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Text: 2
Corinthians 12:7-10 W 7th Sunday after
Pentecost Christ’s
Power Perfected in Weakness In the name of him who brings down
the proud and mighty and raises up the humble and weak, dear friends in Christ: I am reminded almost daily that there are a
lot of misconceptions out there concerning what the Christian faith is all
about and what it really means to be a Christian. Perhaps the most common mistake that people
make is to think of Christianity as nothing more than a higher standard of
conduct and a program of moral development aimed at helping people to live up
to that standard. In this view of
Christianity, Jesus is seen as the ultimate teacher of righteousness. He came to tell us how to live and he also
served as the primary example for us to follow.
He told us to be kind, loving, and concerned about each other, and then
he went out and did it; therefore if you want to call yourself a Christian, you
should too. What often gets attached to
this general idea of Christianity are all the things that people with certain
strong opinions think that Jesus probably would have said and done if he
were still around today. Sometimes I’ll
hear things like: “Since Jesus was such
a together sort of guy, we’re absolutely sure that he would protest the war in Here’s another example of
misunderstanding what it means to be a Christian, and specifically in this
case, to be a Lutheran. I received an
entire box of these last week. It’s a sixty-five page booklet that calls
itself The Lutheran Message. I thought, “Great. This should have some solid theology in
it.” I was sadly disappointed. Sure, there are a few Bible passages
scattered here and there throughout its many short articles and poems; but for
how they are actually applied this could just have easily been named the Mormon Message, or the Unitarian Universalist Message, or even
the Muslim Message, because there’s
nothing in here that anyone from those faiths would disagree with. Only once in the whole thing does it even hint
just a bit that Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice of some kind whereby we
may triumph over death and sin. But it’s
very vague about it. And then, after
that hazy reference to the Gospel, just a couple of sentences later the same
article goes on to say (I’m quoting now): “Some Christians join God’s elect
through the exercise of faith alone.
That is the teaching of justification by faith, where God’s grace
envelops us in return for submission to his will. For other Christians, personal good works
seem recommended by the teaching of Jesus as points of entry into the kingdom
of heaven.” That’s what it says. So, in other words, some Christians are saved
by faith alone; but only if they follow God’s orders—which means that they
aren’t really saved by faith alone;
but rather by faith and their
obedience. There is nothing Lutheran
about that statement. In fact, it’s
precisely because some people were teaching that that the Reformation had to
happen. But even worse is that it goes
on to say that “other Christians” find their way to heaven by the route of good
works. Either way it’s your choice because
one is as good as the other. Both are
equally valid Christian paths to heaven.
My friends, this is the doctrine of demons. Did I say that I have an entire box of these
that I will not be handing out? Things like this should raise red
flags for us. They remind us that just
because something is labeled Christian in general or Lutheran in particular doesn’t
mean that’s what it is. The food items
you buy at the grocery have to list the contents of what’s inside accurately,
and advertisers have to be truthful about the claims they make for their
products; but there are no such laws that govern the use of religious terms. When it comes to matters of faith, spirituality,
and theology, the old adage caveat emptor
applies: let the buyer beware. It’s up to you to test the content of what
you read or hear to ensure that it’s true, reliable, and that it conforms to
God’s Word. With this in mind, I’d like to challenge another common
misunderstanding that is often found falsely claiming to be a sound Christian
teaching. The basic idea can be stated
like this: God loves you. He loves you so much that he sent his Son to
die for you. He wants to bring you to
heaven through faith in his Son and bless you richly for all eternity. And let’s be clear: so far, that’s absolutely right; but the idea
gets messed up when it goes a step beyond and asserts that not only does God
want to bless you richly for all eternity, he wants to begin right now by
blessing you in every material way in this life. That is to say he wants you to be healthy,
rich, and successful at all times. He
wants to bless you up, down, and six ways from Sunday with all the perks and
benefits this life has to offer. He
wants to ensure that everything comes up roses for you at all times, and that
there’s never any conflict or challenges for you to face. And these blessings can be yours if only you
believe strongly enough that God wants you to have them. The notion is sometimes called the health and wealth gospel;
and even where it’s not explicitly (and I daresay so crassly) taught, it is a
general impression that many, perhaps even most Christians have. We tend to think that if I’m a Christian,
then I (or the people I love) shouldn’t have any major problems – God should
take care of all of them for me. This is
especially true with regard to our physical well being. Many Christians think, “Well, okay, maybe God
doesn’t want me to be rich and lie around in luxury; but surely he wants me to
be healthy at least. I mean, the
healthier I am the better I am able to serve him. And just think of all those people Jesus
healed in his day. It was a big part of
his ministry back then; why wouldn’t it be the same today?” Why not indeed? One very good answer lies before us in
today’s Epistle lesson. Paul the Apostle had a problem that he calls a thorn or a
splinter in the flesh. The word he uses
describes something sharp and painful; he’s not talking about a minor
irritation. Now, we don’t know precisely
what it was that he suffered from, and as a result many Bible scholars have tried
to guess what it might have been. For
example, knowing that Paul was sick quite often, some think that he may have
had a form of malaria, which is a viral disease that causes high fever,
vomiting and diarrhea, and severe muscle pain.
