“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
I’ve heard many theories on what exactly is meant by the term “Humpty Dumpty” in the classic nursery rhyme. I’m almost convinced that it refers to a cannon; but that is beside the point. For the sake of this post, humor me, and let’s say that Humpty Dumpty is indeed, for some reason, a giant egg-man. If Humpty Dumpty is a giant egg-man, he really has quite a sad story. He sat on wall, he had a great fall, and he presumably broke into pieces, getting his yoke everywhere. Unfortunately the rhyme ends with all the king’s men unable to put Humpty together again.
Humans don’t naturally identify themselves with an egg, let alone Humpty Dumpty; but we are Humpty Dumpty. In Genesis 3, we had a great fall. Romans five tells us that in Adam, we all fell. It was there that sin entered the world. Because of this great fall, we as humans, are all broken and cracked; and our mess is everywhere. It’s quite a sad story.
As shattered as we are from the fall, the good news is that our story doesn’t have to end like Humpty Dumpty’s. Our fate does not rest in the hands of incapable servants. In the gospel story, it is the King Himself who steps down from His throne to put us back together again. In fact, He takes the shame of our fall on himself and bears it to its rightful death. King Jesus is not a fragile king who was cracked by sin, but he bore and shattered sin itself. He shattered it not only to pieces, but to smithereens.
Our victorious King Jesus commands us broken eggs to get up and walk. He is a King who is not only able to shatter sin, but reverses the curse of the fall. On that day, when we cross through the throws of death, we will be perfectly whole—without spot or blemish or any remaining scars or cracks from sin. The only scars in heaven will be the pierced body of our Savior King who pierced to death the sin that broke us.
Greater still, our King doesn’t simply glue our broken pieces back to together or pull out the duct tape – He makes us new. We are no longer broken eggs of sin, but new creatures in Christ Jesus. Jesus came for Humpty Dumpties like us.
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