You have to feel for Paul in this section of Second Corinthians. More than in any other city, Paul’s ministry has come under attack in Corinth. And he is not there to defend himself.
His attackers are rival apostles who want to supplant Paul. Their tactics are something any modern-day political advisor might agree with. They attack Paul personally: “his letters are weighty, but he is weak in person, and he is a lousy speaker,” they have said (10:10). And, these rivals build themselves up, boasting of the divine revelations and mystical experiences they have had.
Paul’s response here in Second Corinthians shows his heartache and his ambivalence on how best to respond. On he one hand, he does not want the Corinthians to be led astray by these rogue apostles and rivals. On the other hand, he does not want to counter the rivals’ boasts with his own boasting. As he writes in chapter 10 it “is not those who commend themselves that are approved, but those whom the Lord commends.” (10:18).
But then, he cannot help himself. “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness,” he writes at the beginning of chapter 11, and in chapters 11 and 12 he builds a case as to why he should be their leader. Yet, even as he does so, Paul is embarrassed by his bragging, saying over and over, “I say this as a fool!” (11:17)
What is most striking about Paul’s boasting in the end, however, is not that he does it. Instead, it is what he boasts about. In the 11th chapter, Paul cites his floggings, imprisonments, beatings, stonings, and shipwrecks. Here, in this passage, he points to an unspecified “thorn in the flesh” that God has not healed.
Paul does speak about a mysterious mystical vision where he felt like he was transported outside of his body into the highest levels of heaven. But even as Paul mentions this experience, he pulls back. He speaks of himself in third person: “I know a person in Christ,” and then he concludes that this vision 14 years ago does not amount to that much. What means far more for his credibility as a spiritual leader, he believes, is his weakness and suffering.
What is Paul thinking when he boasts about his weaknesses? Can you imagine a job candidate coming in for the big face-to-face interview and bragging about his weaknesses? Or a political candidate boasting about her shortcomings in her stump speech? Or a surgeon telling you in the eve of your surgery, “It has taken me a while to learn this procedure that I will be doing on you, but I feel like I am getting better with each person I operate on.”
Boasting about his weaknesses – Paul did not reach this conclusion easily, he tells the Corinthians. It is something he learned by trial and error thanks to that thorn in the flesh. What is Paul referring to? No one knows for sure. Epilepsy, migraines, speech impediments, malaria, depression, or persistent enemies – all have been guessed, but that is all they are – guesses. We just don’t know.
This is what we do know. That Paul prayed three different times for God to remove it. All to no avail. That Paul heard a voice saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” The experience changed his life – and it changed his boasting: “So, he writes the Corinthians here, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power f Christ may dwell in me.”
What are the implications of Paul’s words for us? First, Christians can expect to be wounded.
Now, that may seem like a case of stating the obvious, but consider: when calamity strikes, or we experience ongoing hardship, or we come into a dryness in our spiritual lives, how often is our first question is “why – why me?” The question implies that we should be able to escape those calamities, pain, and struggles. But as Henri Nouwen once wisely wrote, “Many people suffer because of the false supposition on which they have based their lives. That supposition is that there should be no fear or loneliness, no confusion or doubt. But these sufferings can only be dealt with creatively when they are understood as wounds integral to the human condition.”[i]
Whatever Paul’s thorn in the flesh might have been, most of us have had a thorn in the flesh in our lives. Fear and loneliness, confusion and doubt, physical pain, emotional heartache, or some form of disability – they are all part of the human condition, even for Christians.
Indeed, we might say, “especially for Christians.” Because following Christ into the world simply increases the odds that we will be wounded. This is the truth of the cross that was at the center of Paul’s ministry: this world does not always welcome God with open arms. And, loving others can be costly.
I fervently hope that none of us will ever face what Paul faced for his faith, but wherever we are on the spectrum of life experience, if we have no wounds to show for our faith, then perhaps we should ask instead, “why not?”
If we have never tried and failed, then we probably have never risked enough. If we have never had our trust abused, then we probably have never trusted others enough. If we have never made the powers that be irritated with us at some point, then probably we have never taken enough of a stand. If we have never been disappointed, then we probably have not hoped enough.
We are all wounded at one time or another – by what life sends our way, by our frailties and limitations, by our sins and the sins of others, by our willingness to risk reaching out to a world that often does not want us.
The second implication of Paul’s words flows from the first: in light of our wounds and thorns in the flesh, the better questions to ask are not “Why?” or “Why not?” Instead, they are “How?” and “Who?”
Like all of us at one time or another, Paul prayed to God and specified the answer he wanted to hear: for the thorn to disappear. But instead God answered with this message: “My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is made perfect in [your] weakness.”
Note, God did not rebuke Paul for praying for his thorn to be taken away. Nor did God say “be content with the way things are.” Like the widow and judge in the parable told by Jesus, there is nothing wrong with praying persistently for something to change.
