Isaiah 58:9-14; Luke 5:27-32
I have come for the broken. I have come for the doubtful. I have come for the fearful. I have come for the disobedient. I have come for the proud. I have come for those who have become prisoners of sin. I have come not to call the virtuous but sinners to repentance. The Lord has come for me. Has the Lord come for you or for someone else?
Our Lord is, according to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 58, the restorer of ruined houses and broken dreams. Jesus comes into our ruins. He comes into our brokenness. He comes into our most shameful moments. He comes into our moment of sin and there, chooses us and calls us to be his friends. He does not run away from our ugliness; he does not wait until we have become beautiful or until we have cleaned the filth of sin from our hearts and lives, no. He calls. In the midst of our shame, our ugliness, our fears, our doubts, our jealousy, our lust, our anger and our sins, he reminds us that he loves us and needs us and then he calls us to be his companions. In Jesus, all ruined houses, all ruined hearts and all ruined lives find a newness.
The Lord has come for me. He has come for you. Like a mother towards a wounded child, the Lord rushes to our wounded-ness and he brings us healing. May we never hide our wounds and our brokenness from the Lord, but may we have the humility and the courage to trust in the Love that heals all wounds.
The Lord has come for me. I hope that he has come for you as well. May nothing ever separate us from the love of God. May God bless you all.
Amen