The symptoms last for several days at a time and then go away, leaving
the victim weak and exhausted. But then
a week or maybe several weeks later, the symptoms return because the virus
isn’t gone – it never goes away – it just goes into periods of remission and
dormancy. And so the victim ends up in
this perpetual cycle of sickness and health all the while becoming weaker and
more run-down over time. So malaria
would seem to fit the description; but other Bible scholars have suggested near
sightedness, arthritis, or some kind of digestive disorder. Some have even thought that it might have
been a spiritual condition, saying that perhaps Paul suffered bouts of
depression or maybe a severe temptation toward a certain sin. Still others have proposed that Paul’s thorn
might be a reference to his many enemies who were always trying to discredit
him and sharp shoot his ministry. If
that’s the case then these people were a thorn in the flesh in the same way
that we speak of certain people being a constant pain in the …uh, neck. For what it’s worth, I personally favor the idea that it was
a physical ailment of some kind; but the fact is that we don’t know and that it
really doesn’t matter. All we know is
that it hurt Paul. It made it more
difficult for him to do the mission that God gave him. Whatever it was, Paul hated it and wanted it
to go away. And perhaps it’s better that
we don’t know what it was because then it could
be anything, thus making what he has to say about it apply to all the thorns in
the flesh that God sends to his
people. Yes, that’s right: Paul says God gave him this thorn, this
“messenger of Satan to torment him”. That’s
a statement that shocks a lot of people.
We normally think of God and Satan as being on opposing sides, so to
speak. Now we hear that God sent an
agent of Satan to afflict Paul. It
almost sounds as if they’re working together – and that doesn’t sound right. But it’s important to remember that in an
absolute sense there is only one side. The
Lord is in control of all things, even the devil. And the Lord uses all things, even the evil
ones, to accomplish his good purposes. So
even though Satan hates God and wants to destroy him, it turns out that
whatever mischief he does to frustrate the Lord’s purposes actually works to
advance the Lord’s purposes. He can’t
win. He’s quite literally damned if he
does and damned if he doesn’t. But don’t
make the mistake of feeling sorry for him; he’s still your enemy and would like
very much to see you fall. Blinded by
his hatred, he’s only too happy to bring affliction to any of God’s
servants. But it’s important to remember
too that the Lord sets the limit for the amount of damage that Satan can do. Now, one of the readings we had last week said that the Lord
does not willingly bring affliction or grief to people. In light of that, someone might protest that
there’s a contradiction here. If the
Lord doesn’t willingly afflict people, then how can we hear today that he sent
of messenger of Satan to torment Paul?
Sure sounds like he did it willingly.
But the idea is that the Lord doesn’t sit up there in heaven thinking of
ways to make our lives miserable because he gets his jollies out of it. Rather if he brings things that cause us
grief, he does it in the same way a loving parent provides discipline for a
child. It’s no fun to discipline, no
loving parent enjoys it; but it’s a job that needs to be done in order to ensure
a child grows and develops properly.
It’s in that sense that the Lord does not willingly bring
affliction. And it’s important to
recognize that not all discipline is applied to correct bad behavior. Most discipline is designed to teach and
reinforce positive behavior. A loving
parent makes a child do his homework, clean his room, help out with the chores,
practice a musical instrument, whatever – even sometimes amidst tears of
protest – not to punish the child for something he did wrong but rather so that
the child learns how to do things right. In Paul’s own case, the thorn in the flesh was sent by God
as a means to keep the Apostle from falling into sin. Three times, Paul says, I pleaded with the Lord
to take the affliction away. The Lord answered
him, “No. I’m not going to take it
away. My grace is sufficient for you. That’s all you need.” Paul came to understand that this thorn was
given him for a positive purpose.