God also does not tell Paul that “suffering is good for you – it builds character.” Indeed, Paul is very careful to say that he does not believe that God caused or sent this “thorn in the flesh,” as some life lesson. Instead, he calls the thorn a “messenger of Satan.”
No, the answer Paul gets is one that answers how he is to bear this thorn in the flesh and who he is to depend upon. As one Biblical commentator notes, the message Paul received “is one that forced him to look not to himself but to God and God’s power.”[ii] How does he bear the suffering caused by the thorn? By recognizing his need for God and leaning on God.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” “Made perfect” – what the Greek word means is “completed,” or “reaches its God-given purpose. God’s power, God’s will is best accomplished when we are weakest.
Why? Because where we are weakest we get out of God’s way. When we feel weak and not strong, we lose all pretensions that we can do what needs to be done on our own. On the other hand, where we feel strongest, where we feel the most self-sufficient, there God’s will and God’s power often will not be perfected because in those areas of our life we have a tendency to rely more on our own strength rather than on God.
I remember trying to teach one of our daughters how to drive. At first, it didn’t go very well, because she thought she should be able to do it on her own. She didn’t think that she really didn’t need much guidance or help – she just needed an adult beside her in the car to satisfy the law. And, of course, she was an accident waiting to happen. Only when she recognized her weakness, was she ready to listen and learn. How many times have I failed to learn from someone else’s experience and wisdom because I didn’t think I had anything to learn from them?
That is the way it is with God and us, Paul is telling us. It is only when we acknowledge our weakness, our need for help, that God can give us God’s strength. Try filling a cup of water that is already full. The water will only spill to the ground because there is no more room in the cup to receive the water. We need to be empty of ourselves so we can be filled with God’s wisdom, God’s power, God’s peace.
We see this truth worked out not only in our individual lives, but also in our life as a church and in the global community. We may well think that the impact of our ministry depends on our resources and our programs – how well we raise the money, how well we plan, and how well we carry out our programs. All of that can be important – but only if we understand that we have to acknowledge and claim our weaknesses so that we can lean on God to accomplish God’s will.
Which societies are the most secular ones? Those in North America and Europe where the societies are wealthiest and most advanced. Where is the church growing? In the poorer societies whose churches have fewer resources, in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. “My grace is sufficient for you,” God said to Paul, “for my power is made perfect in your weakness.”
Recently, a man greatly accomplished and respected by his peers was asked, “What is the thing you are the most afraid of?” His answer: “Being found out.” That is the fear that most human beings bear at one time or another – that we will be found out.[iii]
What Paul is telling us here is that it is ok to be found out. It is ok for our weaknesses to be seen and named out loud. Because it is in our weakness that we find, as we can find nowhere else, that His grace is sufficient for us.
A woman who was active in her Presbyterian Church served as a home teacher for children who had extended absences from school because of illness. She was asked by one student’s teacher to visit a boy in the hospital. Her assignment: to work with him on adverbs and adjectives so he would not fall too far behind in class.
It was only when the teacher arrived at the boy’s hospital room that she realized that the boy was in the burn unit. As she talked to him, she could tell that he was in a great deal of pain and very depressed. Dutifully, she spent an hour working on parts of speech. Clearly, it was a struggle for the boy to get through the lesson. The teacher felt awful and she cried all of the way home. She felt so useless and felt like she had only added to his burden rather than helping.
The next day, she was back at the hospital to see another student. She ran into a nurse from the burn unit. “What did you do with that boy yesterday?” the nurse asked.
“I know, I know,” the teacher quickly replied. “I felt very bad afterwards.”
But before she could finish her apology, the nurse cut her off: “No, what you did was good. We have been worried about that boy. He did not seem to have a will to live – we were afraid of losing him. But yesterday, after you left, he responded for the first time to the treatment. And he is markedly better.”
The still stunned teacher heard the next day from the doctor who also was excited about the boy’s progress. He told her that he asked the boy whey he seemed to have more energy and determination and was responding better to the treatment. The boy replied: “Well yesterday, they sent me a teacher to teach me about adverbs and adjectives. I just figured they wouldn’t try to teach adverbs and adjectives to a boy they thought was going to die.”[iv]
“So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” Friends, may we admit our weakness and lean on God, so that, like Paul, and that teacher in the hospital, we can discover that God is able to do in and through us far more abundantly than all we ask or think!
[i] Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984), 54.
[ii] Ernest Best, Second Corinthians (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1987), 120.
[iii] http://www.faithandleadership.com/sermons/the-weakness-virtue-thevirtue-weakness?, p. 3 (accessed July 6, 2012).
[iv] From a sermon by Rev. Joanna Adams preached at the PCUSA General Assembly (date unknown).
