2 Corinthians 12:2-10
I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.
On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations.
Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
When I read this, I see Paul setting us up for understanding a truth about the nature of God and the nature of being human. Being made in the image of God, is to embrace humility. So what does humility look like?
Paul’s situation seems reminiscent of Job. We don’t have a clue as to what Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was but the interesting thing is that Paul recognizes that it is a “messenger of Satan”. It is from the Satan, darkness, evil, not from God. But God allows it and uses it for His purposes. God allowed Satan to torment Job. Job’s faith was tested. The testing was not just the tragic death of his family and loss of possessions. The testing continued when his friends who came to comfort him became fixated on what Job must have done wrong in order for God to do this to him. Job grew increasingly irritated at his friend’s assumptions about his character and impatient with God’s silence. Then God spoke to Job’s very human reaction to his situation and by posing a series of questions. Job is humbled. There is no easy road to discovering humility.
There is plenty of speculation as to what Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was but I don’t think that really matters. What Paul sees as a messenger of Satan sent to torment him, God allows to remain to produce his will through Paul.
When I observe the nature of God, it is unmistakable that God operates from a place of unobtrusive humbleness. God invites us to join him in his work rather than asserting his power over us. God chose to give us a simple garden to live in, but it is man’s idea that a city would be better. God chose to feed us manna from heaven, but it is man’s idea that building barns to store grain is better. God chose to be in a tent in the wilderness, it is man’s idea that God should be in a temple in a city high on a hill. God chose to come to us as a baby born in a stable, to an obscure couple who lived their life on the run. God became one of us and spoke of setting us free from the oppression of our own sin and loving and serving our enemies. It was man’s idea that the messiah should be a king who would rule over the nations that oppress us.
As humans by default we rely on might and strength and impressiveness and wealth and political power and the numbers. We are fooled by all of that. It is the ultimate deception of the devil. The realm of Maya. And we fall for it every time. Our ability to participate if the work of God here on earth is hindered by our inability to see past that. Humility is a gift. Humility is the ability to see past the facade of what is in front of us. But none of us ever opt for and pray for humility. But humility is a lesson that we walk into never knowing that that is what we are about to learn.
We all have a thorn in the flesh. We all have something that we wish we didn’t have. Something that we can’t understand why God is allowing us to live with. A shortcoming or obstacle or suffering. We plead with God to change it for us and unfortunately for some of us, I know it is this way for me, we get angry at God for not changing our situation. We resent God because we never see the “thorn” for the gift that it is. And God waits patiently and mercifully waits for us to get it.
Humility does not come easy. Paul, who was given these “surpassingly great revelations” took a while to understand that God was giving him even greater insight by allowing and working through Satan’s lies. Paul was tormented by this deception of Satan and perhaps Paul desired, like all of us desire, to not suffer. It seems reasonable. But the suffering produced humility. There is no other way to humility except through suffering. Our knee-jerk reaction to suffering is not to embrace it. It is to plead with God to make it go away. God doesn’t bring suffering, but he is there with us and works through it to heal and strengthen us so that we are made more complete by the transforming power of humility. How can any of us ever really love and serve our enemies if what is really going in inside us is the desire to see them suffer and us to dominate over them? Humility is crucial to loving like Christ.