Jesus and Me—Broken Together
A Devotional from a Sermon on the Foolishness of the Cross
1000 Words. 5-Minute Read.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:18–25
Meeting Jesus in the Brokenness
Where do you try to meet Jesus in your life?
Many of us expect to find Him in obvious places—church, summer camp, worship services, our morning devotion. But Jesus often waits for us in the places we are already in—in the moments when we feel empty, lost, or irrelevant.
I once arranged to meet someone through Facebook Marketplace to buy a stroller for the boys. Rebecca set up the meeting, and they agreed on a location at QuikTrip on Woods Chapel Road. But when I arrived, the guy was nowhere to be found. I quickly realized I had gone to the wrong Woods Chapel QuikTrip. I was on the right road but completely in the wrong town. I was looking for the right thing in the wrong place.
We do this with Jesus.
We assume He is waiting in the moments of success, in the highlights of our faith journey. We think we will find Him when we do everything right—when we pray consistently, when we serve at church, when we experience spiritual highs. But Jesus does not only meet us in our relevance; He meets us in our nothingness.
The Tension Between Relevance and Nothingness
Our lives constantly swing between feeling relevant and feeling like nothing.
We feel relevant when we succeed—when we perform well, when our parents are proud, when our friends laugh at our jokes, and when we receive praise, attention, or affirmation. We feel relevant when we are noticed, appreciated, or loved.
But just as quickly, we can feel like nothing. When we fail. When we are ignored. When no one understands us. When we fail, get overlooked, feel unseen, or struggle in silence. We feel like nothing when we are compared to others, when life spins out of our control, and when we doubt our worth or even our faith.
Life feels like a never-ending game of ping-pong, bouncing between relevance and nothingness, between fullness and emptiness.
Jesus Meets Us in Our Nothingness
The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus does not wait for us in our moments of success—He meets us in our nothingness.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Jesus’s greatest victory was not found in a miracle or in wisdom. It was found in the emptiness of the Cross.
By all human measures, Jesus failed. He was rejected, humiliated, abandoned. The people wanted a miracle—they wanted Him to get off the Cross. Peter, in his wisdom, wanted to stop Jesus from even going to the Cross. But Jesus embraced nothingness.
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. He understands the depths of our emptiness because He lived it. Fully human, He felt the pain, the rejection, the fear, the shame. And yet, in the middle of that nothingness, He was victorious.
Jesus Meets Us in Our Brokenness
The broken body of Jesus meets us as broken people. Church is not a gathering of perfect people—it is a place where broken people come to identify with a Savior who was broken for them.
That is the one thing every single person has in common with Jesus. We have all been broken. Jesus connects with our brokenness.
We don’t need to clean ourselves up before meeting Jesus. He meets us in our worst moments, in our pain, in our struggles. He does not wait for us to be whole; He meets us in our brokenness and sits with us—broken together.
Jesus meets us in our defeat.
Many of us try to meet Jesus only in moments of victory. We think He is present when we are strong in our faith, when we serve, when we feel like we are doing well spiritually.
But the reality is, Jesus is always present in our brokenness because that is where He already is.
Our story is not defined by our brokenness—it is defined by Jesus’s brokenness. When God looks at us, He does not see our failure. He sees Jesus.
Where are you trying to meet Jesus?
In your victories?
When you feel put together?
When your faith is strong?
Will you meet Jesus in your brokenness today?
That is where He is. He will meet you there in your brokenness. Even though it seems foolish, that brokenness will be made whole one day—just as Jesus was given new life.
*Adapted from a sermon to Refresh Youth of Claremore AG.