Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
At the heathen or pagan courts of the kings of ancient Persia, if you appeared sad, you could be put in prison. You were required to keep a frozen smile on your face continually, and jokes and comedy were the way of life. The Bible tells how Nehemiah, serving in the presence of the king, was afraid because he was too honest to try to wipe that frozen smile off his face, because he was broken-hearted for the honor of God involved in the ruin of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1-3).
God loves honesty, even if it means that a broken heart must express itself. We read in Psalm 34:18, "The Lord is near to them who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit." Sounds very strange for these times, doesn't it? We suppose He is very "near" to the smiling, happy people--if you're not singing for joy there must be something wrong with your so-called "relationship with Jesus." Many assume that it's virtually a sin to be broken-hearted. But we are assured in Psalm 51:17 of the Lord's special favor to the broken-hearted: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart--these, O God, You will not despise."
Was Jesus ever broken-hearted? Not in the sense that He yielded to sinful unbelief, no; but we read that He took upon His happy heart our broken-heartedness. For example, we read that He was "despised and rejected by men" and it hurt Him, for He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53:3). You can't talk about having "a relationship with Jesus" without relating to that aspect of His character. The closer you come to Him the more you will appreciate that truth. And because He was very sorrowful on His cross, we read that the human race despised Him for it: "We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted" (vs. 4).
"We" wanted an always-smiling Messiah, not a broken-hearted One. How about His great heart of love today? Does He sympathize with all the sorrowing, pain-ridden people on earth? Yes! He longs to put an end to sin and the sorrow it brings. And the closer we come to Him, the more we will share His concern.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 25, 1998.
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