First Mennonite Church
February 9, 2025
God’s Shalom Restoring Human Brokenness
Text: Colossians 1:15-23
Every ancient culture has a story or myth about the human origins and of a time when all was fine until the revolt of lesser gods against the superior gods or an evil human act changed everything. That is how every culture explains the presence of evil in its midst.
One of the ancient stories of the Dida people in Africa tells of time when the sky and the land were so close to each other. People had to walk bent down as they moved around. It was said that in those days people even cleaned their soiled hands with the clouds. The story goes that one day, an energetic Dida woman was pounding grain in her wooden mortar-bowl so carelessly that without realizing with every thump of her long pestle, it was going higher and higher until it gave god a black eye. The god reacted with anger and moved to a faraway place where he could not be found. So, in efforts to appease the god, the Dida people began offering animal sacrifices, offered dances, and other rituals, but their god never came back. The other major change that happened was that the sky also rose high above beyond human reach.
So, the fact is that brokenness is everywhere. It is there when a man abandons his family or when someone takes what does not belong to him or her or when someone takes more that his or her fair share of the resources. Brokenness is evidenced when a nation wages war against its neighbor or when children disobey their parents. But the human brokenness is not only when mankind does what is wrong or hurts another. Brokenness is within the human heart, soul, and mind. We see in the tireless pursuit of materialism, greed, obsession with power, oppression, injustice and even spiritual oppression in the form of addictions of various kinds. Brokenness dwells within the human heart. As the Apostle Paul says so eloquently,“For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it (Romans 7:18-20).
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, where I quoted him, Paul says that besides the testimony to the existence of God that creation gives to mankind, the human conscience (this divine-inbuilt moral compass) also give to mankind the capacity to discern between right and wrong. This capacity to discern between good and evil is possible even if they don’t have knowledge God’s written laws as Israel had. However, sin, which has wrought human brokenness, prevents the person from doing what is right. That is because sin, living in them, controls their lives.
As I said at the beginning, every ancient culture explains the existence of evil as the result of some kind of primeval action committed by humans. That explains why evil and brokenness have been the human experience from time immemorial. The human experience with evil has been so long that we cannot remember a time when our world was not without it. This deep state of brokenness has infiltrated every part of the human life thus needing healing, deep healing that includes body, mind, and soul.
The good news is that the God we confess knows the sorry state of the human problem with brokenness. And from the very beginning God hinted to a rescue plan. As we read in the Genesis story, God promised the undoing of the power of evil when he spoke to the serpent—the symbol of evil.
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
God had a plan to bring healing, to restore relationships, to make peace between enemies, in other words: to restore what is broken in the world.
Jesus is God’s answer to our brokenness.
In the passage in Colossians, the apostle Paul defines who Jesus is and what his purpose in coming into the world was and is. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
Jesus revealed to the world who God is through his words and actions. Jesus is the supreme revelation of the divine to the world of humans. His compassion reaching out to those marginalized, his invitation to those who opposed his message, his healing power restoring the broken and hurting among his listeners, all revealed the good intentions of God for human life. “Jesus is the firstborn of all creation,” says Paul. But that is not in the sense of chronological order but of rank. That means, Jesus is supreme over all spheres creation and he is also the agent and ultimate owner of all creation. For through him and for him all things were created, whether visible or invisible including powers, rulers, and dominions, in heaven and on earth. Then Paul declares God’s ultimate purpose in giving his Son, Jesus Christ. In verse 19 Paul states:
The invisible and inaccessible God made himself visible and directly involved in the sad affairs of the very world and human life he had created at the beginning. First, in Jesus God was pleased to reveal the fullness of his character. Jesus is the image of God. And through him God engaged in reconnecting with the world/mankind to himself all things in heaven and on earth. Through Jesus Christ, God came to the world to make peace with an alienated and antagonistic humanity.
God was making peace through the blood shed on the cross, says Paul. So often we miss to see the depth of the word peace Paul uses here. Paul uses this word in the Hebrew sense of God’s peace—shalom. Shalom does not only mean the absence of conflict. There is no equivalent in the English language that fully captures the meaning of shalom. It describes a state of good health, righteousness, well-being, security, wholeness, integrity, abundance, intactness, honesty, prosperity, right relationship, protection, life-giving-ness, harmony, reconciliation, blamelessness, good accord, among others.
When Jesus came he enacted God’s shalom throughout his ministry. It was revealed through his compassion toward the woman found in adultery. “If any of you is without sin, cast the first stone,” he said to her accusers. Jesus demonstrated God’s shalom when he fed the hungry crowds. Jesus revealed God’s shalom in his interaction with young rich man who came to ask how he could enter the kingdom of God: “Obey the commandments,” Jesus first told the young man. But after the young man’s attempt to justify himself, Jesus said to him, “Go sell all you have and give it to the poor.” Jesus’ healing ministry brought about God’s shalom to those needing well-being and wholeness. Jesus declared God’s shalom through his teaching, constantly inviting his hearers to follow him, and by warning to those who opposed him.
God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
The apostle Paul says that Jesus is our peace. The prophets call God’s promised Messiah, the “Prince of Peace.” It is through Jesus that we are made at peace with God. In him is reconciliation. He takes away our guilt and our sin. But Jesus is also the one where we find healing for our troubled spirit. He gives peace of mind that surpasses all understanding. Jesus is the one who invites to make peace with those we are not in good relations. Jesus says, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).
God continues to offer his peace, healing, forgiveness, promises, but above everything, he is offering himself those who do not yet have a relationship with him through his Son. Through Jesus of Nazareth: his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the promise of his second God visited our world in his attempt to offer everything encapsulated in his “shalom,” for Christ is our peace.
This is the message we must proclaim. It is a message that not only seeks to save the soul, but one that takes into account the whole person and its relationship. It is a message that does not divide soul from flesh, nor body from spirit, but one that considers the person in all its dimensions and relations. Let us go as a people who have been reconciled with God and a people who know and love peace to live and share the gospel of peace. Let us go to those around us and the people put in our daily paths. Let us go as a people that has experienced healing and restoration from our own brokenness to a broken world. Let us go in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen!
Pastor Romero