A Broken Heart at Communion
Doug Redford reflects on the tin man’s search for a heart in The Wizard of Oz and contrasts it with King David’s understanding of a broken and contrite heart before God. This Communion meditation points to Jesus, whose heart was broken over fallen humanity and whose body and blood provide the remedy we need.
- David’s broken and contrite heart shows the value God places on repentance.
- Jesus’ brokenness on the cross was not for his own sin, but for lost humanity.
- Communion invites believers to cultivate hearts especially conscious of God.
By Doug Redford
One of the memorable characters from the movie The Wizard of Oz is the tin man. He wanted to see the “wonderful wizard” because he lacked a heart. Even though the wizard was eventually revealed to be a fraud, he was still able to help the characters in the movie, including the tin man, get what they desired.
When the wizard first spoke to the tin man, he told him, “You want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.” That did not deter the tin man; he still wanted one, and he got one, most remembered for its ticking sound.
Contrary to the wizard, King David understood the supreme value God places on a broken heart. In his penitent Psalm 51, David wrote, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, you, God, will not despise” (v. 17, New International Version). That admission followed an earlier plea: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (v. 10). The Creator is also the re-Creator and can mend the mess that we have made of our lives.
A Heart Especially Conscious of God
The test that you get in the hospital if your heart is being checked is called an electrocardiogram, sometimes abbreviated with the initials ECG or EKG. God called David “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22). Not that he was perfect—far from it, but he was a man of whom the overall direction of his life could be labeled ECG, “Especially Conscious of God.”
Consider at this time of Communion the Son of David, Jesus, whose heart was not broken in repentance for his own sin but broken over a lost and fallen humanity for which there was no remedy except for his body to be broken and his blood poured out. On the cross, as opposed to being especially conscious of God, Jesus felt abandonment: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
As we partake of these symbols of Jesus’ brokenness, let us resolve to cultivate hearts especially conscious of God throughout the circumstances of the coming week, whether planned or unplanned. And think upon these words from Judson W. Van DeVenter:
“They crowned him with thorns, he was beaten with stripes,
He was smitten and nailed to the tree.
But the pain in his heart was the hardest to bear,
The heart that was broken for me.”
Author: Doug Redford
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
