I grew up
watching the Simpsons. And I loved it. I mean, who could deny that it’s a great
show?
In one of
my favorite episodes, season 5 episode 2 Cape Fear to be exact…One of Bart
Simpson’s many nemeses, Sideshow Bob, is freed from prison and begins making
threats against Bart. The Simpson family is put into witness relocation and
moved to Terror Lake, [Yes, Terror Lake] where Bob follows them to catch his
enemy- Bart.
One of my favorite scenes depicts Sideshow Bob’s
genius method of following the Simpsons to the haven that is Terror Lake. Check it out.
In case you
were wondering that would be 9 rakes to the face. The writers actually put that
scene in there to fill time. And I think it is pure genius.
But, why
does this matter?
Sideshow
Bob is ‘thorned up’ and while walking his movements are hindered by rakes.
Rakes to the face. 9 of them. The guy is trying to capture Bart Simpson. He is
dedicated! He attaches himself beneath a car to do what he needs to do. He’s
hindered though. These thorns. They’re not helpful! He detaches himself from the car and is too weak to carry on. Rake
to the face. Again and again.
Is there
something repeatedly smacking you in the face? A physical or emotional hurt
that just won’t go away? Does it ever feel like it controls your life and your
mood? Like you can’t function because it shuts you down and inhibits progress.
If so, you
are in good company, because the apostle Paul had the exact same struggle, and
in II Corinthians 12 he offers a surprising perspective on this persistent
struggle, which he calls “the thorn”.
Would you
follow along with me as I read II Corinthians 12:6-10.
Read the
passage
6 Though if
I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the
truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees
in me or hears from me. 7 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.
8 Three
times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 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. 10 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.
Paul is making
the claim that we are in fact weak. We
are “thorned up” – there is something that is persistently holding us back:
anxiety, fear of rejection, self-doubt, or lack of outside recognition for our
hard work. But the surprising thing about being thorned up, according to Paul, is
that it’s a good thing.
Tonight I
will share why this thorn is good. Then I am going to share why it’s really good.
While Paul
was away, these other people tried to take control of the church by comparing
their spiritual experiences and ethnic identity to Paul’s. These people wanted
to point out Paul’s weakness, so that they could gain power and prestige over
him. This annoyed Paul and kind of amused him. Paul knew that boasting in
spirituality was self defeating. Nothing would be gained in such a contest.
Basically…. Paul was in a rap battle with these
guys.
The purpose of a normal rap battle is to bounce rhymes off each other until the
loser is put to shame, after being brutally made fun of. In this rap battle, Paul’s
opponents are destroying his name even though he isn’t even there!
When Paul
finally gets back, it’s his turn to respond. This is usually when the rapper
would bounce back with a smack down ensemble of brutal rhetoric!
But not
Paul. Paul’s response is this:
(get in character)
“I don’t know where to start, I don’t know
where to begin, I can’t battle you, I’m still trying to battle my sin.”
Paul is basically saying, “Hey you’re right. I’m
not so good”
Ironically,
Paul had every right to boast in his achievements and credentials. Paul can
play their comparison game and win. But he cannot accept the merit of such a
contest.
Because
this kind of rap battle is not won by being the best.
So what
does Paul do? In contrast to human nature, Paul does not boast in his strength,
privilege, or importance. He does the exact opposite! Because “there is nothing to be gained” in boasting in strength. (12:1)
To Paul, there is only one thing worth boasting about. Weakness. [Something
we all have a lot of.]
In verse 7 Paul says “A thorn was given me in
the flesh, a messenger from Satan to harass me.”
Now, is
Paul the only one who suffers this weakness? Is he alone?
And where
in our culture could we look for this kind of stunning, revolutionary insight? …The
Bachelor!
As ALL of
you know. The most recent season of the Bachelor was all about the return of
Brad Womack. And what a guy! He got to date over twenty women for the
second time!
He was the bachelor a few years ago, but after
dating twenty women he decided NOT to pick a woman at the end- because he did
not want to share his struggles with any one woman. So what did he do? He
decided to give the bachelor another try! That makes sense right? Here
is a clip of Brad’s new outlook in his second go as the Bachelor.
EVEN the Bachelor realized that operating under strength would get him nowhere.
He says he will find true love only if he is vulnerable. The messed up world of
the bachelor is on to something here.
