Weakness?

Weakness?

2 Corinthians 12:2-10[1]

The ironic affirmation that “when I am weak, then I am strong” is the personal testimony of the Apostle Paul in our lesson from 2 Corinthians for today. It may be hard to understand that statement on its own. But when we put it into the context of Paul’s life, perhaps we can begin to make some sense of it. He wasn’t the only Christian teacher who had come to Corinth. There were many others, and some of them attacked Paul for his “weaknesses.” They claimed they were better speakers than Paul. They claimed to have supernatural visions and powers. In short, they claimed they were better apostles than St. Paul. In 2 Corinthians he even acknowledges that they claimed to be “super-apostles.” But he did not concede that they were truly superior to him.

Rather than trying to “out-boast” those other teachers, Paul took the opposite approach. His ministry followed the model of the Suffering Savior, and he demonstrated that by listing all the hardships he had endured in the service of Christ (2 Cor 11:23-30). He had been imprisoned, and he had been beaten “often near death.” He had been shipwrecked and spent a night and a day adrift on the open sea.  He had experienced dangers of all kinds: from rivers, from bandits, from his own people, from gentiles, “danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea.” His life as an “Apostle” was one defined by working “hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights,” going without food “often,” shivering in the cold without enough clothing to keep him warm. He concludes that list of his weaknesses by asking, “Who is weak without my feeling that weakness?” (2 Cor 11:29, NLT). That’s probably not the image of an “apostle” most of us have. I would say it’s certainly not the image of ministry that inspires people to serve!

As a part of his personal testimony, he tells the story of an unusual spiritual experience he had years earlier. Something about that experience was so extraordinary that St. Paul says he was afflicted by a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from boasting about it. Although there have been many guesses, nobody really knows what this “thorn” was. But it’s clear from Paul’s perspective that it weakened him. In a sense, it put him in a state of perpetual weakness. No wonder he says he asked to be relieved of that burden. Not once but three times. Most of us would do the same thing—except we wouldn’t stop after three times! In reply to his fervent prayer, the answer he received was “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9, NLT). I’m not sure that was the answer he was looking for. But by the time he recounts this experience in 2 Corinthians he had embraced it so much that he could affirm what seems absurd to us: “when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Let’s be honest: For most of us, the affirmation that “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10, NLT) makes no sense. Weakness is something to be avoided at all costs. Besides beauty, youth, and wealth, we live in a society that values strength. Which explains why most of us do everything we can to avoid or hide our weaknesses. We’re afraid to let other people see our weaknesses. I think we’re afraid to admit our weaknesses even to ourselves. In our way of thinking, weakness makes us vulnerable. It puts us in a position where we may have to rely on others for help. Perhaps more importantly, weakness frightens us. After all, if we’re weak and vulnerable, someone can take advantage of us. We believe “when we’re weak, we can be hurt,” not that that “when we are weak, then we are strong”!

But the idea that God’s power works best through our weakness is a theme that runs throughout the New Testament, beginning with Jesus himself. In the apparent “weakness” of his humiliating death on the cross, Jesus demonstrated the true power of God’s love to change everything and everyone. In that same vein, St. Paul consistently “boasted” in his weaknesses. In fact, he insisted that his weaknesses were the very means by which the power of faith in Jesus Christ to change people’s lives shone most dramatically through him. And he insisted that his weaknesses were the very means through which Christ was working in and through him to bring new life to the people he served.

Again, all that can be hard for us to process. We’d much rather talk about how our faith helps us to find joy and peace and freedom in the midst of the hardships of life. We’re much more comfortable with affirming “faith is the victory that overcomes the world” than we are saying “when I am weak, then I am strong.” We have to find a balance between the two: between faith as victory and faith as surrender. That means embracing the “weakness” of faith. When we look at faith from this perspective, we’re talking about the “cost of discipleship.” And we shouldn’t underestimate that word “cost.” Our commitment to follow Christ will cost us. I’m not sure we enjoy talking about that aspect of faith.

How, then does our “weakness” become our “strength”? As many spiritual guides have taught us, it’s precisely through the “broken places” of our weakness that God is able to come into our lives and bring new life through his grace, mercy, and love. And it’s through our weakness that God does his most powerful work in the lives of those around us. As Paul recounted, the answer to his prayer to have his weakness taken from him was, “My power works best in weakness.” That means then that the “strength” we find in our weakness is not ours, but God’s! It’s the strength that Jesus demonstrated by obeying God’s will for his life, even to the point of his death on a cross. If that’s not strength, I don’t know what is!

Learning to affirm with Paul, “when I am weak, then I am strong” is an essential part of the Christian life.[2] That may sound strange to us, or it may be uncomfortable, but it is the direct result of the fact that God was working most powerfully in this world when he entered it in the weakness of a newborn baby, who couldn’t speak, couldn’t walk, couldn’t do anything for himself.[3] Learning to affirm, “when I am weak, then I am strong” is also a direct result of our commitment to follow a Savior who gave his life in the weakness and humiliation of the cross. If we believe in a God whose power works best in our weakness, if we follow a Savior who “emptied” himself on the cross, we are going to have to learn what it means to say with Paul, “when I am weak, then I am strong”!

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[1] ©2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 7/7/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Luke Johnson, Learning Jesus, 201: “The imitation of Christ in his life of service and suffering … is not an optional version of the Christian identity.  It is the very essence of Christian identity.”

[3] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.1:191: God “Most High” is all-powerful and majestic “precisely in His lowliness” as we see it in the birth, life, and death of Jesus.