“O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6)
The undeniable fact is that we are all broken vessels in some way without exception- the bible says all have sinned and have come short of the holy standard of God. (Romans 3:23).
Today, the world is practically divided into two parts, those who are hurting and those who hurt others, consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, men are no stranger to losses, dashed hopes, and frustration. Once Adam sinned, a curse broke out, and the seed of Adam inherited these curses (Genesis 3:17–19).
Sadly, death entered the world, all became broken, and affliction and trouble became universal.
In fact, the entrance of sin into the world through Adam’s disobedience has so marred all God’s creation that God said ‘“None is righteous, no, not one’. (Roman 3:10).
Humanity and its fatal attraction to sin gradually evolved until it got to a self-destructing crescendo. But in His mercy, God had to do something to set the world free from the captivity of sin and destruction. He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to set the captives free.
Isaiah 61:1-2 best captures the mandate of Jesus the Messiah: “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn’.
One way or the other we are all captivated by besetting sins, and we might have even been victims or a source of pain of sin to another, what does matter before God is that Jesus came, died, and rose from the dead to set us free from all captivity- but on the condition that we allow Him to fix the vessels of our lives through a willing submission to His will.
Without the redemptive and sacrificial death of Jesus, without its resurrection power, all humanity would have been doomed and irredeemable.
Thankfully God is still mending broken humanity and there is a hope for all mankind only if they will come as a broken vessel without pretense and willing to be fixed by the hand of the Potter.
This is exactly what Jesus meant when he uttered that immortal word of salvation, saying:’ Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).
How does Jesus fix our brokenness? He does so without partiality having invited us all to be mended regardless of how marred we may be. Jesus knows the ugliness of sin, but the sweetest news is that He is best at helping us pick the shattered pieces of our lives and turning it into a beautiful artwork for all to see and marvel, but only if we let him.
Consider the following: ‘and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid’. (Luke 8:35). The moral of this story is that there is nothing so badly broken that Jesus cannot fix and fit beautifully together.
Now attempting to fix ourselves through all sort of self-helps and motivational philosophies, could help for a while but we soon find them exhausting and defeating.
The truth is that sin is a spiritual construct, and it can only be dealt with by a spiritual power and that power derives only from Jesus. That is why none in the history of mankind, but Jesus ever made these audacious statements about themselves: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25–26).
However, surrendering all our pet sins to the Lord and with a desire to be utterly saved is the only condition to the fullness of the redemptive life he offers.
Who goes to a doctor without a willing and a cooperative heart to be made whole or who goes to a physician with a hidden and unconfessed pain? That would be the height of self-deception and a wasted visit.
Jesus expects us to come to the potter’s house, without reservations or shame, and willing to be mended from our evil tendencies. God is a God of a second chance. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds, says the scripture about Jesus. (Psalm 147:3).
However, the lurking danger is that there is a deadline and once a man crosses the deadline of God because of stubborn self-will, hardened by sin, God can give up on that individual. (Isaiah 16:12).
Nevertheless, God does not delight in the death of a sinner but that he becomes yielding and that he turns away from sin and to God. Till this very moment God is calling us to yield to His touch.
Reading
Jeremiah 18:1-11