Deep down,
we know that this is true. We know that the human condition is characterized by
weakness and not strength. This man, this beautiful and silent man, had 20
tries to find the right woman. He operated under strength and came up empty.
For him, it took a failed reality show and multiple years of therapy… but he is
finally on to something fundamentally true.
There is
tremendous strength in being vulnerable. The bachelor is clearly a train wreck.
And so are we. That’s why people watch it! We
resonate with weakness, because it’s a spot-on reflection of ourselves.
It’s why we don’t get straight A’s or play Quarterback in the NFL or know how
to talk to women!
The
Bachelor is weak. Paul is weak. We are weak.
Now if I leave
you with Mr. Bachelor’s ground breaking insight about strength in
vulnerability, I would not be leaving you with much! Because this not what Paul
is talking about in this passage. Paul is saying something much more
provocative and much more powerful than Brad’s therapist ever said.
Paul goes
beyond talking about the brokenness of humanity; beyond our selfishness,
deceitfulness, and overall propensity toward dehumanizing our God-given
humanness. Paul is not just talking about the smug
vulnerability of a silent…beautiful… man.
He is also talking about real pain. The thorn is real pain. It’s the worst
kind of pain. Because the way Paul is using the ‘thorn’ metaphore in this
passage is for a hurt that is outside of your control and not your fault. It’s baggage from your childhood, a disease
that slows you down, or an accident that left you shaken to your core.
But the
good news is that these external “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,
and calamaties” (Verse 10) are redeemable. Paul is arguing that God takes these
struggles, whether self inflicted or through no fault of your own, and makes
them valuable.
In view of
Paul’s counterintuitive claims of 2 Corinthians 12, I’m going to use the rest
of tonight to explain why a thorn, which is a persistent struggle or weakness
that is not your fault, is actually a good thing. After that, I will explain
why it is really good.
1. A Thorn is humbling
In verse 7
Paul says “A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to harass
me, to keep me from becoming conceited”
The thorn
was given to Paul to keep him from being conceited. There was a tangible
reason.
Now there
are several reasons why it would be good for Paul to avoid becoming conceited. Who
would want to be around him? No one would listen to him. His ministry to proclaim the good news of Jesus would be extremely
difficult. So – to keep Paul from becoming conceited, a thorn was given to
him. And it makes sense that a pervasive problem can only be healed through a
pervasive solution.
Lest we be
confused, this thorn was not what Paul had in mind. And it’s definitely not
what you or I have in mind. No one is going to sign up on a clip board that
reads “Free Broken Leg – Sign up today”. Pause.
But
sometimes ‘ish’ happen!
Long ago, when
I was but a young sophomore in college, I prided myself on snowboarding 30 days
a year. It felt SO good to tell everyone
that I had long weekends to enjoy fresh powpow. On top of that, I
managed to get good grades, because I would study non-stop throughout my 3-4
day school week. My life was all
about pushing through the week, on my
own, in order to enjoy the snow. And all of this only added to my pride.
One day I
was riding down the mountain – and feeling pretty good. I remember this
clearly. I went up to a box. I did a nice spin, nice slide, nice landing. You
know! Smooth… At this point, I’m flowing. I see this big jump. I’m ready. Let’s
do this! …Nope….
Let’s just
say I went too fast and fell WAY too hard! I had a severely swollen back and a
major concussion.
Now I
say this because after my fall I went from a guy who ‘successfully’ did everything
on his own, to a guy who could not distinguish one day from another. I went
from a seemingly unbreakable snowboarder to someone who would need to be rushed
to the hospital if I were to hit my head again.
Now, has
something like this ever happened to you? Going from self-sufficiency to
constant need. Maybe it was a break-up, losing a loved one, or having a serious
injury. Whatever it was or is- it puts us in need of outside help. And this
neediness. This thorn- creates an inability to live life how we want.
But, the good news is that a thorn, which comes
from outside our control or fault, is humbling. It frees us from a
lonely, conceited, and self-sustained lifestyle. This is good because we
suddenly need community once we are no longer defined by our self-sufficiency.
And this is
exactly what happened to me. I did not connect with the College Life community
until I was forcefully removed from my self-serving attitude. This injury
showed me that community lasts a lot longer than a season in the snow. And
that is an example of a hardship redeemed by God into something valuable. Because weaknesses draws incomplete, hurting people together to
rely on each other for what they lack. The
inherent humility caused by a thorn is good because it makes community
necessary and beautiful.