Specifically, the Lord gave it to him to keep him from being carried away
by the sin of pride. Paul was a man who understood pride very well. It was (arguably along with hypocrisy) the
chief sin of the Pharisees. You remember
them: they were the ones who thought
they were better than everyone else because they committed themselves to a life
of strict obedience to every letter of God’s law. They were obsessed with it and imagined that
they were closer to God than anyone else on account of their fanatic
dedication. Before his conversion, Paul
was a man who described himself as a Pharisee even to the Pharisees. Whatever it was they were supposed to be,
Paul was more of it; and the rest of the Pharisees looked up to him with
something like awe. In addition to this,
Paul was profoundly proud of the way he had defended the traditional Jewish faith
against the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
He had hunted Christians down mercilessly thinking that by doing so he
was pleasing God. You probably remember the story of his conversion. He was headed to But Paul remained especially susceptible to pride, that’s
what attracted him to the life of the Pharisees to begin with. Now the danger was that he might fall into
the same sin in the opposite direction.
I mean here he was, hand picked by Jesus and given this special
commission personally from heaven. And
now he was running all over the Roman world proclaiming the Gospel, performing
miracles, making converts, and planting churches everywhere. Even among the original Apostles, Paul was recognized
as a leader and Bible scholar. And now, whenever
a theological question came up, all eyes turned to Paul for the answer. It would have been very easy for him to have become
full of himself and once again imagine that somehow he deserved God’s
appreciation and praise on account of all the good work he was doing in his
service. But to do that, to harbor the
notion that he was earning God’s favor by what he was doing, is to deny the
very Gospel that he was sent to proclaim. The Lord’s grace and favor come to us by the
work and merits of Christ, not by anything we do. Paul could easily have lost sight of
that. In the process of helping to save
others, he might have been lost himself. And to keep that from happening, God gave him
this affliction in the flesh. It was
sent to keep Paul reliant on the Lord and on his grace. It was sent to cause him trouble, to make him
cry out, “Lord, I can’t do this” so that the Lord could respond, “That’s right;
you can’t. But I can do it through
you. You have my grace in Christ
Jesus. That’s all you need.” And for Paul this was a
breakthrough. He knew that the Gospel of
Jesus was the wisdom and power of God; but now in his affliction, he came to
understand that the more dependent he was on God’s grace, the stronger he
actually was because it was God’s power and not his own that he was operating
with. He came to see all of his
afflictions and problems the same way.
So rather than complain about the things he was suffering and beg for
them to be taken away, Paul says that they were cause for rejoicing. Whether they took the form of weakness and
illness of the body, the insults he received from the hostile members of the
church, the hardships he had to endure when he went without food and shelter,
the persecutions and beatings he received from angry mobs of unbelievers … all
these problems only made Paul depend more on the grace of God in Christ, and that made him stronger. They kept him in the faith and made him a
better instrument for the Lord’s use.
And by sharing these insights, Paul means to instruct us that we may see
our own afflictions the same way. It’s a completely different way of
thinking about the problems and challenges we face. It certainly overturns the whole health and
wealth gospel thing. God hasn’t promised
that everything will come up roses for us – not is in this life anyway. What he has promised is that he will keep us
in Christ Jesus and in the saving faith, and that he will bring us through this
life and all of our problems to the next.
Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be grateful for the blessings God
gives us in this life. I’m not saying we
should go seeking problems. I’m not saying
that when problems come we shouldn’t pray to be delivered from them. What I am saying is that like Paul we should
see our problems for what they are:
evidence of God’s great love for us.
God gives his grace to the humble.
So in order to give us his grace, he has to humble us. We have to feel the need for his forgiveness
and strength. And so we understand that
in adversity, whatever form it takes, the Lord is working to make us more
reliant upon his grace to us in Jesus.
We understand that it is in our weakness that our faith and therefore
also our strength in Christ is at its peak.
And we understand that when God says “No” to our prayers for
deliverance, that he has a good and loving purpose for it. He’s saying, “My grace is sufficient for you. I’ve given you my Son. That’s all you really need in this life and
the next.” May he make us strong in this faith that his power may rest upon
us, in Jesus’ holy name. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria! |