#4 Humpty Dumpty

#4 Humpty Dumpty (The Fall)

“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.^[1]”

This familiar nursery rhyme, appearing first in Mother Goose in the early 1800’s, has much more to it than first meets the eye. It is said to have been a riddle, and that Humpty is an egg, which once broken, can’t be put together again, even by the efforts of all the king’s horses or king’s men.

But this nursery rhyme speaks a deeper truth about all human kind. We are each one of us a Humpty Dumpty, who eventually falls off the wall and is broken in pieces. Life is precarious and dangerous, and we shouldn’t be surprised when we take a tumble. Each one of us is broken in some form, some way or other, and each human being suffers in their own way. The rhyme says that this was a “great fall” not just a bump or a slight rolling over.

It means that the protective shell has been violated, shattered and the contents of the egg spilled out. Although the egg shell seems fragile, it really is quite able to withstand certain shocks and jolts in life, but this great fall is cataclysmic and means that we will never be the same again, even if the egg white and yoke are still intact.

And this great fall really alludes to the Great Fall of Humankind – original sin. We all are conceived in sin, born in sin and live in sin.  As the apostle Paul said, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” [2]

And no matter the effort, all the king’s horses (strength of will and powerful force) and all the king’s men (wisdom and good intentions) can’t put us back together again. Not self-help books, not pledges to be good, not self-denial or even over-indulgence; not our best friends or worst enemies, not all the powerful people in the world can make us whole. Not all the religions in the world (humans reaching for God) can fix our condition. This is a problem beyond mortal help.

Only the real King can do it, not His men and not His horses. Only Jesus, the real King, can make us right again, whole again. Unless we bow to the King, our condition is eventually hopeless and terminal. That is why Jesus’ warnings are so stern to His disciples and to those who followed Him for just bread or gain. Only a commitment to His Lordship will right our ship, heal our condition and make us whole. That is why He simply said; “Whoever serves me must follow Me.”[3]

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[1] Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), ISBN 0-19-869111-4, pp. 213-5.

[2] Romans 3:10

[3] John 12:26