breaking for what breaks for Jesus is how compassionate we are toward those who Jesus would be compassionate for.  The sick, the poor, the broken, and others fall into those categories.  As such we should be respondent to those in need.  Keep in mind the broken is not just what we see on the outside.  It is certainly on the inside as well.  Think of the good Samaritan, and note the wording:

Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.  Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.  The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’  Luke 10:33-35

Brokenness is an opportunity for us as Christ followers to shine.  Whether it is inflicted by us or not, we have a responsibility to show up as Christ has for us time and time again.  Showing love for others as He has for us is never an option.  It is a commandment.  So, let us be more willing to show the heart that He has placed within us.  Who can you reach out to that is broken?  Where can you show compassion to more frequently?  My prayer is that we display the love and kindness to others who are ‘heartbroken.’  Amen.