In his prophesy quoted by Jesus, Isaiah includes the phrase ‘bind up the brokenhearted’. Most of the quote by Jesus refers to freedom, how he was going to release people from the impact of sin and its slavery. However, one action he came to do was the opposite, to bind up, put bandages on, superglue, stick back together.

Isaiah describes people’s hearts in two ways, the ‘fainthearted’ and the ‘brokenhearted’.

Isaiah prophesied to a people who were in a mess because they had gone their own way. They made a pretence of acknowledging God but lived as they pleased. They are described as sick and fainthearted.

In the bible, faintheartedness is used in the context of warfare. The Old Testament law has a section on the laws of warfare. The law sets out those who are to be excused from the army. The list is quite extensive and includes ‘those who are afraid and fainthearted’. Gideon, one of the judges puts this into practice, reducing 22,000 to an army of 300, to defeat Midian. The purpose was set out clearly in the law and the description of Gideon’s battle, the victory was won by the Lord not through any strength exerted by men.

There is a radical change in relation to warfare brought about by Jesus. At his arrest, he rebuked Peter and healed the person he had injured, stating “Put your sword back into its place. All those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword’’ and “Stop. No more of this”. Jesus ended any justification for violence.

Peter was reacting to Jesus’ unjustifiable arrest. Jesus had done nothing wrong. However, Jesus was stating that violence was not excusable even in such circumstances. He would bring about justice by other means.

In the New Testament and onwards, warfare is always about spiritual battles. Paul expresses this as ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against …the spiritual forces of wickedness…’.

At his commission, Isaiah is told to confirm the people who had gone their own way in their faintheartedness. However, he is also told to prophesy about a new humanity, a ‘holy seed’ with whom God will be identified. Isaiah prophesies to a remnant in Israel who are true disciples, who despair about the mess the people are living in and long for God to bring redemption. These are the people whose hearts are broken, living within such a society, seeing people in despair and longing for redemption and the birth of new humanity. These are the people to whom God speaks a word of comfort, confirming that He will bring new humanity to birth out of this brokenness. The Hebrew word for ‘bringing to birth’ is the same word translated as ‘broken’ in ‘brokenhearted’. 

When Jesus quoted Isaiah, the reaction from his listeners indicates that they were more akin to the fainthearted and not the brokenhearted longing for new humanity. In contrast Luke, of all the gospels, highlights how Jesus champions the excluded and marginalised, how he binds up these broken hearts, giving comfort, healing and hope.  

In the New Testament, this ‘remnant’ principle continues to be seen, with Jesus and the early church, where the majority often go their own way and even oppose and persecute the few becoming disciples, hearing and responding to his call. The term often used to describe this remnant is ‘overcomer’. In the messages to the churches in Revelation the promises of new humanity are given to those who overcome.  

It is OK to be brokenhearted. These are the people Jesus is actively seeking. They are the ones he is going to work with to bring the changes to all of humanity into being. The fainthearted prefer to trust in their own strength. The brokenhearted have realised that Jesus is their hope and he is able to apply the superglue.