When I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)
In the early 90s, I followed an overweight PGA player in the Texas Open who smoked cigarettes. He was a heck of a player, but over time poor health impacted his performance. Fast forward thirty years, and we are seeing winners on tour who look more like Olympic athletes than the golf professionals of yesteryear.
Tiger, Rory, and Sam Burns have capitalized on diet and fitness with great success. The strongest are not only surviving on tour but excelling.
While the natural world rewards strength in the short term, it cannot save the soul. Biology can only get you so far. Eventually, you have to deal with what’s inside. Jesus makes this point in the Gospels when he asks, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
When addressing the soul, Jesus constantly speaks in paradoxical terms. He says things like: lose your life for my sake, and you’ll find it; the last shall be first and the first last; the least is the greatest; and you must die to yourself to live. Doesn’t exactly sound like a winning formula for worldly success. So what could be the payoff for the person who chooses to be last or the least or to die to self?
A closer look at the life of the Apostle Paul provides help. Paul had a great resume in his day; he was a highly educated Jew, an expert in the law, and strictly trained under the top Rabbis. A Pharisee among Pharisees, a man of power. A Roman citizen. Zealous for the law and an effective prosecutor of lawbreakers. Blameless regarding the commandments—a super Jew—a superior religious athlete. Paul trained and performed at the highest levels in Jewish religious and legal society, yet his life drastically turned after encountering the risen Christ.
Blinded by a flash of light on the road to Damascus, confronted by Jesus for his murderous persecution of Christians, Paul’s life was miraculously transformed. A profound experience with grace and its supernatural power redirected Paul’s life from high status to service and weakness. Christ’s strength would now be made perfect in Paul, through weakness, for the gospel’s sake.
By the gift of grace, Paul would discover the power to live the soul-saving paradoxes that Jesus spoke of. Paul commented, “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” (Phil 3:8).
What, then, is the payoff? Knowing and gaining Christ!
Paul’s gain of Christ in exchange for all he lost is counterintuitive to the Darwinist. It is foolishness to the intellectually proud and status minded. But for the lost, Jesus is salvation. He is forgiveness for the sinner. He is the treasure of the spiritually bankrupt. For the empty, Jesus is their portion. He is hope for the brokenhearted.
It’s not the strong ones entering the Kingdom of God but the weak. Blessed are the weak, for Jesus Christ is their reward forever.
I recently came across a contemporary example of strength in weakness, a beatitude personified. Jane Marczewski (AKA Nightbirde) died on February 21, 2022, after a long battle with cancer. She was 31. The link is provided below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX_Mb-jsb7c
Prayer: Lord, teach us that strength is found in weakness.