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Here is the scene. You?re on a plane flying across the country and suddenly the engines of the plane burst into flames and the co-pilot rushes out of the cockpit into the cabin and instructs you that the plane is going to crash. It?s necessary to bail out. But not to worry, there are plenty of parachutes on hand for every passenger. And with that and the help of the stewardesses, the pilot passes out a parachute to each passenger and gives instructions on how to wear it and operate it. He says, ?although this may seem scary to you, please be assured, the parachute will deliver you safely.?
At that the door of the plane is opened, the first passenger steps up to the door and shouts over the wind, ?Could I make a request? Could I have a green parachute?? The pilot shakes his head in disbelief and says, ?No, it?s enough that you have a parachute.?
A second asks, ?I?m afraid of heights. Can you remove my fears before I jump?? ?No,? comes the reply, ?but despite your fears, you?ll land safely.?
A third argues that he would like to wait until the plane gets lower before jumping to which the pilot says, ?No. Don?t be ridiculous. You?ve got a parachute. Trust it.?
A fourth with knocking knees shouts, ?I have a better idea. Let?s crash with the plane. Maybe we?ll survive And the pilot shouts, ?You people don?t understand. I?ve given you a parachute. That?s enough.?
I. Our Bargain With God A. Always One More Thing We always want Jesus to fix one more thing for us so that we can finally get on with the business of trusting in Him. ?Just this one more thing, Lord.? Fix this, change that, give me this, take away that?? Then I?ll be ready to trust you and jump into this life of faith.
All of this has a certain serpent?s hiss to it. The devil in the dessert promised Jesus that if He just did this one little thing for him, a little miracle, a little demonstration of his power, the slightest little bow of the knee, then Jesus would have his undying devotion.
Paul has this problem ? this thorn in the flesh. We don?t know what it was, the scriptures don?t say. Which means, that?s not the point. Paul had this thorn in the flesh and he prayed that the Lord would remove it ? then he?d be a super-Christian. ?Isn?t that what you want Lord??
Of course, this is all so wrong. And its wrong on two counts. It?s wrong because its arrogant, presumptuous and idolatrous ? because we really do think we can get God to bargain with us ? and for His own good. ?Give me this one little thing Lord ? and look what you get in return ? Me!? ?I?ll give you my praise, my honor, my worship. I?ll even give you my heart.? As if the Lord needed anything that we have to give to Him. Honestly, He needs none of this and He?s perfectly perfect without any of it.
And besides, you belong to Him already. And not because you?ve given yourself to Him but because He?s given Himself to you. He?s purchased you with His precious blood shed for you on the cross ? even while we were still trying to bargain with Him. And not because you?re a super-Christian ? but because you?re not and never will be. ?It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourself lest anyone should boast.? But this is all wrong for a second reason ? even worse than the first. It?s suicidal. This bargaining with the Lord to take this away and that away so we can finally jump into this life of faith is really just our little way of making sure we never really have to jump at all. This is the little game we play to keep the Lord who is our life, at a safe distance – to keep Him from getting to close to us.
There?s always one more thorn to remove. Satan has an endless supply of these thorns. And he?ll keep sticking them to you as long as you keep using them as one more thing the Lord must first take care of before you?re ready to jump. You can spend your whole life holding one carrot after another in front of God ? and never let Him get close to you. And this is suicidal because He is your life. And apart from Him, there is no life ? there is only death ? and you?ve never really lived until you?ve lived by faith.
It is His own life that He has come to give you. He?s not come to take your life from you but to give you His. And not once you?ve got all your thorny little problems worked out ? but in spite of them.
B. The Sufficiency of God?s Grace And so, the good news is, Jesus says, ?My grace is sufficient for you.? You don?t have all your problems solved to trust that the Lord will provide for you. You don?t have to have your life together before you can trust the Lord to put your life together. You don?t even have great faith before you can trust that the Lord will give you great life.
?My grace is sufficient for you.? It?s all you need. You have everything you need in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You don?t need anything more. Go ahead and jump and live and experience His life at work in you. He?ll land you safely ? but not with two feet on the ground. No. He?ll land you safely with body and soul in heaven.
