Trinity
Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Creston, Iowa
Grace and peace to you from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
It’s a good thing to be strong,
isn’t it? In fact, the world is made up of strong people. Politicians,
professional athletes, steel workers, firefighters, etc. The world is built by
strong people. In fact if you want to get ahead in the world you’d better be
strong. If you have a goal you’ll never reach it if you’re not strong enough to
do whatever is necessary to accomplish it. You’ve got to push aside every
obstacle (thorn) that gets in your way. When bad things happen you’d for sure
better not show any weakness, because the wolves out there will pounce on
weakness. Don’t get bogged down like weak people who always need a hand to get
along. Keep moving forward toward your goal. Be strong.
Strong people are necessarily
self-confident. You can’t be successful if you’re not confident in your self
and your abilities. You hafta know that you are better than anyone else. Of
course that sounds a little conceited, so instead of that let’s call it
confidence. You’ve gotta be confident that you are better than other
people, stronger than other people. Having faith in yourself is the strength
you need to succeed. It is the height of weakness to lack self-confidence and
depend on anyone else to do things for you. That only leads to failure. Failure
is for weaklings.
And worst of all, the most important
thing to remember is this. There is no room in the world for grace.
That’s having good things happen for you that you don’t deserve. Of course
people win the lottery, or inherit a house, or even get lucky in love, but they
don’t appreciate what they’ve got. They waste it. Most of the time it’s quick
fortunes are mismanaged and lost quickly. Grace is really a crutch used by
people who aren’t strong enough to make it on their own. Weak people depend on
grace because of their weakness. You can’t depend on grace either. It’s rather
gullible to sit and wait for something to fall into your lap.
But wait a minute… that’s not
exactly what this text seems to be saying is it? Oh, don’t get me wrong, I
don’t think Paul was a weakling. He was constantly under attack, beaten, stoned
and left for dead, jailed for years at a time, shipwrecked, struck blind,
abandoned, and misunderstood. It’s a pretty strong person who undergoes such
punishment… who takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’, as the old commercial
used to say. It’s pretty easy, after all to make Paul out to be Super-Apostle.
Bullets of false teaching seem to bounce off of him as he confronts his
enemies. We imagine him walking all around Greece preaching boldly everywhere
he goes. He seems strong and sure of himself. Paul even confronted Peter one
time. Didn’t that take a great deal of strength? To stare down one of Jesus own
disciples in public! That took a certain kind of strength, don’t you think?
You know, it’s easy to look at
Paul’s life and see that strength. But the text for today paints us a very
different picture. Paul writes these words himself:
So to keep me
from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,
a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep
me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this,
that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more
gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the
sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships,
persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10, ESV)
It’s that last phrase that is the
most interesting to me. “…when I am weak, then I am strong.” How can
weakness ever be strength? How can a weak person be strong? And does Paul
really mean it when he says, “I delight in weaknesses?” What in the
world could Paul be talking about?
First of all, we should look at
Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” Over the years lots of people have tried to decide
exactly what it was, what kind of malady Paul suffered from. But he never tells
us, in all his writings, this is all that we are told. I could make a list of
possibilities but it really doesn’t matter what it was. Paul himself tells us
what is important about it. He tells us that it had a purpose. “To keep me
from becoming conceited.” What ever it was it had the ability to knock Paul
down a peg, and keep him humble… and more than that he says it makes him weak!
Paul the Super-Apostle, the human being responsible for founding the Christian
Church was really just a weak man.
What did Paul know that we don’t?
What did he have that we don’t have? How was he, weakling that he was, able to
do all those things that he did? Paul tells us that, too. Well actually Jesus
tells us that through Paul’s pen. "My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul knew that with out the Grace of Jesus
Christ, he’d be nothing, just a lost and condemned person. He knew that the
work God had planned for him to do was at its best when Paul was weak and Jesus
Christ was strong. When Paul was leaning on the crutch of Jesus Christ, when he
was depending on Jesus to get him through, that’s when Jesus was most clearly
seen in Paul. You see; Paul was a weak man who depended on someone else. In
God’s economy of life there’s no room for conceit, or pride. What Paul is
saying here is that, he really didn’t have anything to do with all that he did.
With God, weakness and dependence is strength. With God, his undeserved love,
his grace is sufficient for his people.
That doesn’t match up with how we
are told life works, by the movers and shakers of the world. Dependent Paul was
a weakling. But it shouldn’t surprise us that the world thinks that way. After
all in the worlds estimation the crucifixion of Jesus is the epitome of
weakness. People don’t see strength in humiliating, bloody, horrible public
death. A strong person would never allow that to happen to himself. But the
reality of it is that in all of human history no one has ever shown greater
strength. It was in the suffering and death that Jesus brought salvation and
release to sinful, prideful, conceited human beings. His suffering and death
brought salvation to you and me!
Our problem is just like Paul’s…
it’s just like everyone. We want to be strong and self-reliant. We want to make
it on our own. If we look at our lives we can find lots of things to be
boastful about. Our success stories are always me centered. Look at what
I did to solve this problem or that problem. Look at the kingdom I’ve
built for myself. I’m something special because I’ve beat the odds and become
successful. We put ourselves ahead of God and trust our own resourcefulness to
get us through our troubles. What we forget is that without the grace of God we
wouldn’t even be here. Putting ourselves ahead of God makes him our enemy. We
deserve death and hell for it. And the worst of it is that we can’t help it. That’s
who we are, and how our mind’s work.
That was Paul’s issue, too. So God
gave him a thorn to remind him who was really in control. He gave him a thorn
to make him dependent. When Paul’s thorn made it impossible for Paul to
function on his own, he turned to Jesus. When Paul was down and out, when he
was weak, Paul turned in faith to the One he knew was strong. That’s what faith
is. Depending on Jesus’ strength and now our own.
Got thorns in you life? Of course
you do. They overwhelm you sometimes. We’d like nothing better than to have
them gone. Paul asked God to take his away, too. But he rejoiced in his
weakness because of what happened when he was weak. So, thank God for your
thorns! Especially those that seem to be more than you can bear. It’s the big
ones, the ones that take you down a peg, the ones that leave you desperate, and
out of control, it’s those that push you to Jesus. When you’re riding high you
don’t think about Him much at all. When trouble stalks you you’re constantly in
prayer, just like Paul. When you are weak and depending on Jesus, that’s when
His power is being made perfect in you. That’s where your faith is growing.
It’s where the ‘rubber meets the road’ you might say.
God’s grace was sufficient for Paul.
God’s grace is sufficient for us. But don’t think that God’s grace is a little
thing, or of small account. God’s grace is sufficient because it is… well huge.
The thorns we bear in our lives are nothing like the thorns Jesus bore on the
cross. While he wore a crown made from them, he suffered the pain and death of
all the world’s sin. The necessary punishment for your pride and conceit, the
punishment for your climbing the social ladder on the heads of others, your
self-dependence, were the thorns that pierced him on the cross. His death took
it all away from you. It was undeserved. That is God’s grace. That He punished
His only Son in your place. That’s God’s grace for you every single day. Pride
isn’t in control. Selfishness isn’t in control. God’s grace is big enough that
it covers them up.
So, it’s a good thing to be weak
isn’t it? Weakness brings you to Jesus and His all sufficient grace. The thorns
are there, they will be your whole life. So when the stick you rejoice and turn
in faith to Jesus for help. That’s why they are there. Because when you are
weak, then you are strong. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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