This
passage, which is about a thorn, forces us to ask why a thorn is beneficial.
Why is it good to have a thorn? The first answer is that: a thorn is good
because it is humbling – it is a rake-to-the-face reminder that we are no
better than anyone else – which in turn adds value to community.
2. A thorn is good because it unleashes [divine] power
And this is really
good.
Verse 8-9
says “a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to
keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about
this, that the thorn should leave me. 9 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.
We can
rejoice in our thorns because the power of Christ will rest on us. This is the
same power that is made perfect in
weakness.
Christian
author Darrell Johnson helps make sense of this perfect power, “The greatest
power in the universe is the ‘weakness’ of sacrificial love. The greatest
wisdom in the universe is the ‘foolishness’ of sacrificial love.”
Guys, we
live in an upside down world. Things are not as they seem. We worship a God who
made a spectacle of the strong through His sacrificial love-through Christ
crucified for our sins. In reality, the strong are not the strong. Paul says it
best, “When I am weak, then I am strong” 12:10.
What, then,
must we do if our awareness of the thorn- collides with the wonderful truth
that in our thorn divine power is unleashed?
We stop
hiding in a façade of untrue strength. We accept our real weakness. It is these
weaknesses that gave Christ His eternal crown.
We stop
asking for comfort and happiness: these things do not correlate with God’s
will or effective Kingdom service. Like Paul, we aim to become “content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities.” 12:10.
Our being
content with a thorn is directly related to how we let Christ’s perfect power (which came from weakness) rest on us.
Paul had
this “thorn” that was not comfortable. In medical terms, the thorn was chronic,
not acute. The thorn was not an inherently good thing. It was a messenger of
Satan, sent to harass him.
This is why
Paul prayed for the thorn’s removal. He prayed God would take his struggle
away. And who wouldn’t?
But, the
thorn was not removed.
God relieved the thorn, but did not remove
it. He extended grace, but not
strength.
Verse 8
says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness.”
These are red
letters! This is written in red letters. It’s from Jesus Himself. Paul did not
figure this truth statement out on his own. He heard it from Jesus. It was an example of the grace given him.
Christ’s
grace is sufficient in weakness. Grace reaches its fullest measure in response
to weakness: think of Christ crucified. The Son of God, nailed to a cross,
amounts to victory. In sacrificial love. Sins are forgiven, lives are saved,
unending celebration! Grace reaches fullness in weakness!
This is
good news, because we’re all weak! We all deal with persistent struggles that
are unmanageable on our own.
In His
sermon on the mount Jesus graciously assures us that:
“Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
I hope
you’re seeing this, the immense beauty of weakness and how Jesus has paved the
way. He was the one who wore the crown of thorns, was he not?
If we look
at Philippians 2:8 we begin to understand whose company we are in when we have
a thorn:
“And being
found in human form, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross.” Jesus’
thorn was bearing the burden of our sins. We are not alone in our struggle.
There is a
divine secret that Paul is sharing with us. It is the reason for his
contentment in his thorn. The secret is this:
The
gorgeous and seemingly absurd assertion of Christianity is that weakness
qualifies us for Kingdom service, JUST as it was the mechanism of Jesus’
ministry through his death and resurrection on the cross.
And if
weakness qualifies us for service, then grace fuels the service.
Think about
it in terms of fossil fuels verses solar energy, which is basically oil power
versus sun power. I know you all love to sit with a friend, drink some coffee,
and discuss energy sources…other than coffee.
But seriously, living a life on our own strength
and performance is like relying on a fossil fuel for energy. Strength is
non-renewable. You cannot run forever. You cannot study all night every
night. You’re going to run out of energy. There are consequences. Strength
is nonrenewable, limited in supply, and will define your value. This will
leave a wake of destruction… just like a fossil fuel will.
Grace is
like solar power. It’s clean, safe, and does not come from us. Grace
comes from outside ourselves and outside this world. This energy is hard to
tap into [since we’re usually not willing to accept our weaknesses]. But,
this energy is always healthy and always renewable.
