I’ve heard people call Jesus a crutch for the weak-minded. I guess they mean to say that they are strong enough to make it through this world on their own, and that somehow Christians are weaker than themselves. After giving this some thought, I’m looking forward to the next time I have someone tell me this. In the past, I would have tried to argue their point. I think that now I’d say that they are absolutely correct and, in fact, hadn’t taken the analogy nearly far enough.
Is Jesus a crutch for me? Absolutely! You see, I am broken and in need of a crutch. If I had a broken leg, it would be very stupid of me indeed to refuse a crutch and try to live in denial of my injury. I would only be injuring myself more and more as I tried to walk around on a broken leg. A crutch is a support. A crutch allows for healing to take place. A crutch benefits me. What people who say this kind of thing don’t realize is that they are walking around on their own broken legs, so to speak. They don’t realize their own need for a crutch. They don’t understand that trying to walk around without it is only injuring themselves more severely, making them more and more in need of the very crutch they are refusing.
But Jesus is not just a crutch. He is far more. In keeping with the analogy, He is Life Support. I’m hooked into Him for everything that I need to live. Is it because I am weak, as the accusers say? Absolutely. In my weakness He is strong. It is only when I realize that I am broken and weak that I can turn myself over to the Doctor who can set it all right again.
Isn’t it painfully obvious as you look at the world around you that it is broken… that we are all broken? We are a bunch of screw-ups, really. Some hide it better than others, but we’re all a mess. You would think that the longer we exist as a species, the better we would get at being good, decent, loving people. But is that what we see? It reminds me of a verse in the Bible…
“And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” Matthew 21:44 KJV
The stone is Jesus. Whoever “falls on Jesus”, or gives their life over to Him, shall be broken. This is the kind of self-aware brokenness that God desires of us… to be able to see the weakness and broken parts of ourselves and give them over to be healed through Jesus’ sacrifice. But those who do not fall on Jesus, but instead find Jesus falling upon them in judgment for rejecting His free gift of salvation, will be broken in a very different way. These will not have Jesus underneath them, supporting them, but instead will be “ground to powder” once they realize how truly broken they are, and that they have rejected the way of redemption and restoration that was offered for their healing. In a sense, they “grind” themselves to “powder” as they become more and more broken, yet refuse the healing offered.
Before people realize they need a crutch, they must first realize their leg is broken. Before people realize their need for a Healer, they must first realize that they are in need of being healed. Sadly, those who use this analogy as an attack betray the fact that they are oblivious to their own broken legs.
I am grateful for my crutch. It is true that I am not strong enough to get through this world without Him. And why would I want to try? How foolish is the man who, limping about on a broken leg, refuses the support and healing offered by a crutch.
Words fail.