So, here?s the test. See how you do. It?s one question and the question is this, ?What if God?s only ?yes? to you was His saving grace in Jesus Christ. Would that be sufficient for you? To put the question another way, what if God were to say ?no? to all your prayers, but ?yes? to His Son who prays for you ? ?Holy Father, they are in the world, keep them in your name?? ?Father, forgiven them?? Would that be sufficient?
It should be, because it is. ?Because all the promises of God find their ?yes? in Him.? (2 Cor.1:20)
II. The Divine Paradox A. ?My power is made perfect in weakness.? This is a hard test for us take. We?ve been taught all our life to be self-sufficient, independent, strong to survive. But Jesus says, ?my grace is sufficient for you.? That means that our sufficiency is not in ourselves but in our Lord and we are not independent but entirely dependant upon Him and even the strongest of us is not able to take care of himself. But He is.
All this makes it sound like this life of faith is for wimps and weaklings and those who can?t take care of themselves. No one likes the thought of having to be cared for because we can?t care for ourselves. I?ve never met anyone who was ready to go to a nursing home. And so we resist this as long as we can ? it?s a matter of personal pride and self-respect. And as long as we resist, we never know what it means to be cared for by the Lord and how wonderfully all sufficient His care for us is.
Jesus says, ?My power is made perfect in weakness,? that is, in ?your? weakness. How strange and paradoxical this sounds. We say, ?might makes right.? ?Only the strong survive.? ?Power is made perfect in strength.?
But Jesus turns everything around. ?My power is made perfect in your weakness.? It is only as we are confronted with our inability to save ourselves, or our need to, that we experience the wonder of God?s power to save us and let the Lord be our Lord and Savior. And that is why the answer to our prayer that those thorns might be removed is so often ?no.? They show us our weakness and they remind us that we are not self-sufficient and they shatter our pride and we come to the Lord that He may be the Lord of our life ? for His grace is sufficient for us.
B. Beatitudes So, the best thing that can happen to us is for those thorns in the flesh to do their job. Not the job that Satan put them there for ? but the job that the Lord uses them for. Don?t ever forget that the Lord who is your Lord and Savior is also Satan?s Lord and master. As Joseph said to his brothers in Egypt, ?what you meant for evil, God meant for good.?
?God makes all things work for good to those who love Him?? even those thorns in the flesh. For by them He drives us to Himself. And in being driven to throw ourselves upon His mercy, we experience His all-sufficient grace.
Maybe that?s just why Jesus says, ?unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.? Little children know they need the tender care and strong protection of those strong er than themselves.
Maybe this is why Jesus calls all of those, so called ?weaknesses? that He rattles off in His ?beatitudes? such blessings, because they are the very thorns by which His power is made perfect in us.
? ?Blessed are the poor in spirit ? for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.?
? ?Blessed are those who mourn ? for they will be comforted.?
? ?Blessed are the meek ? for they shall inherit the earth.?
? ?Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness ? for they will be satisfied.?
? ?Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake ? for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.?
What terrible thorns in the flesh they are ? yet each one drives us to the Lord who uses them to carry out His powerful love in us.
?My power is made perfect in weakness.? Just look to the cross. There is the power of God to save the world, perfected in the weakness of Christ crucified. Just look to your baptism. There is the power of God to wash away all your sins and raise you to new life in the weakness of plain water. Just look to His Supper. There, in the weakness of bread and wine, His power to strengthen you in this one to faith to life everlasting is made perfect.
C. When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong So, how does Paul react to God?s ?no? to his prayer? Paul says, ?Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamites. For when I am weak then I am strong.?
Paul says, ?bring it on.? And so do we. Let the testing and temptations and trials come as they are sure to do as long as we are on this earth. Every time God?s ways crash head-on into my ways ? another thorn in the flesh appears. These thorns are each are the crosses that I must learn to bear and each one will draw me to His cross wherein His power is perfected in me.
I know that the more I apply God?s Word to my daily life the more conflict and contradiction and opposition I will face, not only from the outside but most especially from within me. But to that I say, let Satan pierce me with his thorns even as my Lord and Savior was pierced with a crown full of them. The Lord will use each one of them to strengthen my faith and increase my trust in Him.
?For when I am weak, then I am strong.?