St. John Lutheran Church

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

“His grace is sufficient”

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Apostle Paul is a pillar of the Christian faith. After his conversion Paul traveled throughout the world proclaiming salvation in Christ Jesus alone. Paul traveled to Gaul, Rome, Greece, and throughout the modern country of Turkey. Paul was directly involved with the Church growing from a small group in the city of Jerusalem to a global religion. He trained pastors, planted churches, spoke before all types of people, wrote many letters that are included in our Bible, baptized, preached, received visions, and even saw a glimpse of heaven. At least within Christian circles Paul had much to boast about!

We know all to well about boasting. We hear it from others and from our own lips as well. We have grown up in a society that encourages boasting. We boast when our teams win championships. We boast of our own accomplishments. We boast about our cars, homes, children, spouses, and all kinds of things. We boast in ourselves. The truth is that we are very self centered and our boasting is proof of it.

But the Apostle Paul, with all of his accomplishments, didn’t boast of himself. Speaking in context of God giving him visions of heaven itself a gift more than worthy of boasting Paul writes: “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” (2 Corinthians 12:7)

Paul went from the wonderful blessing of heaven itself to a thorn in the flesh; a messenger of Satan that tormented him. Throughout the ages scholars have debated this thorn in the flesh. Whether Paul suffered from great headaches, earaches, persecution, sexual lust, spiritual trials, epilepsy, eye troubles, or the like…we know…that Paul suffered. Paul suffered to the point of calling his suffering as being sent from a messenger of Satan. Paul even records that “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” (2 Corinthians 12:8) Paul was tormented!

Paul was like us. He was a sinful Christian trying to live a good life. He suffered just as we suffer and he failed like we fail. We know what Paul must have gone through because our lives are filled with “thorns in our flesh.” We suffer from disease, illness, spiritual trials, and lusts as well. We fail often when it comes to our faith. Paul took note of his trials and failures so that he would not become conceited. But that didn’t mean that Paul didn’t want God to take his trials away…he did. How often we, like Paul, pray that God would take the difficulties of this life away.

     “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

May 8, 2004 is a day that I will remember as long as I live. You see on that day this Bible verse came to light for me. It was just after 10:00pm. I was leaving the campus of Concordia University Wisconsin after visiting my then fiancée Alicia. It was drizzling out and I was headed back to Joliet. It was on that night that I was hit head on by a drunk driver. Since that day I have suffered from neck and shoulder pain. Each and every morning I wake up stiff and with pain. When I get into a car it is uncomfortable to wear a seatbelt. If I wear suspenders the weight grows heavy on my shoulders from the pressure. Yet these injuries…these pains…this suffering…are a constant reminder that God is watching over me. What is your thorn? What is it that God is using to bring you closer to Him?

Whatever it was that plagued Paul was horrible. Yet he did not dwell in his suffering and misery. Instead he focused on Christ and what Christ had done for him. The thorn in Paul’s flesh caused him to see his sin, his pride and all of his other shortcomings. If Paul didn’t have a thorn in his flesh to point out sin…Paul indicates that he would have become conceited and boast in himself. He may have lost his faith in Christ alone if it weren’t for the thorn in his flesh.

Suffering in this life isn’t because of God but because of sin. But!…God uses everything in our lives to bring us closer to himself. Yes, God uses sickness and disease, persecution, and troubles to bring us closer to himself. Every time we sin, every time we fall short, every time hardships occur we need to realize that we cannot do everything on our own. We must realize that we are lost without God. If we didn’t have hardships we would rely solely on ourselves and think that God is unneeded. Luther says that if the person is not weak, God’s power can do nothing in you.

Our Lutheran Confessions put it this way:  True and worthy communicants, on the other hand, are those timid, perturbed Christians, weak in faith, who are heartily terrified because of their many and great sins, who consider themselves unworthy of this noble treasure and the benefits of Christ because of their great impurity, and who perceive their weakness in faith, deplore it, and heartily wish that they might serve God with a stronger and more cheerful faith and a purer obedience. This most venerable sacrament, the Lord’s Supper, was instituted and ordained primarily for communicants like this as Christ says ‘Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’

Thank God for your thorn! Your thorn, whatever it might be, is a burden. But God uses that burdensome thorn to remind you that His grace is sufficient; our hope is in heaven, we truly need a Savior AND HAVE ONE! God reminds us that when we are weak Christ Jesus is strong! Strong to carry our sins. Strong to take the wrath of our sins. Strong to die on the cross. Strong to rise from the dead. Strong to save! Strong to save sinners. God’s grace in Christ Jesus is sufficient. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.