The year 1527 was the most trying year of Martin Luther’s life. On April 22 he was preaching in Wittenberg when he became dizzy and fainted. Over the next several months he dealt with debilitating depression and sickness. It had been 10 years since he had published his 95 theses. He had battled long and hard against the church and government, even against other reformers. Now he was broken and beaten. He wrote a friend about his illness, "I spent more than a week in death and hell. My entire body was in pain, and I still tremble. Completely abandoned by Christ, I labored under the vacillations and storms of desperation and blasphemy against God. But through the prayers of the saints, God began to have mercy on me and pulled my soul from the inferno below." Eventually with the help of doctors he regained his strength and health. Just as he was recovering a plague struck Wittenberg. Even though his wife was pregnant, Luther’s house was transformed into a hospital, and he watched many friends die. Then his son became ill and it looked as if he to would die. In the midst of all this he wrote his most famous hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."
You could say that Martin Luther had been dealing with many thorns in his life when he wrote that beautiful and majestic hymn. Sometimes in life we encounter thorns. We try to avoid them, but they are everywhere. Even something as beautiful as a rose has thorns on its stem. The first time that the bible mentions thorns is in Genesis 3:18. After Adam and Eve at the fruit from the tree of knowledge, God hands down a list of punishments. In Genesis 3:17-18 God says to Adam “Cursed is the ground because of you; from painful toil you will eat food from it the all days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.” Thorns exist because of the original sin. Just one of the many things we can thank Adam and Eve for.
In 2014 I took some English classes at Northern Illinois University to obtain an English endorsement on my teaching license. I needed to take four English classes. Any four English classes. So, when I saw they were offering a class called The Bible as Literature I thought that will be an easy A given that I hold a Master of Divinity. And I was right. Hey, I try to live by the motto work smarter not harder. One of the assignments for that class was to write a paper on a symbol found in the Bible. I chose to write about the symbol of the thorn. What I found was that when a the symbol of a thorn in used in Scripture, it symbolizes sin.
Even the crown of thorns that the Roman soldiers placed on Jesus head during the passion story symbolizes sin. When the soldiers placed the crown of thorns on the head of Jesus it was if they were literally placing the entire sins of the world on Jesus. Not all theological scholars would agree with my assertion that a thorn always symbolizes sin, but there are plenty who do. Therefore, I believe that when Paul writes “Therefore, in order to keep me from being conceited I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me,” he is talking about some sin that he struggled with. Paul asked the Lord three times to take it away. Three is a significant number in the Gospels. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the Father three times to take away the cup he was about to drink, Peter denied Jesus three times, and Jesus asked Peter three times if Peter loved him after his resurrection. So, when Paul writes that he asked Lord three times to take away his thorn, he is connecting his story with the story of Jesus. Jesus responded to Paul by saying “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Jesus’ response to Paul only confirms my conclusion that Paul is talking about a sin here. Jesus offered Paul grace for his thorn. Why does one need the grace of God? Is it not because he or she has sinned against God? I love Paul’s response to Jesus’ answer. “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, for insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” The city of Corinth was a city where power was celebrated and honored with Monuments and civic buildings. Other buildings had inscriptions praising wealthy donors. In fact, the culture of the Corinth revolved around power. Despite having a culture that revolved around power, boasting was frowned upon. Paul’s boasting about his weaknesses was contrary to the culture he was writing to. There is little doubt Paul knew the City of Corinth quite well, and thus knew what he was doing when he penned those words. He was challenging their cultural mind set to help them start think in a more Christ-like way.
All Christians should think in a Christlike way. But Jesus did not have any weaknesses. Jesus was not weak. Jesus was a lot of things, but weak was not one of them. Jesus did not come across a powerful, except when he was healing or raising the dead, but as a human Jesus lived a very humble life. But, as the second persona of the Holy Trinity that was and is and forever will be God, Jesus had the power of God in him. We have a powerful, but humble Lord and Savior. If you remember what I said last week about the power of God, I said that to truly experience the power of God, it must start with us being humble enough to allow God to change us from the inside out.
