“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Most things must be broken in order for their greatest blessings to be seen and received. As we come around the Table in celebration of the Lord’s Supper let’s think about three specific items which were broken for blessings.

1) The five loaves and two fishes (found in each of the four Gospels).

In grieving over the death of His loved one and forerunner, Jesus decided to get away for some alone time. However, it was soon leaked out that Jesus was near and the multitudes began to assemble. Our ever compassionate Great Physician healed their sick. And interestingly, His disciples tell Him what time it is, as though He can’t see the position of the sun He created. These ministry advisers tell Him that He must dismiss this teaching seminar so the crowds can go and find their next meal. But Jesus tells them, “You feed them.” This leads to the discussion of financial excuses. And then one of the disciples sheepishly declared, “Well, there is this little boy here with five loaves and two fishes.”

Now I don’t know how they talked this young man into giving up his food, but the important thing is that he willingly did it. This feeding of the 5,000 plus the women and children is told in each of the four Gospels and neither account alludes to a hostile meal takeover. Please accept that even the most precious and sentimental things you own must be given over to the hands of Jesus for them to reach their full potential. That which you are holding in your hands, as near and dear as it is to your heart, was never meant to be held onto. And when you get to the place where you can give it back to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, it will be broken for the greater good. This young man’s daily bread, his nutrition for the day, was broken and blessed and within a few minutes, a multitude of people was fed. And the reciprocal blessing of abundance is found in the recorded fact that twelve baskets full of fragments or leftovers are what remains after everyone has eaten. Do you reckon it’s possible that Jesus had each disciple carry a basket as they followed that young man home; as an added faith lesson?

Had this little lad not given his lunch to be broken and shared, he would have simply consumed it that day. He would have probably grown to be an older man and would have only been able to tell of a time when he heard Jesus of Nazareth speak and minister healing to the sick. He could have easily missed the miraculous blessings he was a participant in.

The point is that you must be willing to give God the gift you have so it can be broken. If it’s never broken in His hands, then it will never be the blessings through your hands it was meant to be.

The five loaves and two fishes were broken for blessings!

2) The alabaster box of ointment (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9).

This incident takes place in the house of Simon the leper. Here while seated at the table and enjoying sweet fellowship, a woman approaches Jesus with an alabaster flask of ointment. An alabaster is a precious stone fashioned into a flask for holding valuable fragrant oils. This alabaster container was used because it kept the expensive perfume unspoiled until it was ready to be used. And the only way to release it was to break the alabaster. And that is precisely what this blessed lady did. She broke the alabaster and it released the precious and fragrant ointment.

But please understand just how costly this act was! The contents of this alabaster, as appraised by the bystanders, could have been sold for well over a year’s wages. And the people around got angry and harshly criticized her for her extravagance. They even remarked that it would have been more appropriate to have sold this and helped the poor.

This woman could have easily missed out on her blessings. She could have preserved this alabaster of valuable ointment for herself, or perhaps sold it and administrated the profit to aid the poor. But, oh what manifold blessings she would have missed!

What you have in your hands is valuable. And regardless of what you do with your gifts, there will always be those around who are more than willing to criticize you. They don’t know your heart and can’t clearly discern your motives. So go on ahead and worship The Lord in the manner you feel He is worthy. In so doing, your gift will be broken. But such brokenness is the key to greater blessings. Jesus told the people that day to “Leave her alone!” And He went on to indicate that her act would be a memorial everywhere in the world when the Gospel message is presented. And people all over still admire her anointing of our Lord before His death and burial.

The alabaster box of ointment was broken for blessings!

3) The physical body of Christ (Matthew 27:27-50).

Now we move our thoughts to the physical body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Isaiah prophesied well that He would be “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities.” And we go on to read in that 53^rd chapter words such as “oppressed,” “afflicted,” and “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.”

From the Gospel accounts of these prophecies fulfilled we know that He was betrayed with a kiss and arrested on false charges. He was flogged or scourged; this was a beating with a cat of nine tails whip. He was beaten beyond recognition so badly that I believe only those who knew Him best would have recognized Him. A crown of thorns was made to mock Him and pressed into His precious head. And finally, He was nailed to a Roman crucifix where He laid down His life. This instrument of death by crucifixion actually became the tool that God would use for the salvation of the world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “For {God} made {Jesus} to be sin for us, {He} who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2^nd Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus didn’t have to go the path of Calvary. He could have called for twelve legions of angels and instantly taken another route. And then history would have recorded the life of just another prophet who performed miracles. But He “endured the cross, despising the shame” and shed His sacred blood for us! And without the “shedding of blood is no remission” of sins. He was broken at that dreadful place of the skull, buried in a borrowed tomb, resurrected on the third day, and you and I continue to enjoy the blessings of redemption and resurrection life.

And thus we learn from the Apostle Paul in his account to the church in Corinth, that Christ’s body was broken and His precious blood was spilled out. He willingly allowed this brokenness to take place in order for you to know the blessings of salvation, eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, a home in Heaven, and the list of blessings continue in each of our lives.

The physical body of Christ was broken for blessings.

Finally,

In the case of these three, the value is only sentimental until after the act of breaking. But these three were intended to have so much more than sentimental value. After they are broken for blessings, their value is divinely increased from sentimental to sacred.

There are seasons of life which are divinely designated for you to be broken. Your life will not yield the blessings it was intended to if you refuse to cooperate with the breaking. However, if you will submit to The Lord throughout the breaking processes of life, He will multiply blessings through which you will add forever value to His Kingdom. Those who refuse to be broken will not be blessed to be a blessing. They are the ones who simply maintain the sentimental value and keep their blessings to be consumed only with themselves. But the broken ones experience a greater anointing for service to The Lord and witness more of the Kingdom of Heaven on their journey.