Epiphany 7                          February 16, 2025
2 Corinthians 12:7-10           Pastor Ryan Wolfe

“The weaker you feel, the stronger you are”

Imagine you are interviewing for a job. The person doing the interview says, “Tell me more about yourself” so you proceed to describe your strengths. You’re a hard worker, a loyal person, you work well with others. Then, in an attempt to be honest, you begin to share your weaknesses. You’re not very punctual. You have issues with time management. You’re really just looking for a paycheck. We all know that’s not the best way to get a job. You’re supposed to highlight your strengths and try to avoid talking about your weaknesses.

But when the Apostle Paul in this text answers the people in Corinth who were criticizing him for the way he conducted his ministry he talks about both. In the first six verses of this chapter Paul shared one of his strengths, specifically the amazing revelations that had been given to him by the Lord. He reminded them that fourteen years earlier, Jesus himself had appeared to him and taught him. Those special revelations were hardly the mark of an inferior apostle who wasn’t fit for ministry. But in defending his ministry, Paul also spoke about the blessing of this weakness, this thorn in the flesh from Satan that tormented him. This thorn was a constant reminder to Paul to depend on God’s grace instead of his own gifts. The weaker Paul felt, the stronger in faith he was. And that’s our Epiphany Moment truth today: The weaker we feel, the stronger we are.

Ask yourself what “thorns” of life are bothering you. What problem just won’t go away? Maybe it’s a weakness or trouble you’ve lived with all your life. Maybe it’s new. You wish God would take it away. You’ve prayed for God to take it away. But so far the answer has been “No.” Or, maybe what God is really saying isn’t “no” as much as it is “No, I have a better plan.” Sometimes thorns are God’s way of turning us away from the real problem. A way of reminding us that He is enough for us and we don’t need anything else.

Let’s get the first thing out of the way with this text. We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was. He calls it a “Thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.” We know it was bad because he says, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” Imagine, Paul was given the power to heal people of diseases and even raise a person from the dead, but he couldn’t put his hand over this thorn in the flesh and make it disappear.

There’s a lot of speculation about what the thorn in the flesh was. Something physical and something serious, we know that. The early church father Tertullian and others suggested Paul had severe headaches. Another early Christian, John Chrysostom, said he thought it was persecution. Others have suggested malaria or epilepsy. I like the theory it was bad eyesight, mainly because I have bad eyesight and it’s cool to be like Paul. But maybe it is good we do not know what he is referring to. It makes it that much easier to apply this to our own thorns in life, whatever they are.

Paul says this thorn was a messenger from Satan to torment him. God doesn’t “curse” us with trouble the way the world might think. God is the holy source of good and would never send evil. Troubles come to us in life not because God sends them but because we live in a world corrupted by sin. Some children are born with handicaps or birth defects not because God is punishing the parents, but because this world hasn’t been perfect since Adam and Eve’s fall into sin. The reason some of you have to make trips to the doctor so often isn’t because God is punishing you. It is the result of living in a world that is under the shadow of death. We are born as dying people. Some go quickly and others go slowly, but the longer we live, the more contact we have with the thorns and thistles of this world. It’s just a part of life.

Everyone has struggles and thorns, but sometimes the devil makes them worse. Paul said his thorn “tormented” him. That’s a strong word in Greek. It’s used for beating someone on the side of the head. When Satan gets behind a thorn in life, he can drive it deeply into us, taking it beyond physical pain and turning it into spiritual anguish as well. Those are the moments we cry out, “Why me, O Lord? Why me?” Those are the times when God’s love looks thin and his hand seems weak. When doubts rise up and faith can sink.

But though God doesn’t send the thorns, he does use them for his purpose. As painful as his thorn was, Paul saw the good that God brought from it. His thorn was given “To keep me from becoming conceited,” he said. It would have been easy for Paul to be prideful. Jesus appeared to him personally, revealed a vision to him alone, and now called him to preach around the world. In most places Paul went, new churches sprang up. But with this thorn, God kept him humble.

You see, when life is good and the Lord is pouring out blessings, it’s easy to lose perspective of what’s important and what’s not. We take God for granted. We begin to think that we deserve the blessings we have. That’s true of success in our careers, our personal lives, even in our work for the Lord. I don’t know anyone that would pray for God to send us struggles and difficulty, but those trials of life are often God’s best tools to turn us away from ourselves and back to him. In those times we remember that God’s grace is sufficient for us. He’s all we need. From an eternal perspective, it’s when we feel weakest in ourselves that we turn back to him for a real and lasting strength.

Paul prayed for the Lord to remove his thorn. Three times! He pleaded with the Lord. He probably begged. He probably cried out with tears. But Paul didn’t get the answer he wanted. He got the answer he needed. His thorn remained because God knew he needed it. And Paul had the blessing of hearing God tell him directly why: “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.” God’s grace is enough. More than enough actually. Think of how Jesus provided food for the 5000. How God delivered his people out of Egypt. How Jesus provided not a template for us to work our way into heaven, but how he paid the price in full. God’s grace, his love, is more than just sufficient. It’s everything. And that matters!

The thorns of this life, the pain we experience, drive us back to a God of love and grace and mercy. How sufficient is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins…that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” Lavished. The grace of God is more than sufficient. So much more than enough. And the more we despair of ourselves and the more we realize that we aren’t strong enough ourselves, the more blessed we are to throw ourselves at his feet for strength.

That’s Paul’s Epiphany Moment point here. We don’t have to worry about being strong enough to endure our trials. God is strong for us. God doesn’t promise to give us strength to get through it ourselves – he promises that his strength is enough to carry us. It’s the difference between a father telling his injured child to “toughen up” versus a father picking up that child and actually healing him. When we are at our weakest. When we are out of ideas and out of strength, that’s when we rediscover God’s strength for us.

In Romans 5 Paul speaks about even glorying in our sufferings. Not just enduring. Not just tolerating. Glorying in them. In that section Paul described suffering as an important part in a Christian’s growth. He said, “suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance [produces] character, and character, hope.” It’s the same point here: when we realize our weakness and turn away from ourselves, we find God’s strength. The weaker we feel, the stronger we are.

So if you feel weak today, then know that isn’t because God has let you down. If you’re suffering from some thorn of your own, know that it is not because God doesn’t love you. It’s not because God has forgotten you or because he is punishing you. In whatever thorn you have, God is calling out to you and saying, “I am here. I am strong even when you are not.” Many of us know Psalm 50:15 and it is the exact same truth. “Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honor me.” Well, with no day of trouble, no thorns, we would have no reason to call on God. And with nothing to be delivered from, we would have no chance to see him save us from it. And with no saving, we would surely not honor him. C.S. Lewis, the writer of the Chronicles of Narnia books, was an atheist who converted to Christianity later in life. He was once asked, “Why do the righteous suffer?” His response is brilliant. He said, “Why not? They’re the only ones who can take it.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, none of us are as strong as we want to be. Not in the face of suffering, or pain, or sin, or practically anything. All of us face thorns of one kind or another. But in your weakness call on the name of the Lord and rediscover his strength for you. Because if he has graciously given us forgiveness in Christ we can trust that he will graciously give us all things. Recognize the danger of those things the world might call blessings. And see the blessing in what the world might call curses. Like Paul, delight in your weaknesses, your hardships, your persecutions, your difficulties. And then realize God’s real strength for you. First we feel Christ’s cross. One day we’ll hold Christ’s crown. To him be the glory. Amen.