The people in Jesus home region were not humble enough to allow them to believe in Jesus. I get it. They watched Jesus grow up. The circumstances of his birth were probably not talked about much if at all. Who would believe that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus? It was probably something that Joseph and Mary kept secret just to keep the peace. Or perhaps God told them to keep it a secret. If you remember the wedding at Cana in John chapter three, it was Mary who told Jesus that hosts had run out of wine. Jesus’ response it somewhat amusing, and a little terrifying to me. “Woman, why do you involve me,” Jesus replied. “My hour has not come yet.” I can only imagine how my mother would react if I called her woman. Jesus’ response to his Mother tells us that his true identity was a secret to the people in Galilee and to the rest of the world as well. Thus, it is understandable why the people from his home region would have doubts about him being a prophet. Of course, we know that Jesus was much more than a prophet, but at this point in his ministry, the people did not know the true identity of Jesus. Mark 6:6 tells us that Jesus was truly amazed at the lack of faith of the people in his own region. But he didn’t really scold them. He healed a few people, and then moved on. Jesus did not force anybody to believe in him.
I said earlier that I believe every time a thorn shows up in scripture It means that someone has sinned. However, the phrase “a thorn in my side” is a common phrase that people use today to describe something that is annoying or bothering them. Jesus, being a loving humble Lord and Savior may not describe his family and friends who refused to believe in him as thorns in his side, but that is exactly when they seem as I read our Gospel passage this morning. How he responded to those people can be example to us when we experience a thorn in our side. Jesus didn't get mad, although he was disappointed. He did what he could, and then moved on. Now we can’t always move away from the thorns in our life. Sometimes some of our best friends are even family members can become thorns in our lives. This is where we must return to what Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness 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, I am strong.” To be honest, Paul's response in these two verses have made me wonder if Paul was writing about something other than sin. But, I still think that he was referring to a sin, but in order to make a point Paul took Jesus response to him to include several different types of difficult thorns that he, the Corinthian church, and the universal church, that includes us, encounter in life . I believe that Paul was using the word weakness to mean sin. We are in the habit of admitting sins without saying the word sin. For example, we may say I have a problem with pride. We could also say pride is one of my weaknesses. I could go further into Paul’s word choices, but I have been told that the thermostat is set to begin raising the temperature at 9:30 so I will get to my point. Paul was not really boasting about his sin or any other items that he listed, he was boasting that his weakness let him experience the power of Christ. In other words, Paul was boasting about the strength Jesus gave him through his weakness. Paul humbled himself by admitting his sin and/or weakness, and as a result Jesus gave him strength. That is what he meant when he wrote “For when I am weak, I am strong.”
Thus, when we encounter thorns in life, and we all do, we can boast because we know that Jesus will strengthen us to deal with them. My life verse was also written by Paul in his letter to the Philippians. In the 13th verse of the 4th chapter in his letter to the Philippians Paul wrote “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Christ gives us strength to do all things. That includes dealing with the thorns we encounter in life. Think about the thorns in your life right now. Go on think. If you say that you don’t have any then one of two things are true. Either I want your life, but probably the more accurate truth is that maybe lying to yourself is a thorn in your life. So, think about your thorn or thorns. It doesn’t have to be a sin, but for you it might be. God may be dealing with you over a sin. But it could be anything that is causing a difficulty in your life. It could be a relative, a health problem, finances, just get a mental picture of your thorn and then tell yourself either silently or out loud, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Say it again. Do this during the next week as you encounter your thorns. And as you do let Christ fill you with his strength. If you will do this regularly I can almost guarantee that your thorns will get a little less pointy and won’t hurt as much when you bump into them.
Before I close, there is one more thing that I need to say about our thorns, and it is a hard truth to swallow. We need to thank God for our thorns. In James 1:2-4, James the brother of Jesus writes “ Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” To be honest this has never been one of my favorite scripture passages, because it is hard to count trials a pure joy. Trails are just one type of thorn that we encounter in life, but all thorns test our faith at one point or another. And as James wrote the testing our faith does produce perseverance, and perseverance does make us a more mature Christian. But, if you can’t go as far as considering your thorns as pure joy, as least try to thank God for your thorns because when you encounter your thorns, you have an opportunity to have an encounter with the power of Christ. And, that is something to be thankful for, and, in my mind anyway, something to consider pure joy.
I want to close with a prayer that I came across as I was doing some research about thorns this week. I do not know who the author of this prayer was, but I found it to be beautiful. "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows.” Amen