All we have
to do is accept our need for the more reliable source of energy. Grace is this
source. Grace is God’s “unmerited favor” to humanity. It is God meeting our
weakness with his goodness. Grace is where
our hope lies.
Author and
Doctor Gerald May says it best “Grace can transcend repression, addiction,
and every other internal or external power that seeks to oppress the freedom of
the human heart.”
In the weakness of our thorn, the unleashed power
of Jesus rests on us. This unleashed power is not strength. It’s grace. It’s
the Father’s arms wide open and face filled with compassion. The Father who
says, “you don’t have to do this on your own. I don’t want to see you do this
on your own. Let me help you.”
Last summer, I planned to
serve at a Christian camp for 10 weeks. I spent all of Spring quarter preparing myself
spiritually and physically for the long summer. I forced myself to wake up at
7am every day and pray for the campers who would show up each week. I felt
capable and ready to serve God and follow one of my passions in spending
quality time with high school students.
The first week of camp
was awesome!
I really felt like I was getting the hang of my job and connecting with
students. Before camp, I was unsure about serving another summer of early wake
ups and minimal sleep. On top of that, I
had been feeling lonely in my relationship with God. However, by the end of
the first week, I was convinced that I wanted to do this for the summer. God
used the high school students to inject life into me, and it was much needed!
Shortly after finding
peace and hope in the summer ahead, a series of confrontations with the camp
director changed everything. The director believed that I was not obedient to his leadership. He
also questioned my openness and ability to serve. Plain and simple, he did not trust me. I knew this and tried to
handle everything openly and honestly. The more I opened up the worse things
got.
It was a classic example of thinking too much,
trying to do everything right, and incidentally doing everything wrong. I mean – everything I did was wrong in his
eyes. It felt like he had his view of me, and nothing would change it. I
don’t know if you have had that feeling before, but it’s rough.
After two days of being on completely different
pages, he sent me home. He told me that
the camp has standards for its staff and that I did not live up to them. I
was not good enough to work at the camp. And one of the last things I remember
hearing was that no one had ever been sent home in the manner that I had.
This crushed me. I literally drove home,
alone, crying all the way down highway 5. I constantly prayed that God would
change the camp leader’s hearts. That they would see things differently. See
things my way.
I felt so weak and so useless. I gave myself and my summer to students who
I’d never get to see. I wasn’t good enough to serve at this camp. It was a
terrible feeling. I got fired from volunteering. Those words sank into my
psyche again and again. “not good enough to volunteer at a Christian camp”. On top of that, God did not seem willing to
fix the situation. It would not go away. I was completely discouraged and
broken down.
Now, I’m not going to stand here and say that I
figured it out, that like Paul I realized the thorn was not going away. I did
not initially ask that God would change me through this event.
Luckily, God changed me through it anyway.
Although I was alone, without purpose, and without a way to demonstrate that
I’m useful, I experienced the love of
Jesus in the most vivid ways. My value did not rest in my performance at a
camp and how many kids I would personally show Jesus to. My value came through
the grace that God extended to me in my time of sorrow.
After far too much time, I finally caught on. I
caught on to God’s immense presence. Our God is big. Our God is alive. He is the God of comfort, the God who comforts
those who are weak. And that is grace. This God of grace took my terrible,
painful summer and made it into the most transformative summer of my life.
In my thorn. A thorn that I could do nothing
about. A thorn that would not go
away. I was humbled - I am a replaceable. I am not in control. I am not as
awesome, credible, or observationally good as I thought. Those realizations are still tough. Pause.
But, there is grace. His grace is
sufficient. God unleashed this power, this grace, during my time of weakness.
A thorn is good because it humbles you and
becomes a driving force for community. The thorn is really good because in
weakness and humility, God’s divine power, which is his grace, is unleashed.
Grace is the exchange of our weakness for God’s
goodness. And it’s a really good
thing.
If you’ve been listening so far, then this
message might raise a question. If a
thorn is good because it is humbling and unleashes divine power, then is it
right to pray for God’s healing of the thorn? Should we ask for God’s mercy
in such a struggle?
The answer is yes, you can and should pray for healing.
In suffering, it is common to pray for a better
situation. It’s what Paul did… And God can totally change the situation. Make
no mistake about it, our God is a God of healing.
But, those prayers should have another component.
We pray for God to change
the situation, yes - but we also pray for God to use the situation to change
us.
